• Basketball requires players to display several skills, including the ability to pivot with the ball. A few cut-and-dried rules allow this move. Violations of those rules are very obvious, and you cannot expect an opinion-based noncall from a referee. If you break the pivot rules, you are called for traveling.
  
  

Asserting Your Pivot Foot

• When you come to a stop with the basketball in your hand, you can move and pivot without dribbling once you have asserted which foot is your pivot foot. You can only have one pivot foot until you start dribbling or give up the ball. To assert your pivot foot, move your other foot while keeping the pivot foot in one spot. You can move in any direction--forward, backward, side to side or even in a complete circle--but your pivot foot must maintain contact with the floor and remain in the same spot.
  
  

Picking Up Your Pivot Foot

• You may lift only one portion of your pivot foot at any time. Usually, your toes and the ball of your foot stay on the ground. Keeping your toes on the ground helps you spin around and avoid defenders as they try to get the basketball away from you. You cannot pick up your pivot foot completely from the ground at any point, even if you do not advance the ball.
  
  

No Sliding

• You may not slide your pivot foot across the floor. Although you are technically not picking it up off the ground, you are moving it to a different spot, and by doing that, you are advancing the ball without dribbling, passing or shooting. This is a definite violation of the pivot rules. You can expect to get called for traveling and relinquish the ball to the other team.