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  1. #1
    Local High School Star hiphopanonymous's Avatar
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    Default Legal open court "carries" appear to have begun with Magic Johnson - thoughts?

    https://youtu.be/OaR1fQAZVKA?t=126

    I've noticed as my game has matured I use a simple move to get to the other basket off a rebound in transition regardless if someone gets out in front of me. It involves executing a cross over but while not breaking the high dribble that you do when on the run (not your typical low dribble half-court crossover move). Occasionally rec league refs call this a carry and actually when I think about it I don't fully disagree with them though I think it's lame that they call it since it isn't called in the pros. I see guys like Giannis and Durant do it a lot and today I realized the oldest footage I notice of a player doing this was Magic Johnson. Do these high-dribble pseudo-carrying crossovers go back further than Magic doing it or was he the pioneer of the big players changing direction on the run? Before this era it seems most players look to have had a very "palms down" disciplined dribble. Later eras the half-court crossover move also became more exaggerated it seems in the hands of Iverson

  2. #2
    3-time NBA All-Star
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    Default Re: Legal open court "carries" appear to have begun with Magic Johnson - thoughts?

    Quote Originally Posted by hiphopanonymous View Post
    https://youtu.be/OaR1fQAZVKA?t=126

    I've noticed as my game has matured I use a simple move to get to the other basket off a rebound in transition regardless if someone gets out in front of me. It involves executing a cross over but while not breaking the high dribble that you do when on the run (not your typical low dribble half-court crossover move). Occasionally rec league refs call this a carry and actually when I think about it I don't fully disagree with them though I think it's lame that they call it since it isn't called in the pros. I see guys like Giannis and Durant do it a lot and today I realized the oldest footage I notice of a player doing this was Magic Johnson. Do these high-dribble pseudo-carrying crossovers go back further than Magic doing it or was he the pioneer of the big players changing direction on the run? Before this era it seems most players look to have had a very "palms down" disciplined dribble. Later eras the half-court crossover move also became more exaggerated it seems in the hands of Iverson
    He may have but this video dosnt prove anything. If you look closely magic's hand never gets under the ball only to side of it. That’s completely legal. Alot of the carry talk started around the time of Iverson and kobe because they were one of the first players to bring in long wide loopy dribbling. To add to that they often set it up with the pocket dribble which borderlines on a carry because often the hand will get a bit below the ball and/or the ball can sit motionless while in the pocket.

    That said alot of iverson and kobe's crossovers looked like carries but they weren't. Their hand was usually on the side of the ball and not under it. That goes for alot of todays ball handlers.

  3. #3
    Titles are overrated Kblaze8855's Avatar
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    Default Re: Legal open court "carries" appear to have begun with Magic Johnson - thoughts?

    Magic was the first truly big full time ball handler and like those today....has to carry to change direction at times. But he relied so heavily on post ups he didn’t have to maneuver through traffic the same way so he didn’t carry as much. Guys like KD and Giannis carry standing still looking over the court. Lebron carries on most direction changes. Just kinda part of being a truly big guard and there are so many trying to do it now they just totally stopped looking for it.

    Magic wasn’t nearly so flagrant because his style didn’t require all the illegal action. He’d protect the ball by posting you up from anywhere instead of trying to bait you into a reach face up and carry/travel by you at the same time.

    Lamar Odom, Tmac, and Joe Johnson are the closest we got in recent years to tall legal dribblers and even they flirted with carries. Hard to avoid at those heights...which is why when the game was called by the rules big men didn’t dribble at 18-25 feet.

    They played where they could do it legally because the nba of 1972 didn’t give a shit. They would call 12 travels or palming violations a game if that’s what they saw.

    Jerry West was getting lit up by refs some games of his I saw. No star favoring. No concerns about ruining the game. Get your hand even near the bottom of the ball it’s going the other way.

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