Welcome back to IAQ! If this is your first time, just do what everyone else is doing, and when the daily affirmations pop up on screen, just yell them out along with everyone else. Yelling is good. It gives you power.
“I am enough!”
Good!
This question came in from a friend. Harlen Sinclair from Literally Every Platform asks:
“This may be the dumbest basketball question, and may be frequently asked, but I know absolutely 0 things about sports: What is the purpose of dribbling the ball?”
- Harlen Sinclair
9/10! Nearly perfect question! Appreciate you, Harlen! Extra credit for being the first person brave enough to have their question printed. You will be remembered, whether you like it or not.
I’m addressing this one for two reasons. Reason one: it’s my favorite question I’ve received. Just lovely. Reason two: I want to use it as a warning, not an example. It’s this line in particular:
“This may be the dumbest basketball question”
No! Bad!
“I am enough!”
We don’t need that kind of doubt if you’re presenting a question. I want abundant self-love. I make an ass out of myself everyday saying ridiculous stuff in articles with a straight face. Now it’s your turn.
But more than anything else, thank you, Harlen. And everyone else who sent stuff.
Shut up. Why do they dribble the ball?
Per Wikipedia, “For the leaking of saliva from the mouth, see Drooling.”
Wikipedia also goes into the history of dribbling. What one might find interesting is that dribbling was not a part of James Naismith’s original rulebook when inventing the game of basketball. Originally, the only way to advance the ball was by passing it.
However, players tried, just like they do today, to bend the rules to their advantage a bit. In this case, that was apparently done by “passing to themselves,” an adaptation that, according to Wikipedia, “Naismith himself both endorsed and admired for its ingenuity.” By 1909, “dribblers were permitted to shoot,” per the rulebook, and basketball suddenly looked more alike to how we see it today.
Sidenote, just check out this page. It shows rule changes over time. It’s cool.
So that didn’t explain why people do it, just that it’s allowed
Oh, you’re still here? Sorry, I got distracted. My partner is listening to a song from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and when that happens my brain turns into a marshmallow.
So, as we established, dribbling wasn’t originally allowed, but it was later added as “an adaptation” for people who didn’t want to pass the ball.
“I don’t trust my teammates, but I want to run at the hoop and score.”
“Sure, Billy! Try this new thing called dribbling! For the leaking of saliva from the mouth, see Drooling!”
People dribble because they have lost the heart of basketball. They don't want team engagement. No sharing or contributing to the greater good. Just glory. It’s kind of like something you’d see in an anime. I’m not sure, though. I don’t really watch anime.
That seems harsh
Let’s find a middle ground, then. Dribbling evolved from a need or desire to move the ball up the court in a way other than passing. However, this method also needed to give the defender the chance to stop the offensive player. While some players’ “gather steps” in the paint nowadays can look like a running back trying to bust through the defensive line, the point of the dribble was to make that kind of thing not happen. The ball must be in a continual bouncing motion while you’re moving.
(Until the last 2.5 steps, anyway. Then stuff gets crazy. Gather steps again and things of that nature. That’s a completely different question. Someone has to ask me that one first.)
You can’t just do whatever you want with a dribble. You can’t stop your dribble, pick up the ball, and start dribbling again. If you do that, the other team gets the ball. Boo. You also can’t “carry” the ball, as in, scoop it up too obviously in one hand. This rule gets looser and looser each year, but it still gets called.
While dribbling, it’s best having an idea of what you want to do with the ball before you stop. A player with the ball in their hands who can still dribble gets guarded very differently than a player who can no longer dribble. If you find yourself in a bad place on the court with no ability to dribble, you could find yourself completely swarmed by multiple defenders. Scary times.
To be able to dribble again, you must lose personal possession of the ball entirely and the gain it back. That can mean receiving a pass from a teammate, catching a rebound, stealing the ball from the opponent, bouncing the ball off your defender, all sorts of ways. Creativity is important.
Also, the best dribblers have their own type of creativity just in the process of dribbling. Look at this gentleman named “Hot Sauce” doing stuff.
Okay. That video was old. And I don’t think it’s legal
This is also old, but it was legal. Which one do you like better?
Also, it’s important to remember that what is legal depends on the rules and who is setting them! You try stopping Hot Sauce when he’s saucing.
Anyways, the best dribblers in the league do a more compact version of what Hot Sauce was doing above. An accomplished dribbler can put the ball through their legs, behind their back, through their opponent's legs on rare occasions, and so on. Some of this is to show off, but there are practical purposes as well.
Putting the ball behind your back puts you between the defender and the ball, allowing you to move in closer to whatever space you're trying to occupy. Going between your legs puts your feet in a different position, obscures the ball from the defender, and keeps your opponent off balance.
Then there’s just the crossover. And there’s something called the Shammgod:
There’s a lot to it! A lot of creativity! You can see people like Stephen Curry, Kyrie Irving, and Trae Young do remarkable things game to game. To note, all three of these players were mentioned in the Wikipedia article, but they’re also probably the best people to mention.
You might notice all of the players listed above are on the smaller side. If you didn’t notice that, I’ll tell you now: all the players listed above are on the smaller side. Part of that is a product of position. Smaller players play further away from the rim, which means more room to move, and easier spaces to dribble. Taller players may not get as many dribble opportunities, depending on what skills the player has.
The other issue for taller players is that the taller you are, the bigger a risk dribbling tends to be just as a physical act. There are some great ballhandlers with size, but big guys just have more room on their dribble from fingertip to floor. The longer the distance, the more time for the defender to snag the ball mid-flight.
Did you think I meant “risk” as in health risk or something? Weird your brain would go there.
I was watching a game and there was that one thing that happened that used to be a travel
Yeah. Yeah, I bet. Yeah, I bet that must have been hard for you. I know we all grieve in our own way, but I’m sure you’ll be over it soon.
I just miss things the way they were when I was young
Me too. That's not how time works, though, so accept the present, and make the future better.
I think that about wraps it up here, but I'll run this by Harlen later and see if there is any additional context or information he would like. If so, I will provide it at a later date.