- [Clara] If you were playing a little pickup
basketball game and your opponent's shoe came off,
(slide whistle whooping)
what would you do?
- [Ryan] I want to say that I would probably stop
and let them put the shoe back on, but I think
my initial instinct with most people would be
to fuck with the shoe (Clara giggling)
in some way, and like, immediately remove it
from the field of play.
- Well, if you were an NBA player or if you become one
in the future. - Thank you.
- That instinct would be just fine out there,
and that is because there is no rule to address what happens
when someone's shoe falls off.
- There's no time stoppage, like there's no,
whatever happens, it's just a shoe?
- No, there's no,
if they want to stop time, they gotta foul or call timeout.
There's nothing special if your shoe comes off.
In fact, the only mention of shoes in the rulebook
is basically saying like, you can have a logo
on your sneakers 'cause that's how sneakers are made.
- Right, yeah usually.
So that's already very interesting to me
because when it comes to basketball,
that's like one of the only pieces of equipment
that you really, truly need.
You need the hoop, you need the ball.
- [Clara] Next come shoes.
- [Ryan] Next comes, I think shoes is number three.
It's really important.
- When someone's shoe comes off, it's up for grabs.
- It's literally up for grabs?
- Yeah, yes.
It's totally legal to take your opponent's shoe
and throw it away from them.
- So there's almost like a strategy element of like,
when you see a shoe without a foot in it,
(both laughing)
to jump on it and keep it away, 'cause now they're at
a disadvantage because they don't have the shoe.
- Right, it's all, it's like a game within a game,
(both laughing)
and it's happened a bunch of times.
Dwayne Wade threw, very casually,
threw Mike Bibby's shoe away from him.
- [Ryan] Oh, I did.
Yeah, he, I like the little move that Bibby gives him
where he's like, come on.
- [Clara] Yeah, yeah.
- [Ryan] Really?
- A very resigned, just like, well,
that's something that happened.
- It's 100% one of those things where you are doing
something, you know is shitty, but then you can turn around
and with the excuse of like, I was just trying
to get it out of the way.
I don't want anyone to get hurt.
I just saw a thing and I got rid of it.
I didn't know it was your shoe.
That's supposed to be on your foot. That's not my problem.
- Yeah, whoa,
Are you okay?
I'm concerned.
Happened a bunch of other times.
Once, Mo Speights lost his shoe and Curry,
being a good teammate, Steph Curry tries to like,
toss it back to him and Tyson Chandler bats it away.
- [Ryan] Wow, that happens so fast too.
- Yeah, it's like, whoa, he is a professional athlete.
(both laughing)
- The look on his face too in this
very last slow-mo is incredible.
That's like a, that's a Renaissance painting right there.
(whimsical music) Freeze frame of this moment,
it's like, it is just the perfect encapsulation of like,
you mother fucker.
(Clara laughing)
I love that.
- Yeah, and afterwards in like, interviews and stuff,
he was like, yeah, that was on purpose.
I knew what I was doing.
- Yeah, of course.
- It was a tactical decision.
People kind of are pretty like jovial and laughing
about like, the Dwayne Wade one
and Tyson Chandler's quick reflexes, but like kind of,
depending on a player's reputation is how
these shoe tosses can be received.
Boogie Cousins has actually got a tech
for tossing a shoe to the side.
It was like, a pretty crowded lane.
- [Ryan] He's like, I'm trying to, I was trying
to get it out of the way, what the hell?
- So he got the tech, but it was later rescinded.
- Oh good, okay.
- There's no rule, and like. - Of course, there's no rule.
- Yeah, he is an aggressive fellow, but he could have
also been trying to remove a tripping hazard.
- Do you think if you catch a shoe in the stands,
you get to keep it,
(both laughing)
like a baseball?
- [Clara] Baseball rules.
I know in basketball you have to give the ball back.
- [Ryan] That's because it's so big and it's too hard
to hide under your jacket.
- Right, right, and like the only people who are going
to get it are like, courtside people
and they don't need more stuff.
- They don't need more stuff.
They're already rich, yeah.
I think if the shoe comes off and it goes
more than seven rows from courtside, you should be allowed
to keep the shoe 'cause it's already pretty rare,
I would imagine that a shoe makes it that far.
- Players give their shoes away all the time on purpose.
- Right, shoes are nothing.
They got a billion shoes, who cares about shoes?
- But to the seventh row or beyond person who catches it,
that's a memory.
(Ryan chuckling)
- Right, that's really interesting to me that the,
the rule book does not have that contingency for like,
this removable piece of equipment.
- Right especially 'cause it happens often enough.
- Yeah, it would have to.
No one has a perfect shoe tie as much as
we've been trying for years.
- [Clara] The double knot is almost complete bullshit.
- [Ryan] Right.
- [Announcer] Bullshit.
- I wonder if players would try to lean into
the lack of rule more that we'd get some pushback
from the NBA, like fully embrace it as a tactical advantage.
- Sure, yeah, it falls squarely in the bucket, the Air Bud
bucket of like, well, there's not a rule against it.
Then implicitly, you can just keep doing it
until you get in trouble.
That's why we need more specificity in the rule book.
- To just leave it to a referee's discretion,
it's going to be complicated.
You're going to end up rescinding things.
- Yeah, you'll find the shoe on the other foot.
- Oh, Ryan, really, really good.
- There's our ending.
- That's really good, really good.
- It doesn't even really make that much sense.
- It doesn't, but if we keep making noise no one will notice.
- I said it in a way that sounded like
the ending of the episode so.
- Confidence, confidence.
- [Producer] No, that whole thing has to be the ending.
- Yeah.
- [Producer] Including me talking about it.
- Yeah, for sure, and including you now
also talking about it, right into the end card.
We're in the end card now.
Those are the credits.
- Thank you for watching.
- [Ryan] Thank you everyone for watching.
- [Clara] There's other episodes of Weird Rules.
- [Producer] Toeless kicker, that's foot related.
- [Ryan] Oh, the toeless kicker, oh yeah.
- [Clara] Thanks Ryan.
- [Ryan] Yeah.
(whimsical music)