Extra Mustard analysis: LeBron's use of #StriveForGreatness may help him

LeBron James posted 107 photos on Instagram with a combined 224 hashtags. Did he actually strive for greatness after posting #StriveForGreatness?

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James is connecting with his fans every single day, both online and in person. His social network of choice appears to be Instagram, in a landslide.

LeBron played in 69 games during the 2014–15 season, and posted 107 photos on Instagram with a combined 224 hashtags. His signature tag, though, is #StriveForGreatness, which he used a whopping 49 times. (#KickGameCray finished in second, with 10 appearances, and both #SwooshLifer and #NikeOrDie finished third, with 5 occurrences.)

That got us to thinking. Is LeBron really striving for greatness after he uses the hashtag, #StriveForGreatness? The numbers from last season seem to state that​’s the case.

The statistics below are from games after he used the hashtag. Because he posted during periods of inactivity during the year, and sometimes posted multiple times per day, we have a smaller sample size.

	w–L	Pts	Reb	ast	fg%	3pt%	stl
Other games	32–14	25.2	6.0	7.1	.484	.370	1.5
#StriveForGreatness	18–5	25.4	6.1	8.0	.496	.325	1.7

James saw a nice uptick in shooting percentage, which has maybe been his strongest trait over the years. He also has more assists during those games, 78% of those the Cavaliers won, compared to 70% without the hashtag.

LeBron has already put his Cavs in good position for an opening-night victory, using the hashtag on the eve of their meeting with the Chicago Bulls.

This has been an exhaustive, and highly scientific, Extra Mustard study.