If you've been active on Twitter, Facebook or pretty much any NBA blog site, you might have stumbled upon these "stats" regarding LeBron James' playoff record whenever Joey Crawford referees the game.
Unbelievable, the NBA cheats for LeBron!
As a gullible fan, you probably didn't even look up to verify if this was true or not. Well, as an objective fan of the NBA, I wasn't sold on these "stats" at all and I looked them up.
The results might surprise a few people. It's extremely hilarious how people can be easily influenced to believe a certain thing just because "the Internet said it".
The first problem I found with these stats was LeBron's career playoff record. So I looked up LeBron's career playoff games and he's played way more than 119 playoff games.
Those stats had him playing a total of 119 playoff games. That also would mean Crawford had officiated almost a fourth of LeBron's playoff games, which is ridiculous as well.
Even if these stats were true, they were seriously outdated, yet they were being recycled on various sites as "new information."
So I looked them up. Here are the real numbers...
Stats accurate as of May 14, 2015
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LeBron's Numbers On the Cleveland Cavaliers
LeBron is 4-5 (44%) in games officiated by Joey Crawford. These are the playoff games officiated by Crawford that LeBron lost in Cleveland:
Game 3 of the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals
Game 7 of the 2006 Eastern Conference Finals
Game 5 of the 2010 Eastern Conference Semifinals
Game 2 of the 2008 Eastern Conference Semifinals
Game 1 of the 2006 Eastern Conference Semifinals
Quick Update (5/12/2015)
LeBron haters are STILL posting those faulty numbers all over Twitter. Joey Crawford officiated Game 5 of the 2015 semifinals. So now LeBron has won 4 games and lost 5 under Crawford.
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LeBron's Numbers On the Miami Heat
LeBron is 10-7 (59%) in games officiated by Joey Crawford. These are the playoff games officiated by Crawford that LeBron lost in Miami:
Game 4 of the first round of the 2011 Eastern Conference Playoffs
Game 2 of the 2011 NBA Finals
Game 5 of the 2011 NBA Finals
Game 2 of the 2012 Eastern Conference semifinals
Game 4 of the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals
Game 4 of the 2013 Eastern Conference Finals
Game 4 of the 2014 NBA Finals
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Conclusion
So as you can see from the data, LeBron actually has higher winning percentages in games not officiated by Crawford.
I'd also like to point out that LeBron James has has actually fouled out of two playoff losses in games officiated by Crawford, which is actually very significant when you consider the fact that he's only fouled out of 6 games total for his entire career.
So with that said, here is LeBron James' actual playoff stats when the games are refereed by Joey Crawford...
95-47 (66%) without Crawford
14-12 (53%) with Joey Crawford
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