NBA and TikTok: The Next Wave

In an era of short attention spans, little to no time to sit down and watch television, and an unquenchable thirst for immediate satisfaction, one entertainment app has begun to thrive beyond all others… TikTok.

Whether you are killing time on break at work, on your daily commute, or even just in bed at night as you wait for sleep to take over, TikTok is bound to have something for you.

The app and the ability to create little bursts of content to bring some serotonin into someone’s life through it have allowed many content creators to thrive and build their own empires so to speak. This has definitely not gone unnoticed by social media managers for your favorite NBA team.

Just like the league itself has evolved in its 75 seasons, so has the way it has been covered and how fans can interact with it.

TikTok is currently and seems like it will be for at least some time, the best way for fans to get snippets and glimpses of their teams that major sports news places just can’t provide.

Currently, 29 of the 30 teams in the league have a verified TikTok account, with the Lakers being the only ones not currently on the app.

One of my personal favorite accounts on NBA TikTok is that of the Charlotte Hornets, who have declared in their bio to be the “#1 Most GOATED NBA TikTok Team”. While it may come across as a bold claim or even arrogant, they do have two big driving factors that lead to success on TikTok: young, talented, and entertaining players and a commentary crew that provides seemingly unlimited soundbites.

All of this led me to wonder, exactly which team is the most popular on TikTok?

If you are unfamiliar with the app, a person or page can upload videos and through those, they compile views, likes, and followers. The more views you receive, then the more likely you have a positive correlation of likes and followers.

Each of those statistics by themselves though can give drastically different “outcomes” in terms of a team’s popularity, so I wanted to create a simple formula that would allow a comparison between the pages.

That is how the LFR (Likes per Follower Ratio) came into existence. This ratio allows us to put a number together to determine popularity without punishing or discrediting teams that might not get the same kind of love from accounts like ESPN, NBA, and Bleacher Report for their content.

So how exactly does the LFR help establish a better baseline for popularity? Well, it helps to eliminate the effect that a worldwide fanbase or that one extreme viral video could have.

For instance, here is the list of the top-5 teams in terms of total followers:

1.       Golden State Warriors 3.5 million

2.       Dallas Mavericks 1.3 million

3.       Milwaukee Bucks 1.3 million

4.       Houston Rockets 1.0 million

5.       Boston Celtics 868,000

On the other side, here is what the top-5 looks like if you base it on likes:

1.       Golden State Warriors 52.8 million

2.       Dallas Mavericks 22.8 million

3.       Milwaukee Bucks 15.1 million

4.       Charlotte Hornets 14.7 million

5.       Boston Celtics 10.1 million

Now you notice that both lists have four of the same teams, which means they should be the most popular, right?

The short answer: Sort of!

Let’s take a look at what the LFR says for the top-5 teams:

1.       Charlotte Hornets 20.96

2.       Dallas Mavericks 17.53

3.       Golden State Warriors 15.09

4.       Orlando Magic 13.85

5.       Miami Heat 13.29

As you may have noticed, the Mavericks and Warriors are the only ones who find themselves on each list, but teams like the Magic and Heat only find themselves in the conversation when you look at LFR as a statistic. They are teams who don’t have the followers or likes that some of the bigger teams have, but their followers and viewers are enjoying their content at a much higher than average rate.

Based on the LFR equation, it seems that the Hornets are fully justified to claim to be the “GOATED” TikTok account. It goes to show what having a true team in an organization can do, from the players, the coaches, announcers, and media team, it all matters when it comes to the TikTok platform.

If you have a TikTok account, be sure to search for your favorite team and give them some love. Let those content creators know that they are doing some awesome work. While you’re on there feel free to check out the HoopSocial account as well! Our handle is @hoopsocial and we have plans to bring you a lot of great content that you’re not going to want to miss!

Interested to see where your favorite team ranks? Here is the full chart for every team:

Which NBA Teams have the most popular TikTok Accounts?

Team	Followers	Likes	LFR
Charlotte Hornets	701.3 K	14.7 M	20.96
Dallas Mavericks	1.3 M	22.8 M	17.53
Golden State Warriors	3.5 M	52.8 M	15.09
Orlando Magic	541.5 K	7.5 M	13.85
Miami Heat	722.5 K	9.6 M	13.29
Los Angeles Clippers	623.4 K	8.1 M	12.99
New York Knicks	491.7 K	6.1 M	12.41
Utah Jazz	641.7 K	7.9 M	12.31
Boston Celtics	868.6 K	10.1 M	11.63
Milwaukee Bucks	1.3 M	15.1 M	11.62
Brooklyn Nets	696.1 K	7.8 M	11.21
Portland Trail Blazers	703.9 K	7.7 M	10.94
Memphis Grizzlies	462.1 K	4.9 M	10.6
Minnesota Timberwolves	293.9 K	2.7 M	9.19
Oklahoma City Thunder	407.9 K	3.7 M	9.07
Sacramento Kings	355.3 K	3.0 M	8.44
Denver Nuggets	358.7 K	3.0 M	8.36
Atlanta Hawks	465.4 K	3.7 M	7.95
Washington Wizards	404.9 K	3.1 M	7.66
Philadelphia 76ers	468.3 K	3.5 M	7.47
Detroit Pistons	170.7 K	1.2 M	7.03
Toronto Raptors	70.5 K	387.6 K	5.5
Phoenix Suns	330.8 K	1.8 M	5.44
Cleveland Cavaliers	260.0 K	1.2 M	4.62
San Antonio Spurs	303.7 K	1.4 M	4.61
Indiana Pacers	170.1 K	744.4 K	4.38
Chicago Bulls	640.1 K	2.5 M	3.91
Houston Rockets	1.0 M	3.5 M	3.5
New Orleans Pelicans	589.3 K	190.6 K	0.32