For years people have said the NBA protects their stars and will make sure they win. When the big three got together in Miami, many cried foul that the NBA would conspire to have Miami win and would protect them with ridiculous calls. A tweet from die-hard Celtics fan and ESPN columnist Bill Simmons adds fuel to the Heat conspiracy fire. As I said in my post yesterday, the NBA will not punish Dwyane Wade for any cheap flagrant foul he may commit since they will make more money with the marketing juggernaut of Miami, as they have three stars, in the Finals. While in a rage as the Celtics collapsed against Miami , Simmons took to Twitter and ranted on the referees and said they were the reason Miami was winning. He showed off that interesting statistic that LeBron James is only averaging 1.8 fouls per game during these playoffs. Even Michael Jordan never averaged under 2 fouls per game in his playoff career.
LeBron mysteriously only committed five fouls in six games against Indiana. Yes, he averaged 0.8 fouls per game in that series. I'm not understanding how that is possible. Here are the official stats showing LeBron is currently 97th in fouls per game during these playoffs. It is worth taking a look at how similar players are doing this post-season. Carmelo Anthony averaged 4.2 fouls per game in New York's five games against Miami, up from his season average of 2.8 (I will talk about regular season averages towards the end, especially LeBron's). Paul Pierce is averaging 3.1 fouls, only having one foul in Game 1 against the Heat but fouling out in Game 2 as well as fouling out in Game 7 against the 76ers. Pierce is averaging 38.7 minutes per game, Melo averaged 40.1, and LeBron 41.3 but both Melo and Pierce averaged more fouls despite being less tenacious defenders. Kobe Bryant played in 12 games this post-season to LeBron's 13, but Kobe had 33 fouls while LeBron has 23
Keep in mind Chris Bosh went down in Game 1 against Indiana and LeBron had to start playing power forward. He was down low and goes for a lot of blocks and steals but some how went all of Game 2 against the Pacers without fouling anybody and then never had more than 1 foul in each of the remaining four games. Playing in the post he didn't foul anybody. Even softie Chris Bosh picks up over 2 fouls a game, same with Dirk Nowitzki, though Bosh's playoff average was 1.6 since he had nothing to do against New York and got hurt against Indy. Guarding team's top scorers like Paul Pierce, Carmelo Anthony, and Danny Granger, LBJ has only found himself on the brink of fouling out in one game against New York, and had 4 fouls in another. Against Miami, Danny Granger fouled out in Game 2, came close in Game 6, and had 4 in Game 1.
Obviously superstar calls and not calling fouls on stars are nothing new, but this is a strange occurrence. Simmons even pointed out LeBron ranks first in free throws attempted per game at 10.8, but he is so far down on the fouls per game list. The conversation always comes back to Jordan since he is the measuring stick and the original of favored superstars, and a look at his playoff stats shows he used to get called for fouls. In 10 games in 94-95 he had 30 fouls. LeBron has played three more games and has seven less. Just looking at random years in the championship era: Jordan averaged 3.1 fouls, 53 in 17 games, when the Bulls won their first title in 1991; he again averaged 3.1, 58 in 19 games, in the 92-93 season; 2.7, 49 in 18 games, in the 95-96 season on one of the greatest teams of all time; and 2.2, 47 in 21 games, in the last championship year of 97-98. You can see the league started becoming more star oriented in the late 90s as Jordan's fouls went down, but still he never averaged fewer than 2.
Kobe Bryant averaged 4 fouls per game when the Lakers won their first of three straight titles in 2000, then 3.3, and then 2.8. When LA won back to back titles in 2009 and 2010, Kobe averaged 2.6 and 3.3 fouls respectively. In the 2006 seven-game series with Phoenix in the first round, he averaged 3.6. He even averaged 2.8 when he was the MVP in 2008.
If you're curious, LeBron averaged 2.7 fouls in the playoffs last year, 2.1 in 09-10, 2.1 in 08-09, and his lowest average was an even 2 when he had 40 fouls in 20 games in 06-07 when Cleveland made the Finals. He did average a high 3.4 in 2006 though. I looked at the seven-game series with Boston from 2008 since I wanted to see what happened when LeBron was matched up with a much better Paul Pierce and found Pierce averaged 3.3 fouls and 6.1 free throws to LeBron's 2.9 fouls and 12.8 free throws. Those aren't some hard, conclusive numbers that LeBron doesn't get called for fouls since he averaged almost 3 per game, but it is worth pointing out that while Pierce still got called for more fouls than LBJ, strangely the referees actually used to call fouls on LeBron. It is at least worth noting LeBron averaged almost 3 fouls per game in a series during his MVP era.
While I love using statistics, none of the other numbers really matter but LeBron having a fairly low fouls per game average in the playoffs regularly is pretty strange. But whatever. We're talking about this year and LeBron's great skill at not fouling or the NBA's increased protection of superstars that is most evident with the lack of calls against LeBron James. But wait! What about LeBron's career regular season foul average?
While the regular season average shouldn't matter too much since playoff ball is way different and far more physical and defensive-minded, I did point out Carmelo Anthony's average since a 1.4 foul jump stood out to me, especially since it came against Miami. Maybe I am putting too much thought into it, but I figured it was worth sharing. LeBron averaged 1.6 fouls this season and for his career averages 1.9. Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, the two players LeBron is most likely chasing, averaged 2.6 for their careers. Kobe's can change since he's not done of course, but it isn't going to drop below 2. Other greats? Magic Johnson averaged 2.3, Larry Bird averaged 2.5, and Bill Russell averaged 2.7. LeBron has averaged over 2 fouls per game in four of his nine seasons, never higher than 2.3, leaving him with that insane 1.9 career average.
The choices here are that LeBron is not a hard defender, defends so amazingly well he does not foul anybody, or the NBA is even more of a star-oriented league than in years past and wants to protect the jewel of the basketball world. LeBron was the prized first pick in the 2003 draft, hyped as the "king" and is supposed to be the future of the sport. With the constant hype about how amazing LeBron is, would it be out of the realm of possibility that the NBA protects him? Think back to the 2006 Finals when Dwyane Wade took over 20 free throws in Game 5 and then again in Game 6 to secure the Heat's championship victory, and Miami as a whole took considerably more foul shots than Dallas. Is LeBron's low foul per game average just another case of superstars being favored?
It cannot be that LeBron is just an incredible defender who knows how to not make contact with people. That would be ridiculous to even think. It comes down to either LeBron doesn't play hard defense and therefore can't commit fouls, or the NBA pampers stars and especially turns a blind eye to any contact LeBron James may dish out. I would hope people aren't clamoring to accept the former. All superstars are protected, but this is one of the most ridiculous aspects of the superstar protecting actions of the league. LeBron goes for a lot of steals and a lot of blocks and is seen as a hard defender, so to think he is just so good he doesn't foul people is funny. He would be a more amazing talent than any of have thought these last few years.
Every superstar is given favorable treatment, but LeBron's low foul count is unheard of for a player of his stature and with the increasingly favorable treatment the league is giving stars it isn't hard to see how this has happened with the league's star of stars.
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