Social Media Predicts LeBron to Knicks: Analysis of “the Buzz” for King James

Today, July 1st, marks the first day of free agency for the biggest free agent in the history of professional sports, LeBron James. As to be expected, Twitter and Facebook have been flooded with LeBron buzz, with people both speculating the NBA superstar’s top choice as well as urging him to choose their favorite team. Over this past week, we were able to track over 75,000 “LeBron” posts and tweets mentioning the city & team name of his most likely suitors (Cleveland, Chicago, New York, Miami, and New Jersey) using RowFeeder.Â If the volume of tweets and Facebook posts prove to be accurate as to whereÂ LeBron willÂ go,Â 26% of social media buzz supports the New York Knicks as his team of choice.

With two of the biggest markets in the world, New York and Chicago, vying for LeBron’s services, we knew to anticipate a high volume of tweets from those cities clamoring for LeBron to come to their team. However, we also saw a large volume of social media activity from cities not involved in the free agent market, and those cities remained remarkably neutral on where LeBron should go.Â A small city, Columbus, OH, also entered the mix, undoubtedly to plead for their superstar to not leave Ohio, theÂ state he has called home for his entire life.

With speculation and rumors constantly circulating about LeBron’s preferences, it’s been as if the “favorite” team to land LeBron simply depends on the time of day. With RowFeeder, we can see just how the “favorite” for LeBron’s choice has varied so often in the social media spaces of Twitter and Facebook throughout the week. Since we started tracking on Monday morning, four of the top five teams vying for LeBron have held the top spot with the most social media buzz. We watch teams like the Miami Heat go from yesterday’s favorite to today’s longshot. Currently, the team generating the most buzz is the New York Knicks, whom we haveÂ predicted, based on our total trackings, to score LeBron James.