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Comment by hiperlink | Hacker News Reader

Could You please elaborate on how LBJ changed the game? I think, currently Curry did with his shooting skills, and somewhat Harden too - tho I hate the step-back threes due to it should be called travelling at least one out of three times. LBJ: great skill-set, great athlete but changing the game?

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James Harden doesn’t travel, he simply knows the rule book better than non-experts. Specifically, he knows the gather step better than most anyone: https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2020/2/23/21149538/james-harden...

I think many, like myself, will concede this point. Harden is a genius at "hacking" basketball. I don't really complain that what Harden does is traveling as much as the traveling rule needs updating so that it is.

If you go to YouTube and type in “FIBA gather step”, you’ll see a video released by the rules body showing legal 0 steps, the rule is being used exactly as intended, to the point where they want people to know it’s explicitly legal.

What you don’t notice is that the gather step is used for many more movements other than a euro step, but the euro step also has a change of direction and change of acceleration that combine to make the movement look illegal to someone who doesn’t understand the rules.

It’s still makes for boring basketball with all the stops and starts.

Great link. Solidly refutes a common misconception by teaching a subtle but crucial nuance.

changed the game by jumping teams to play with other superstars so that he could win. Definitely started the big three era until the warriors dynasty ended. Back to big twos and it's so much more interesting when 6-8 teams can win.

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