NBA officials aren’t perfect and have had inconsistencies in how they call certain violations. Minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, is aware of the lack of harmony among the officials. On X (formerly Twitter), he called out the league for ignoring the traveling violation. Cuban revealed in an X thread about how he brought up to the officials about the “gather step.”
Traditionally, players are taught that a player can have a maximum of two steps without dribbling the ball. Any more will lead to a traveling violation. However, the “gather step” was recently integrated in the NBA, which led officials to overlook players who exceeded the two-step limit.
According to Cuban, he complained about it to the head of the officials. Unfortunately for the entrepreneur, he received a discouraging truth about why the league has failed to call it.
“I was in the nba office with Kiki Vandewehe and I think Mike Bantum, who ran the officials group , telling them the gather was awful,” the business mogul said. “If it would be laughed at in a pick up game , or by kids on school, it would be laughed at in the nba. We all grew up with one and a half steps for a layup. They turned in to three for no good reason other than they didn’t want to call so many travels… Ridiculous.”
I was in the nba office with Kiki Vandewehe and I think Mike Bantum, who ran the officials group , telling them the gather was awful. If it would be laughed at in a pick up game , or by kids on school, it would be laughed at in the nba. We all grew up with one and a half…
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) January 4, 2026
Mark Cuban’s bold take about the rip-through move
Mark Cuban is one of the most vocal owners in the NBA. His revelation about confronting the officials regarding travel calls was just one of the things he shared with his followers on the social media platform. When it came to discussing the rip-through move, the former Shark Tank cast member revealed that he had brought it up to the league in the past.
“Don’t get me started on rip throughs for FTs. I started turning in videos when Tim Duncan perfected it. The defender has the same right to that space. It took u til like 3 years ago for them to change it to a non shooting foul,” he replied to a fan.
Players have tried to use the rip-through motion to get shooting fouls. However, Mark Cuban has long held the opinion that it isn’t a shooting foul.
