The 2015 NBA Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors begins Thursday night, and since the playoffs began on April 18, 26 million people on Facebook have had more than 165 million posts, comments and likes about the two teams.
Ahead of the highly anticipated matchup, the Facebook data team looked at how the two teams and their respective best players – LeBron James and Steph Curry – mapped out across the country:
– 19 states were solid for LeBron James in every county: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Hawaii.
Advertisement– The Warriors beat New Orleans, Memphis, and Houston to get to the Finals, and yet Curry did not dominate discussion in those respective counties.
– Curry only took two counties in his home state of North Carolina, not including Mecklenburg where Charlotte and Davidson College are based.
The Top 5 most-talked-about players on Facebook for each team since the playoffs began were:
Cavaliers
- LeBron James
- Kyrie Irving
- Kevin Love
- Tristan Thompson
- Iman Shumpert
Warriors
- Stephen Curry
- Klay Thompson
- Draymond Green
- Harrison Barnes
- Andrew Bogut