The NBA has officially put into writing a rule that allows players on the move to gather the ball, after driving or catching it, and then take two steps.

The old rulebook allowed for just one step after the "gather," but NBA referees were instructed to allow two. Nothing has really changed, except that it's now in the rulebook. However, we do wonder if this now means that Kobe, LeBron and D-Wade get three steps?

The new rule partly reads, "A player who receives the ball while he is progressing or upon completion of a dribble, may take two steps in coming to a stop, passing or shooting the ball."

Hall of Famer and New York Knicks broadcaster Walt Frazier says the NBA loosened the rules regarding traveling awhile to increase scoring.

"They go 20 feet to the hoop without dribbling one time," Frazier said. "This is what they are getting away with nowadays. Some of them are so obvious. You'll hear me on the broadcast saying 'That's a travel! Watch the feet!' Wilt [Chamberlain] would have averaged 100 points a game if they had let him do that.

"When guys couldn't put up points, about when they changed the hand-check rule, they made things easier for scorers, because these players can't shoot like we did," Frazier said. "Those few years when the Knicks were good [the early 1990s] -- that wasn't pretty basketball."

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