Monty McCutchen, the NBA’s vice president of referee development and training, disagreed with the National Basketball Referees Association’s defense of a no-call of a seemingly obvious travel violation by the Washington Wizards‘ Bradley Beal on Monday.
McCutchen, who has held the position since 2017 after an on-court career as a ref for more than 25 years, offered his interpretation of the play Tuesday.
“While in some cases a fumble at the end of a dribble on the gather can be retrieved, that is not what happened on this play,” McCutchen told ESPN. “Bradley Beal gathers the ball and takes two steps, but then loses control of the ball. Once he has lost control after taking the two steps, he must regain control and pass or shoot before taking another step in order to be legal. Since he does not regain control until another step, the play is a travel.”
The sequence in question occurred when Beal drove by Detroit’s Wayne Ellington in the fourth quarter of the Wizards’ 121-112 loss to the Pistons on Monday. After taking a gather step followed by two more steps towards the hoop, Beal took two additional steps once Blake Griffin jumped to contest near the rim and finally passed the ball out to Trevor Ariza on the perimeter after his journey was complete.
No call was made in the moment by the three-man crew of Marc Davis, Mark Ayotte and Justin Van Duyne.
On Tuesday, the official Twitter account of the NBRA defended the no-call.
“The offensive player gathers with his right foot on the ground,” read one tweet. “He then takes two legal steps, before losing control of the ball. After regaining possession, a player is allowed to regain his pivot foot and pass or shoot prior to that foot returning to the ground. This is legal.”
In a subsequent tweet, the NBRA cited an obscure “fumble” rule that states, “A player who is holding the ball and fumbles it out of his control may recover the ball. If his pivot foot moves to recover the ball, he must then pass or shoot the ball. If he fumbles and recovers it without moving his pivot foot and before the ball touches the floor, he retains his status before the fumble.”
Beal and Griffin both took to twitter on Tuesday to have some fun with the NBRA’s defense of the missed call.
nice try @RealDealBeal23 we know you hacked the ref account and tweeted this https://t.co/wMFFLrae1Z
— Blake Griffin (@blakegriffin23) February 12, 2019
Lol I’m innocent https://t.co/UjPiqK0P78
— Bradley Beal (@RealDealBeal23) February 12, 2019