Against him, that is.  I have always been upset with star treatment in the NBA.  I don’t pay real close attention to the goings on of the league, but whenever I watch a game it’s pretty evident that it happens.  D-Wade went through a three year period where he couldn’t enter the paint without going to the line.  LeBron looks like he gets the same type of calls, but there really isn’t a ton of statistical evidence to support it.

Well, Sam Smith has stepped up and given some evidence that LeBron gets star treatment on the other end of the court.  The numbers are shocking really; the guy just doesn’t get fouls called on him.

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.

Go on.

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.

Okay, wow.  Not only is it shocking that LeBron isn’t getting called for fouls on the defensive end, but how does he not get a charge every once in a while?  You would think with all the driving, he would have more charges alone than the amount of fouls described above.  It just doesn’t seem plausible.

“It’s impossible,” said one team executive.

See.  I guess it’s hard to be mad at the NBA for this since LeBron is their premier product on the court and it isn’t much fun if he’s on the bench.  However, I seem to see him complaining quite a bit.  What could that possibly be about given these numbers?  It’d be kind of fun to see him go all Rasheed Wallace if they actually started calling some fouls on him.

Anyway, have fun with your fixed NBA Playoffs basketball fans.