​It’s hard to think of many things lamer than complaining about NBA referees turning a blind eye to blatant traveling violations. I’m going to do it anyway because bad basketball things tend to happen when good people stay silent. Great players and mediocre players alike have been allowed the freedom to carry the basketball all over the court without fear of getting whistled for the infraction for many, many years. We’ve seen some all-time hilarious unnoticed travels in which the offender gets, like, eight steps without dribbling. So by that metric, what LaMelo Ball did in his regular season Minnesota Timberwolves debut on Wednesday night might not qualify.MORE: 3 star players making their debut with new NBA teamsIt was still egregiously bad. LaMelo Ball’s non-travelBall, who scored 21 points in his 29 minutes, provided scoring support for Anthony Edwards’ 45-point outburst. Three of those came on a long-range shot from the right wing. How Ball got to his spot was quite unique as he simply kept the ball in the air as he took several confident steps to his right. No one with a whistle saw anything wrong with the movement and by the time the ball went through the hoop it was too late. As a warning, if you are someone easily triggered by this content it’s probably best to not even watch the below clip. LaMelo Ball has perfected the Euro Step https://t.co/ZmQ8uPRGHB— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) October 22, 2026What are we even doing here? I think a lot of people are generally for allowing these spectacular athletes a little leeway as they make unbelievable moves. Skill has never been more abundant and at the end of the day, fans are watching to be entertained, right? No one tunes in to see refs call travels except perhaps their immediate family members.There just has to be a line. Some sort of line. Where is it? Well, that’s tough to define yet don’t we all agree that it’s somewhere short of this?LaMelo’s brother, Lonzo, has eyes and said what we already knew after the incident. Travel lmaoooo— Lonzo Ball (@ZO2_) October 22, 2026LaMelo went on SportsCenter after the Timberwolves’ victory and actually tried to explain why what he did was perfectly legal. Lamelo on Lonzo calling him out for the travel that wasn’t called:
“He hatin. He hatin. See, I gotta give him a call right now, cause with the family, he know what you supposed to do. Even if I’m wrong, I’m right. That’s how it go, I gotta teach that boy”
🤣🤣🤣 https://t.co/Gzkwz1xdc9— Oh No He Didn’t 🤯 (@ohnohedidnt24) October 22, 2026Amazing.Have you ever encountered one of these travel truthers in the wild? What’s the protocol there? Do you simply nod and politely agree, pretending that up is down and left is right or do you press the issue with evidence? Perhaps the battle has already been lost. But hey, are you not entertained?— Enjoy free coverage of the top news & trending stories with The Big Lead Newsletter —