This LeBron Stat Has Permanently Broken My Brain
Brought to you in part by the good folks over at r/NBA. Summer League is winding down. There can’t possibly be another move to be made after Russell Westbrook went to Houston. (Right? Right?!) So people are deep in basketball-reference, trying to find absolutely anything new to talk about. And buddy do we have something.
How the fuck is this possible? I feel like LeBron has perhaps the mostly widely known career statline in basketball history. People just know you can pencil him in, year-in and year-out, for 27/7/7. The percentages may change, the attempts per game may be slightly different, maybe it’s more steals or blocks in a given year, but on the whole LeBron has been a walking, talking 27/7/7 for his entire career. I understand what an average is. I get that you can score 22 one game, 20 another, and average 21 despite never actually scoring 21. All that makes sense to me. But a sample size of 1,437 games, for a guy who consistently scores in the high 20s, chips in over five boards and assists per contest, never ONCE stumbled ass backwards into 27/7/7.
In fact, only 11 times in LeBron’s career has he scored exactly 27 points while tallying at least seven boards and seven assists. But in those 11 games, only ONCE was he within one stat of hitting this mark. On April 25, 2007, LeBron put up 27/8/7 against the Washington Wizards. Every other game is something like 27/8/15 or 27/12/8. It feels impossible that not only has this dude never once landed on 27/7/7, but he’s never even remotely in the ballpark.
Far as I can find it only happened once in his life.
The 18-year-old high school senior, an almost-certain No. 1 pick in this summer’s NBA draft, scored 27 points in leading the East to a 122-107 victory over the West in the 26th annual McDonald’s All-American high school basketball game.
James — who didn’t hit a shot outside 5 feet — added seven rebounds and seven assists. He received a standing ovation as he received the MVP trophy from former UCLA coach John Wooden.