The travelling call is the most hotly contested difference between regular basketball and the NBA. After LeBron James was pulled up for his Crab Dribble™, Henry Abbott decided to explain the rule:
[I]n regular basketball, when on the run, you can take your step or two, and then you have to get rid of the ball. In the NBA, you can take your step or two, and then you have to get into the paint, when you can carry on making highlights at your leisure. (But three steps before the paint … that’s a travel in any league.)