Red’s Army pointed us to this column on NBA.com from Sam Smith (of “Jordan Rules” fame), in which he argues pretty convincingly that either LeBron James is the best high-usage player in the history of the NBA at avoiding fouls or he’s getting the star treatment from the refs. Here’s one of the excerpts Red’s highlighted:
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. It’s really amazing given the involvement James has in the action of the game.
“It’s impossible,” said one team executive.
There’s more, and the whole column is a good read, including a really candid Andres Nocioni talking to Smith about how bad the Kings are.
But buried beneath that is this tidbit about KG:
But the talk is there’s still pain in Garnett’s knee that won’t go away, and surgery is inevitable. It’s difficult to imagine Garnett getting through a tough playoff run again. So give the edge to the Cavs and Magic for the conference final.
The word “inevitable” struck me. Danny Ainge has told WEEI (as reported by the Globe here) that surgery “might have been discussed as something to do at some point,” but characterizing surgery as “inevitable” is a different story.
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