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It's no secret that LeBron James is one of the NBA’s cash cows. He sells loads of merchandise, fans pack the arenas to come watch him play, and he’s transformed Cleveland into one of the league’s hottest national TV selections.
So when it’s late in the game and LeBron starts driving to the hoop, you can expect to hear one thing: a whistle.
Maybe the contact was minimal. He is 6’8” and over 250 pounds after all. Heck, maybe there wasn’t any contact whatsoever. Doesn’t matter. He’s still headed to the line.
For most of the “King James” career, he’s been right near the top of the league in free throw attempts. This year happened to be the first time since LeBron’s rookie year that he failed to reach 500 FTA, but even so, he came mighty close at 491, and finished right outside the top ten in the league for that category.
Of all the things that might drive Pistons Nation crazy over the next two weeks, the friendly whistles for LeBron are likely to be the most maddening.
Without further ado, here are some of the most common (and aggravating) ways that LeBron James will get a favorable call over the next four to seven games.
The King Doesn’t Shoot Airballs
LeBron is being guarded by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope out on the perimeter. KCP is covering him tightly, but doing nothing worthy of any type of call. However, when Mr. James sends a 3-pointer careening off the backboard, or hitting nothing at all, he gestures to the nearest official that his elbow was nicked on the follow-through and the late whistle will then come for an undeserved trio of freebies at the line. Thankfully, LeBron has never really improved from the free throw line over his 13 seasons in the league. He shot 75% as a rookie, he’s at 73% this year, and 74% for his career -- a remarkable lack of precision for a skill you’d think he’d have mastered after so many years and so many attempts. (Both MJ and Kobe finished their career just shy of the 84% mark)
Getting Away with Murder
Tobia Harris
The Pistons are on offense and have the nerve to try and attack LeBron. Tobias Harris dribbles into the lane, gets bumped by LeBron, then gets hacked on the wrist when he tries to lay the ball up. The entire arena waits for the call, but alas, the only sound you hear is that of Stan Van Gundy shrieking that his club just got the short end again. If LeBron James accumulates more than three fouls in any game of this series, I will be very, very surprised. (He averaged under two fouls per game on the year.)
The Forbidden View
LeBron is in possession of the ball and Anthony Tolliver looks directly at him. A foul is called, but upon review, the call is changed. It has now been upgraded to a flagrant. One more glance in LeBron’s direction and Tolliver will be suspended for the rest of the series.
700 Steps
The Cavs have numbers and are on a fast break. Kyrie Irving flips it over to LeBron just over half court. Without dribbling, LeBron somehow gets all the way to the basket and throws it down with a tomahawk jam. The Pistons bench erupts in unison with the “traveling” gesture. The play is deemed legal, with no violation. The explanation from the lead ref to a pool reporter following the game: “That dunk was AWESOME!! If I’d have been watching his feet, I woulda missed the whole thing!!”
Mr. Embellishment
LeBron gets a head of steam, works a nifty crossover and drives left toward the hoop. Only, the Pistons have stayed strong defensively and there isn’t much room to operate. Nevertheless, the King still rises up to try and finish at the rim. Andre Drummond goes totally vertical to challenge the shot, there’s no body contact from Marcus Morris, and LeBron throws up a forced shot that goes begging. However, he also propels himself out of bounds after the attempt, bouncing into the cameramen and exaggerating the fall like a bum wrestler from the 80’s getting power-slammed by Bam Bam Bigelow. Sure enough, after a beat, the ref’s arm goes up and it’s LeBron to the line for a pair.
Victimizing the Anonymous
There’s under two minutes to play and the score is tied. The ball pops loose near the Pistons goal and Reggie Bullock dives headfirst, beating LeBron to the spot. He scoops it, flips it over to Aron Baynes for a dunk, and the Pistons lead by two. But wait, the basket is waved off, with the referee out near mid-court signaling a foul on Bullock. Even the national TV broadcasters are shocked such a call was made. Amazingly, the ABC on-court microphones pick up the subsequent referee huddle when the sequence in question is discussed.
Ref #1: What’d you see there, pal? I thought the Bullock play was totally clean.
Ref #2: Oh, I never said it wasn’t clean. I’d just never heard of that other guy, so I figured he must have been guilty of something!
Mistaken Identity
Steve Blake
Kyrie Irving throws a lazy pass out of bounds for a costly Cleveland turnover. Only, the ref on the far side mistakenly thought it was LeBron that threw the pass and thus intervened with a bogus call to reverse the turnover. “I got defensive 3 seconds on Steve Blake. Cavaliers to shoot one,” the ref announces to both coaches. It’s a peculiar call considering Blake is usually defending his man out on the perimeter. Also, he’s not even currently checked into the game. Regardless, the call stands and the Pistons fume over this call against what basically amounts to an invisible player. “Can’t wait to see what you guys come up with next,” Van Gundy groans sarcastically. Sure enough, the refs oblige, whistling a crucial over-the-back foul on Bison Dele in the final seconds. Dele has been dead for 14 years.
A League Built on Stars
And so for the next couple of weeks, this is the hoops bliss we can look forward to. The Pistons are heavy underdogs, made all the more difficult when most of the 50-50 calls will likely go in the direction of King James and his cast of merry men. Believe it or not, despite the avalanche of calls surely to go Cleveland’s way, you’ll still see #23 in wine & gold do his fair share of whining.
One of the major keys to the series will be to force LeBron to hoist from the outside as much as possible. Limit his layups and trips to the line. But sometimes it’ll feel like the standard basketball setup of 5-on-5 has turned into 5-against-8, zebras included.
But that’s basketball. Superstars receive “superstar treatment,” and it’s been that way for years.
At least with these seven scenarios, we now know what to look for. It won’t make the losses feel any better, but at least it’ll give us plenty of reasons to bicker and protest over the summer and into next season.
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