LeBron's Star Treatment
by Jeff Clark on Apr 8, 2009 10:14 AM EDT
in Boston Celtics News & Links
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PrintSam Smith makes an interesting observation:
James is averaging 1.72 fouls per game in an average of 37.9 minutes per game. James hasn't even been in foul trouble one game this season. He never has had more than four fouls called on him in a game, and since March 1 is being called for fewer than 1.3 fouls per game.
In 12 of the 20 games since then, James has been called for one or zero fouls in a game. James had a stretch of five straight games to conclude March averaging 36.8 minutes per game without being called for one foul. Not one in five games! In the last nine games, James has been called for three personal fouls. It's really amazing given the involvement James has in the action of the game.
"It's impossible," said one team executive.
Red's Army looks at the Celtics:
For those wondering, here are the avg fouls per game for the Celtics starters - the team with the best defensive field goal percentage in the league:
- Pierce - 2.7
- R. Allen - 2.0
- Garnett - 2.20
- Rondo - 2.50
- Perkins - 3.40
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Excellent Article to PO(st) - sort of
Thanks Jeff – you not only shine the light on what we already knew to be true with some good stats as backing, but because I can’t change it I am actually even more PO’ed.!! You are being held responsible for my resurgent drinking problem with things like this.
You would think with the Ref-Vegas scandal they would not want more light cast on their “craft”. Stern the puppetmaster must be in complete control of all the strings to get LeBron his ring. Rotten to the Core
Thanks, I thnk
Is it Soup Yet?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUtf6-avo2c
by suns_all_the_way on Apr 8, 2009 2:34 PM EDT up reply actions
I’m surprised no one saw this video. Oh, I know, cause it’s horrible. : ) And made by a Lakers fan. Rofl.
by Tai on Apr 8, 2009 3:18 PM EDT up reply actions
This is why its been a discouarging year
w/out hca, we are even more likely to get, uh, unfair treatment by the refs. It feels like the wwe a lot. But I became addicted to the game 40 years ago so I am stuck with it. I just hope Stern eats a lot of BBQ beef with Mayo, hates fish, and loves fries, burgers, chicken wings, popcorn shrimp, and has yet another, famous yet dumb as a rock cardiologist.
Would be interesting...
…to compare these numbers against: Kobe, Wade, Jordan, Magic, Bird. We all know the stars get the benefit of the doubt (at the very least), but this sure appears to be a ridiculously low number, especially for a player that a) plays so many minutes, b) is invovled with so many offensive and defensive plays during the course of a game, and c) has apparently “upped” his defense from prior years. The latter usually translates into more fouls getting called, at least for most players ;-)
- JoeB
According to the article...
Kobe 2.3 (this season), 2.7 (career)
Wade 2.2 (this season), 2.67 (career)
Jordan 2.6 (career)
Magic 2.26 (career)
Bird 2.5 (career)
Thanks, Stu.
I’d say this speaks pretty loudly. I have to say that I always thought Jordan got every call possible, and he probably did. However, he also played aggressive defense. Same with Kobe. You play tough “D” and you do get fouls called on you. Doesn’t always mean you get into foul trouble or foul out of a game. Towards the end of games, these guys would usually not get fouls called against them. It appears the LBJ doesn’t get fouls called on him at ANY point in the game;-)
- JoeB
Jordan did get alot of calls
But not really until he finally won his 1st title in his 7th year! Remember the Jordan Rules employed by the Bad Boy Pistons? Their entire game plan was to mug him with 3 guys every trip. LeBron on the other hand, has been getting calls since his rookie year, and he himself is way too entitled about expecting every call for a guy who has earned nothing. For supposedly one of the toughest in the league, why does he always check his mouth or forehead for blood after every single no call?
The NBA has unfortunately annointed certain stars, more like celebrities than basketball players and they know it. All-Star weekend is nothing but a lovefest for the chosen ones. Lebron, Kobe, even now Dwight Howard think the league has picked them, and act in utter amazement every time they don’t get a call, and even more when they dare call one on them. It is disgusting to watch. Put your head down, shut up and play. Lebron(and Dwight) plays so physical, yet he is only being called for 1.7 fouls a game?
If the C’s make it that far, expect a mugging on Pierce and even more of him diving underneath him on his drives like that ridiculous call last year that any youth league ref would get right. We have already seen it in the big regular season games this year, when the Celts play their smothering strong-side D, they get whistled for every little touch, a la KG against LA. Yet LA, Cleveland and Orlando have all adopted similar strategies, a copycat league, yet were permitted far more leeway. Derek Fisher cannot cover anyone without putting his hands and body all over his man.
that is disgusting
is Lebron really not good enough on his own? They have to make him virtually invincible through officiating?
I want to puke right now
Lebron gets star treatment yes, but his defensive style also contributes to low fouls...
This year I’ve watched a LT of Lebron video, partly to study up on our main obstacle to repeating in the EAST, but also because he’s flat out fun to watch. I’ve seen several games other than against the Celts, and my buddy lives in Cleveland and tortures me with fan-overboard-ness towards Lebron.
Lebron does some interesting things on D. He uses his width and jumping/timing to attack from the side and rear most often, avoiding contact with the body, using hands to strip, poke, block the ball very effectively and often hard to see the foul. when he fronts up on somebody he keeps his hands up and he’s quick to let a player pass or swing around him – like a delay your path tactic – knowing a teammate is closing in. So he would get a lot less calls because of those factors, as well as the star treatment. He’s a pretty cagey, KG-like roaming defender, rarely being challenged to man up on D against another teams scorer, except in certain spots, which look to me like pretty good reads on play situations.
Reffing is the perennial weak point of the Association
… and it has always been that way. Moses Malone never fouled out of a game, for example, and he was always delivering a beating to his man, and spending the whole game in a scrum in the paint. Ridiculous.
The Association would be much better if it would reform the whole reffing operation. It’s still pretty much a good ole boy network, with no real accountability. They say they grade the refs, but they never actually get rid of the bad ones.
"People don't understand, if you can't live the rest of your life off one year in the NBA, you can't live off 21." -- Keon Clark
taking it a step further
Its the timing of some fouls what gets me hot…remember the last Lakers game aganist the C’s? KG is a star ,but the refs treated him like a rookie in that game.I bet when Lebron does get a call,its mostly in the 1st or 2nd qtrs,not towards the end of games that could cost his team a win.
Sam Smith writing legit articles that have nothing to do with benching Ben Gordon?
Maybe he’s just angry he can’t write another expose on the league’s best player.
Confusion breeds success. If they don't know each other, opponents can't have strategy. GENIUS.
first there was the travelling, then here is no calls
i got sick of watching lebron playing already … seems like refs get bonus for more fouls on lebron
Yeah but,
he is extremely good at advoiding fouls in MHO, not to say that he doesn’t get some star treatment. But, for some perspective, KG is lord of the moving pick; he gets away with it all the time.
ahhh, not quite
Howard is the lord of moving picks….and he never gets called for any of them. Perk is the lord of getting moving screen calls so it evens out for the C’s. Not so much for the magic.
Tommy knows this
If you’ve ever listened to him when the C’s play the Cavs, he gets all riled up about it every time Lebron complains about a foul being called on him, which is every time – “Ohhhh nooooo! Not the Kiiiiiiing! He couldn’t have possibly fouled anyone! Ever!”
Love it.
Nothing new here
Ive been sayin it all year long that not only does Lebron get calls on the offensive side he doesnt get calls against him either. It is absolutely sickening how this guy gets this treatment. I think its great that the league has a young Jordanesque superstar playing right now but he will win his championships I promise. There is absolutely no need to sleight the league so that he is sure to win one. That simply does not make any sense. I know that a player as involved as he is gets more than one foul a game its just that the refs simply dont call it. Now you can dispute that he doesnt foul but i find that VERY hard to believe. Any Cavs fan willing to say that Lebron is not treated differently than other players in this league needs their head straightened out. This here article simply proves what we have all known from the get go.
That said Bill Simmons i concur the Cavs will win the championship (only because I dont see the ref situation changing anytime within the next i dont know 7 years which means OH NO he has more titles than Jordan $$$$$$$$
Gah!
The league bias really disgusts me. If it weren’t for the Celts I would’ve stopped watching a long time ago.
by BleedinGreen417 on Apr 8, 2009 12:11 PM EDT reply actions
Sam Smith?
I thought we hated Sam Smith here.
wow
just wow… I mean I always suspected… but not fouling for 5 straight games where you play 170 minutes is just plain impossible.
remember the charge they called on pierce in game 6? when lebron made one of the most bone-headed defensive plays you can make? trying to take a charge 30 feet from the basket? yah….
Jeff, I'm so glad you pointed this out!
I was at the C’s vs.Cavs game last month here’s the deal: I was little buzzed with my wife in tow as well. She was a good soldier the whole game. Anyway, with about 3 minutes left in the game they called LeBron’s first foul. I don’t know what it was but when I heard PA say it was his first foul, I lost it! Got of my seat into the aisle and scream “you’ve got to be F’n kidding me that’s the first time he’s fouled the whole game!” My wife looked at me puzzled after all the game was pretty much won. Anyway I’ve kept my eye on him and his fouls since and I basically have chalked it up to the refs letting him do what he wants. On the other end forget about getting near him and please don’t exhale within 18 inches of him, other than that feel free to guard him.
If the Cowboys could only play like a team with passion and unity like my beloved
Boston Celtics, I would be happy.
by Captain Comeback on Apr 8, 2009 1:53 PM EDT reply actions
LeBron's Fouls
C’mon now, you guys know better than to use flat numbers to prove your points.
How about taking into account that:
1) Opposing player never go at LeBron off the dribble.
2) LeBron does not body guys up near the three-point line, the most common spot for blocking fouls.
3) LeBron does not pick up slap fouls when ballhandler goes to the basket (again, largely because of point 1).
Watch the games, and you will see that LeBron doesn’t put himself in the position to pick up the fouls that other players pick up. Paul Pierce moves about as well laterally as a WNBA player – all his fouls are blocking fouls. Ray Allen is terrible with his blown-by hand slaps, and even he only picks up two fouls a game.
Quit whining and dreaming up conspiracy theories and watch some basketball.
Give me a break. Lebron is getting a lower foul rate then almost any other player ever. There is no way to justify it, he gets away with alot more. You mean to tell me he plays good defense and yet is so perfect that he hardly ever fouls? I find that impossible to believe.
Not to mention
He was roundly considered a very average defender before this season. Doesn’t body up his guy near the 3 point line? What was he doing when he dove under Pierce last year in the playoffs? You’re right, he never bodies anybody, he is the epitome of the finesse, non-physical player. I have to laugh that he never puts himself in the position to pick up fouls, as if he is some crafty 10-time All-Defensive Team player.
I don’t necessarily think it is a conspiracy but more a subconscious thing by the officials who are just wowed by his game. You cannot tell me they do not consider who he is when making or not making a call, not because of a pre-ordained agenda necessarily, but because they are star struck and innately understand his importance to the league. How could they not? He is in commercials and is constantly hyped by the NBA. The refs know where their bread is buttered.
?
come back when you’re ready to admit to the special treatment he gets on the offensive end then. The traveling and palming on his drives is ridiculous not to mention the fact I can’t recall the last time he was called for a charge.
Palming is being generous actually
He actually stops, tucks the ball, completely reverses direction, all while never putting the ball on the floor. This move is impossible to defend, by any player, even in a pickup game, because when an offensive player stops his dribble, then restarts it in the opposite direction, the defender instinctively is caught off guard believing the dribble is stopped. He is a very average dribbler at best, reminds me of a very young kid trying to survive quick guards, the difference being, they get called for traveling and discontinued dribble to help them learn the right way, or stop trying to be a ballhandler. Lebron is just allowed to rewrite the rule book, and not have to actually improve his skills. Disgusting.
KING CRAB, keep on choogling...
(great creedence tune…)
Lebron knows he gets away with the crab dribble travel move, so he uses it to great advantage, and after this whole season, it’s too late to start calling it… sigh…
hahahaha
no one can play 5 straight games of NBA basketball averaging 37mpg and not commit a foul. it is impossible.
Oh Puhleez
What whining? This isn’t whining. It’s observation based upon fact. I have several plays in mind where I played the scene over and over again on DVR and clearly LBJ committed a foul. Not only was he not called for the foul (in plain sight), the opposing player was sometimes called for the foul.
This is NOT whining because in the end he will NOT win the Championship this year. The NBA is just trying to help him out. But he will NOT win the Championship this year. Most likely the C’s will defeat him (yes, it’s basically a one man team) in the East. However, on the off chance that he does get thru, there’s no way he’s beating the Celtics and the LAL in the same year to win it all.
by Berkeley1297 on Apr 8, 2009 11:43 PM EDT up reply actions
excellent start
This stat is an excellent measuring stick for showing favoritism or ‘star-treatment’ in the league. Would be interesting to see if the stat could be broken down into quarters and by opponent/opponent’s winning percentage.
What I’d like to see done with this info is real media coverage devoted to it with an investigative slant towards any links to Tim Donaghy and whether the bias in officiating has ulterior motives or is just due to officiating incompetence. Of course that will never happen since there’s no real investigative journalism anymore that would make Stern feel compelled to address or at least acknowledge the issue.
lebron is a big crybaby, constantly working the refs who probably get worked over by the front office to keep moneybags in the game . the reffing is the biggest wrong in the whole of the nba and the amount of fouls on mr. babycry are a true indicator of something rotten in denmark.guess who will make the all defensive squad? the man who never fouls.
im sick of lebron
i also heard he is a huge cheapskate.
my friend who waits tables at a fancy steak house waited on him..his bill was 1500.00$$ and he left a 100.00$$ tip!!
also a article in a tattoo mag about how he stiffed the artist who did all him and his crew’s ink—
im just saying…
I’m not so concerned with what the messiah gets away with on the defensive end.
When (arguably, barely) the most physically gifted player in basketball history doesn’t need to dribble to get anywhere on the court, gets called for charging about once a month, (maybe) and can draw fouls from defenders who aren’t in the area, it’s hard to make the case that the rules apply to him. They don’t.
Some analogies are made to Donaghy in here. The only way that applies is that he was able to get away with what he did for so long because of this very thing. One rulebook applying to the messiah, one rulebook applying to Pierce, Nash, Wade, Carter, O’Grady, Iverson, Anthony, Bryant, etc, and one rulebook applying to the rest of the NBA,. This kind of tiered lunacy and bogus charging flops make the NBA game more of an entertainment venue than a competition.
this isn't lebron's fault, though
lets point the blame where it needs to go: stern and the league/refs. if they called lebron for some of his nonsense, he’d stop doing it. it’s one thing to get away with some calls (all the stars get it), but what he gets away with is ludicrous. mostly on the offensive end (walks, palms, offensive fouls), but he gets to play much more physical defense on others than they get to play on him, too. pierce wouldn’t last 20 minutes in a game without fouling out if he played lebron on D the way lebron gets to play him on D. on top of that, lebron is 6-9, 275. his physical defense/fouling is particularly more egregious than that played by others, who aren’t nearly as big as him.
This analysis is pretty much useless. Sam Smith is looking at personal fouls divided by games played. So player A plays 35 minutes a game and picks up 3 fouls. Player B plays 5 minutes and picks up 2 fouls. In Sam Smith’s world player B will be seen as benefiting from the refs because in his game he was only called for a foul twice.
A better way to look at this would be personal fouls divided by the number of 48 minutes played (i.e. minutes played divided by 48). And my god, how about normalizing for era (specifically game pace). Its widely known that pace has slowed down since the era of Jordan, Bird, and Magic.
So doing it the right way would show that Lebron’s PF/48 is 2.17
Those better (or more lucky as Smith would have you believe) include:
Kevin Durant 2.15
Brandon Roy 2.08
Jamal Crawford 1.79
Michael Finley 1.76
Tayshaun Prince 1.65
Tracy McGrady 1.54
Why no outrage over Brandon Roy? what about Jamal Crawford? He apparently is doing better than Jordan ever did (Smith’s per game analysis would had him at 1.42 PF per games played)!!! What is the incentive for the refs to swallow the whistle when Michael Finley makes a defensive stop? Why does Tayshaun Prince get more star treatment than Lebron, when Lebron is obviously the better player?
haha
Its awesome that this one comment completely owns almost every argument that is here about lebron’s fouls. I mean come on guys i read the WHOLE article…. its complete garbage. Im actually more surprised at kg’s number than lebrons, considering the different roles they play on d (great job kg!!). note im not really taking travelling or anything like that to seriously. Thats another issue.
You bring up another excellent point. “roles on defense” and more specifically positions played and positions guarded against. The main article is just lazy, sensational journalism. Feed it to the choir and everyone rejoices!
I also like your point about the pace of the game. The cavs play at one of the lowest possessions per game rates in the league. Especially when comparing historically with guys like mj or big o you have to take this into account. Back in the day you just simply had more opportunities to foul. And this change has been drastic!
Well…. If you watch Brandon Roy, Crawford, Finley, Durant you would know that defense isn’t one of their strengths. The only good defender on this list is Tayshaun and he doesn’t play very physical D, but instead he uses his length against you.
The belief that good defense equals more fouls is a fallacy. If that was the case then the best defenders in the league.
Using (Stl+Blk)/PF formula from 82games.com you have a number that ranks defenders by how well they defend (steals + blocks; which are the types of defensive plays that are most likely to be called a foul) versus the number of fouls they accumulate.
Here’s the list of the top 5 players and their PF/48 numbers as well.
1. Lebron James 1.69 / 2.17
2. Dwayne Wade 1.62 / 2.77
3. Ben Wallace 1.58 / 2.90
4. Tracy McGrady 1.50 / 1.54
5. Marcus Camby 1.40 / 2.14
Other major Defensive players:
Andrei Kirilinko 1.26 / 1.90
Shawn Marion 1.18 / 1.91
Dwight Howard 1.16 / 3.40
Kevin Garnett 1.02 / 2.25
Everyone of the top five (with exception of T-Mac) are considered above average defenders. Additionally guys like Kirilinko, Marion, Howard, and Garnett (all considered very good defenders) rank highly in their (Stl+Blk)/PF (anything over 1.00 is excellent).
So if Lebron James is an excellent defender he won’t be getting a high ratio of fouls per steals+blocks, just like guys like Howard and Garnett don’t.
Star Treatment
I agree with the many posts on why pick on Lebron. Jealousy that a local Akron. Ohio and Cleveland Cavalier player and team at #1 would be my guess. And the last I looked CLEVELAND CAVALIERS’ are # 1 in team opp. percentage 42.7 vs #2 Celtics’43.0, both which are outstanding.
GO CAVS!
It’s sad when the most gifted player of his generation is unwatchable. I wasn’t jealous when he came into the league and I’m not now. You can watch highlights of the messiah and see that his games are slightly less predetermined than a professional wrestling event. The absurdity of the messiah getting 3-4-5 steps without a dribble or his patented crab dribble getting called about once every other season speaks to the messiah’s coddling by the league.
The reality is that the messiah would be twice the player he is now if the playing field was level.
by Finkelskyhook on Apr 9, 2009 5:16 PM EDT up reply actions
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