LeBron James’ Actual Playoff Record With And Without Joey Crawford

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More so than usual this postseason, the NBA refs have been criticized and according to some fans and analysts, “made themselves a part of the game.” When watching a game like the one we saw in Oklahoma City where a ball appeared to clearly go off of Reggie Jackson out of bounds (with the ball still being awarded to the Thunder), I can sometimes see where people are coming from.

In most cases, however, I think games where you can actually blame the officiating for deciding the outcome are really few and far between. Given the circumstances and the fast pace at which the game is played, it’s quite difficult to get a good look at close calls. Of course, we have the benefit of seeing countless replays that the refs do not have at their disposal.

The debate over officiating is one that I will leave for another time, though, and instead I will decide to focus on one pairing of referee and player that has drawn quite a bit of attention over the years: LeBron James and Joey Crawford.

James, the 4-time MVP and the best (or second best, depending on who you ask) player in the world is a polarizing figure to say the least, just like most superstars that have come before him. With many national media outlets devoting so much airtime to him, it seems as if all eyes are always on him.

That too, seems to be the case for Crawford, even though you would think as an official he’d typically be someone who remains in the background. Unfortunately, that is not the case in some situations, as his temper tantrums and occasionally obnoxious ways have drawn him quite a bit of attention, too.

Though statistics point to Crawford being a run-of-the-mill NBA referee, you would guess by fans reactions that he’s the worst official in any sport. He is often someone who is pointed to when people say that the NBA is “fixed” just because of the supposed advantage that he gives to superstars and big market teams.

It is because of the popularity of both of them that they are frequently linked together, and in most cases not in a positive way. Time and time again when I make my rounds through social networks, I will see memes and tweets saying that Crawford favors LeBron, or that it’s always 8 on 5 whenever a team comes to play the Heat.

It was one tweet that stood out to me, though, and it is one that I’ve seen on numerous occasions. While the numbers sometimes vary, the most common one that I’ve seen is this one:

Lebron James playoff record: 66-54 With ref Joe Crawford: 25-3 W/o ref Joe Crawford: 40-51 Joey Crawford is officiating tonight so add a W — ••€ΘΔCH ΙΞΥΙΞ•• (@issac1823) May 15, 2014

While unfounded, many of these claims will pick up steam and result in people quoting them in fact. Just out of interest, I wanted to see if those numbers were true. After about 5 seconds of research, I found that the numbers in that tweet were false, as they totaled to just 119 (or 120, as the tweets original math was even off). Throughout his career, James has played 147 games, so my knowledge of elementary school math confirmed that this tweet was indeed false.

I was still interested, though, in if Crawford truly did favor LeBron in the games that he officiated. I didn’t really have any expectations going into it, but I came out a little bit surprised with the findings:

Contrary to popular belief, James was winning percentage dropped by a pretty solid margin (from .669 to .521) in games in which Crawford was an official. Though it’s an admittedly small sample size, I would have to say that any notion of Crawford being biased towards James would have to be thrown out the window.

There may be an argument to be had regarding the overall competency of officiating in the NBA as a whole, but one thing can be said for certain: Joey Crawford does not help LeBron James win basketball games.

Thanks for reading.