NBA Refs Missed Hilariously Obvious Travel On Payton Pritchard’s Half-Court Shot

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Everyone knows that players can get away with a little bit more when it comes to traveling calls in the NBA compared to other, lower levels of basketball. But, the travel that Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard got away with on his awesome half-court shot to end the first half of the series-clinching Game 5 of the 2024 NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks was egregious, even by NBA standards.

Pritchard has a penchant for knocking down half-court shots and had already made two long buzzer-beaters in the playoffs, one against the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, and one in Game 2 against the Mavericks. This one will be his most famous, and featured an awesome call by ESPN/ABC play-by-play man Mike Breen.             

Great shot from probably the league’s best half-court heaver. But, let’s take a slo-mo look at it and see if it should’ve counted it.

The gather step in the NBA is not supposed to count against a player in terms of the two steps allowed before a traveling violation is called. But, that’s a lot more than two steps! He’s practically doing the waltz into that shot! It’s at least three steps, probably four, and maybe even higher depending on how you define the gather step.

It surely didn’t make much of a difference in a game where the Celtics cruised home in the second half to win their 18th NBA Title. But, what was the referee looking at here? It certainly wasn’t what he was supposed to look at.

Nevertheless, Boston was absolutely the best team all year, and in my opinion, is one of the most underappreciated major sports champions of recent memory. Including the playoffs, they went 80-21 this year, which is among the fifteen best winning percentages in NBA history.