When James Harden was busy Euro-stepping his way through opposing defenses, crowds on the road would lose their minds with complaints, loudly shared, that he was traveling.

He wasn't. He was making an entirely permissible move. But it looked different at the time. Fans that did not enjoy him beating their teams objected.

They don't complain now. They have seen it enough that they have come to understand that the Eurostep is a pretty good way to get around a defender, used so routinely that Harden's teammate Clint Capela, a center that rarely goes one-on-one, has employed it, though in his case, it should probably just be called a "Step."

Now, they scream about Harden's step-back, though the complaints come on social media, rather than from the not-so-cheap seats.

It was not a travel when he was going to the hoop. It's not a travel when he is backing up to the 3-point line.

It is a travel when he takes too many steps, and on one of his step backs on Sunday, after he made his customary move, Harden seemed to shuffle his feet again. He got away with it, which has been known to happen in the NBA.

The move itself, however, is entirely permissible.

Harden is literally unguardable, nothing you can do to slow down this man. pic.twitter.com/DOasDuHWdM — Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) April 16, 2018

When Warriors coach Steve Kerr screwed up in January, ripping the move as "an embarrassment" to the NBA, he said his comment was meant to be a DM but ended up as a tweet for his 340,000 followers, and anyone playing attention to the fallout, to see. But he was wrong about more than the operation of his new iPhoneX.

On that move, Harden sidestepped to free himself of LaMarcus Aldridge. He gathered the ball and hopped to his left. His left foot landed, his right foot followed.

That's the rule. Gather. One. Two.

The "gather step," which many have at least come to understands exists somewhere in the NBA lexicon, is part of a move. It is not the first pivot step. The count begins after the player gathers the ball.

Gather. One. Two.

To put it another way, the rule book way, the Rule 10, Section XIII way, "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."

Harden's step-back is entirely permissible, just as the Eurostep was and still is when he breaks it out.

He can mess it up and travel, but the idea that his move itself is a travel is wrong.

It is as wrong as the assumption that Harden is somehow favored by the officials. This strains logic. Do they enjoy facial hair? Do they share an attorney who does not charge for his services? What is it that complaining fans, and sometimes media, believe Harden has that makes officials change the rules for him?

For Rockets fans, this might feel like a step-back in time, a happy reminder of when fans would complain about Hakeem Olajuwon's "Dream Shake," screaming that move was a travel. Sometimes it was, but when executed just right, it was nothing but unstoppable.

With that, Harden really is following in Olajuwon footsteps.