Social media has become a prevalent part of coverage in sports. Arguably no league has benefitted the most from the growth of social media than the NBA. Fans can now, in seconds, see a highlight of their favorite player across the country in seconds thanks to platforms such as Twitter.
Twitter can be both a wonderful and terrible place. While there are some great debates and healthy conversations that occur, there are also some horrible things said behind the anonymity of a keyboard. Athletes are usually the target of such things.
Professional athletes have their mentions flooded on a daily basis. Some of the messages are positive from real passionate fans. Some, not so much. But, have you ever wondered who are the most disliked and liked players on social media? Well, now there is an answer to that.
A study from TopRankCasinos.co.uk provides that answer. Just about 3,000 tweets were compiled for the study from ranging from October 2020 through January 2021. The tweets were then analyzed using an online analytics tool from SEMrush for positive, negative and neutral words.
Somewhat shockingly, it was revealed that Golden State Warriors point guard Steph Curry is the most-trolled NBA player on Twitter with 27.9 percent of the tweets sent to him having a negative tone.
Second on the list is Washington Wizards point guard Russell Westbrook, who had 24.6 percent of tweets mentioning him being negative. Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid was third with 22.3 percent and the most used emoji being the garbage bin. Embiid is no stranger to social media and probably brought some of that trolling upon himself.
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Rounding out the top six of the most trolled NBA athletes is LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers at 22.1 and then Brooklyn Nets teammates Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving at 21.7 and 20.7 percent, respectively.
Steph Curry’s Warriors teammate, Klay Thompson, received the lowest percentage of negative tweets at 14.6 percent. Free-agent Jamal Crawford was second on that list at 15.7 percent. Phoenix Suns point guard Chris Paul (16.4 percent) free agent Isaiah Thomas and Lakers’ star Anthony Davis (both 16.9 percent) rounded out that top six.
Despite receiving the most trolling, Steph Curry also received the most total positive tweets analyzed during the study with 1,325. 778 were negative and the final 686 were neutral for Curry.
The only player with a higher percentage of positive tweets mentioning them is Cleveland Cavaliers big man, Kevin Love. 53.3 percent of his tweets were of the positive variety. Curry followed at 47.5 percent, with LeBron, another player who receives plenty of both love and hate, at third with 46.7 percent.
Somewhat surprising, Detroit Pistons power forward Blake Griffin is tied for third with 46.7 percent as well. Rounding out the top five is Portland Trail Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony, who has a devout fan base, at 46.1 percent.
This was an interesting study done and it was fun to read through the results. Just as with everyday people, it is impossible for NBA players to please everyone. For every fan they have, there will be someone that dislikes them just as much.
