Alright, let me tell you, I’ve been hooping for years, right? And watching the pros, that’s always been part of the deal. But something started to bug me, real bad, a while back. It’s these carries, man. They’re just out of control in the league these days.
My Journey to Carry-Scrutiny
So how did I even get so hung up on this? It wasn’t like I woke up one day and decided to be the carry police. Nah, it started on the blacktop, where I spend a good chunk of my free time. I’d see these killer moves on TV – the crazy hesitations, the yo-yo dribbles, the way some guys just float with the ball. And naturally, I wanted to do them too. Who wouldn’t?
So, I’d hit the court. Practice, practice, practice. I’d try to:
- Get that big, looping crossover like some of the star guards.
- Do the hesitation dribble where the ball just hangs in the air.
- Try to palm the ball on my way to the hoop, just like I saw on SportsCenter.
And you know what happened? Most of the time, if I really tried to replicate what I saw, the older guys on the court, the ones who’ve been playing forever, they’d call me out. “Hey, that’s a carry!” or “You can’t put your hand under the ball like that, son!” And honestly, they were right. If I tried those flashy moves the way they looked on TV, my hand was way too far under the ball, or I was basically scooping it.
It got frustrating. I was thinking, “How are these NBA dudes doing it then? Am I just that bad?” So, I started watching games differently. I wasn’t just watching the ball go in the hoop anymore. I was watching hands. I was watching how the ball was being handled. I’d rewind plays, watch them in slow motion. My wife thought I was losing it, staring so intently at replays of dribble moves.
The Eye-Opening Reality
And man, oh man. It was a revelation. They’re ALL doing it. Not everyone, not all the time, but it’s rampant. The hand gets way under the ball, the ball comes to a dead stop in their palm, they’re basically guiding it or even taking a mini-step with it cupped. It’s like the definition of a carry just got thrown out the window at the professional level.
Suddenly, all those moves made sense. It’s a lot easier to do a killer hesi if you can basically pause your dribble by palming the ball for a split second. It’s easier to change direction if you can swing the ball around with your hand underneath it.
Now, when I watch NBA games, it’s almost distracting. I see a “highlight” dribble move, and half the time my first thought is, “That was a blatant carry!” It’s like once you see it, you can’t unsee it. The refs? They barely call it. Maybe once in a blue moon, on the most egregious ones, but the subtle, constant ones? They just let ’em slide.
It’s funny, because on any local court, you try that stuff consistently, and you’re getting called out or the game just grinds to a halt. But in the NBA, it’s become part of the show. I get it, it leads to flashier plays, more ankle-breakers. But as someone who actually plays and tries to stick to the rules (mostly!), it just feels… off. It feels like the fundamental skill of dribbling has been diluted.
So yeah, that’s my two cents, from my own experience trying to play the game and then really looking at what the pros are doing. It’s not just an opinion pulled out of thin air; it’s from hours on the court and too many hours squinting at my TV screen. The carries, man, they’re just bad. Really bad.
