Zachariah Blott of EmptyTheBench.com has a brilliantly executed post this week on how LeBron James seemingly receives more star treatment from NBA officials than even the most cynical fan could’ve ever fathomed.
Through January 22, James played 1702 minutes and committed 77 fouls, good for one foul every 22.1 minutes of court time. Everyone else in the NBA logged 298,868 minutes and committed 26,473 fouls, good for one every 11.3 minutes. Comparatively, James is half as likely to be called for a foul than the other 300-odd players as a whole.
Blott takes great pains to examine and re-examine the astounding statistical aberration to confirm he isn’t misinterpreting data. Example: With the help of a Portland State professor, Blott employs a sophisticated statistics application called a “chi-square test” to analyze James foul numbers. After the “pain in the ass” calculations, Blott concludes:
The likelihood of LeBron’s foul counts occurring with his minutes is less than one in a million.
Blott also samples historical foul records of some of the NBA’s greatest individual seasons to confirm James isn’t merely receiving treatment previously afforded league superstars. Even the best seasons of Magic, Kobe and Michael Jordan cannot compare to the astonishingly low number of fouls called against James this season.
Okay, before we all start citing Tim Donaghy and the fix being in, let’s take a breath.
Consider that James has the most unique style of any player in the league. That is, though he can influence the game with his roaming defense, he rarely guards opponent’s best players and spends very little time banging with post players in the paint.
In other words, though James is a formidable physical presence on defense, he rarely is involved in heavy contact and does most of his damage cheating off less dangerous offensive players.
That alone though doesn’t resolve his incredibly low foul numbers. Those numbers are all the more worrisome in the context of accusations made by former NBA official Donaghy, who has claimed that star treatment is alive and well in the NBA. Donaghy even went so far to offer that the league is behind that seemingly subtle yet powerful agenda.
It’s unrealistic to think that star treatment won’t always exist in pro sports leagues. It’s human nature. But this sort of maddeing statistical distortion involving the highest profile player in the NBA points out that despite David Stern’s assurances that referees are as objective as humanly possible, that plainly isn’t the case.
8:56 pm on January 27th, 2010
The NBA is a joke. Donaghy, pointless franchise relocations, a regular season that goes on forever and ends with teams making the playoffs with records of 39-43, and now proof of star treatment … bury the NBA, it’s over.
10:05 pm on January 27th, 2010
You can’t compare EVERYONE in the league to LeBron. What if he just fouls less? He averaged a foul per 21 minutes as a rookie.
4:48 am on January 28th, 2010
Analyzing LeBron’s foul stats along with everyone else in the league, superstar and regular star, is what makes it a valid analysis.
5:50 am on January 28th, 2010
i like the actions
9:47 am on January 28th, 2010
I’m with the Truth, the NBA is a joke. Regular season is way too long, way too many teams make the playoffs and there is without a doubt preferential treatment to star players. College hoops is much more entertaining to watch….
10:20 am on January 28th, 2010
this has been the NBA for two decades. A long season, playoffs, and star treatment arent the problem. It’s the lack of talent across the league. When cities like Sacramento, Philly, Minnesota, etc. who used to produce strong teams (albeit not champions) can’t sell out their buildings or put a respectable squad on the court, THEN the league is in trouble. The problem is the Gilbert Arena’s and Ron Artest making the sport less accessible to the average and particularly white american. You have to look at the dilution of talent and lack of talent development. And finally lack of rivalries all are symptoms of the NBA’s problem. Not star treatment or the playoff system.
Re-locations?? There has been 1 in the past 5 years
Star Treatment… Jordan, Bird, Chamberlin, Magic all received the same
the 82 game season and playoff format are not new.
You’ve got to look at what has changed as the problem. I really see the 1 & done college system as being a bigger problem in grooming men to become quality NBA’ers
11:34 am on January 28th, 2010
He gets called for less fouls, and cries like an infant when he does get called.
12:26 pm on January 28th, 2010
how does the nba not being accessible to white people make the nba worse. That has nothing to do with the quality of the nba. Oh how I wish we could go back to the days of George Miken and those low flying minneapolis lakers and their sound fundamentals…now that was showtime.Why would I pay money to watch someone do something that i can see for free at the local ymca… Most minorities can’t even afford to go to nba games, so the nba definitely isn’t marketed towards them. So i wonder who the game is marketed to. Poor white people, I feel so bad for them, they cant catch a break. gimme a break!
12:31 pm on January 28th, 2010
poor white people…the nba isn’t accessible…most minorities cant even afford to go to the games!!!
7:17 pm on January 28th, 2010
Sorry Brooks but this is one of the least credible articles out there. Just because it uses statistics doesn’t mean it’s good. Oh wow complicated chi-squared test. The results of this so called research is invalid.
Now if you wanted to say Kobe is one of the biggest whiners in the league, there might be some truth to that. (coming from one of the biggest Kobe fans out there).
7:26 pm on January 28th, 2010
Adjusted per 48 minutes played from least to most PFs/G:
Rose, Nash, J WIlliams, Iguodala, Duhon, LeBron James, Peja, Deng, etc. That’s this year.
Let’s look at the previous year: Prince, Finley, Rose, Duhon, Nash, Roy, Parker, LeBron James.
Now 2007-8: Iverson, Prince, Antonio Daniels, Nash, Finley, Stevenson, Durant, Navarro, Redd, Crawford, Peja, Joe Johnson, Billups, Roy, Ronnie Brewer. Calderon, Head, LeBron James.
2006-7: Prince, Finley, Nash, Daniels, Kidd, Bibby, Mike Miller, TMac, LeBron James.
2005-6: Prince, Iverson, Daniels, Nash, Finley, Deng, Allen, Redd, Kidd, Dirk, Bibby, Damion Jones, LeBron James.
2004-5: Antonio Daniels, LeBron James.
2003-4: Sprewell, Daniels, Finley, Reggie Miller, Derek Anderson, Earl Boykins, Damon Jones, Jason Williams, LeBron James.
This list is from ESPN. You can look it up yourself. It is a list of “qualified” players. These are all players who played significant minutes so that the conversion to 48 minutes actually means something.
Brooks please don’t hurt your rep by lowering yourself to other bloggers levels by posting gibberish.
7:51 pm on January 28th, 2010
I’m not arguing that there aren’t players in the league with less fouls than James. Gimme a break. It’s based on average fouls by all players.
11:53 pm on January 28th, 2010
people will complain about any player…
9:52 am on January 29th, 2010
Read the book, “Personal Foul” you will not look at the NBA the same way ever again…..what a story and the book is a great read for young kids, shows how important choices are in life…..would suggest everyone read it….