Curry hits the Harden double stepback, called for a travel.
Educated guess: looks like Steph uses his hands to tell the ref if he had 13 on his chest he wouldn’t have called it. pic.twitter.com/pTzWaNgrfK
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) January 6, 2019
James Harden is a master of drawing foul calls and manufacturing extra steps that may or not may not be legal. But if you get away with it, why change your game? There’s no reason to.
Well, Stephen Curry tried what was basically an identical step-back dribble move to the one that Harden has perfected, but the result was unsatisfactory. Curry was called for a travel, to his and Steve Kerr’s dismay.
Curry immediately shook his head and went up to the referee signing Harden’s number 13 with his hands, suggesting that there’s no way the travel call would have been made if Harden had the ball in his hands.
Kerr also protested to the referees after the play, to no avail, and commentators Bob Fitzgerald and Jim Barnett saw the evident similarities to the Harden dribble, which seemed identical to the one Curry pulled off.
Steph tried Harden's step-back and got called for a travel ? pic.twitter.com/buLuGGHYHP
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 6, 2019
Here’s another look at Curry and the incensed Kerr after the play:
Steph Curry putting up James Harden’s uniform number after getting called for the James Harden Travel pic.twitter.com/YpZSP48KL8
— Aaron Bruski (@aaronbruski) January 6, 2019
After the game, Curry was asked about the moment.
“I’ve seen that (step-back move) once or twice,” he said. “Tried it myself. Obviously, they got confused. They knew it was someone different, so they called it.”
Steph Curry on throwing up a 13 to the referee after he got called for a travel on a James Harden like stepback: “I’ve seen that once or twice. Tried it myself. Obviously they got confused. They knew it was someone else, so they called it.” pic.twitter.com/hBGgaCcsk9
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) January 6, 2019
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