Judging popularity based simply on Google results is certainly an inexact science. There are a lot of reasons you might search for an NBA player, for example. They might have a very talkative father. They might have surprised the entire NBA world and requested a trade away from a perennial power and the best basketball player on the planet. Or they might have been a major free agent and promptly suffered a horrific injury on national television.
Like I said, there are a lot of reasons to Google someone. For better or worse though, Google has announced its most-searched terms of 2017, and the final tallies for athlete and team searches are actually a bit surprising. For one, LeBron James is nowhere near the top 10 of most-searched NBA athletes. That honor goes to Kyrie Irving, he of the Boston Celtics after he hit the eject button out of Cleveland this summer.
Kyrie’s numbers were likely given a boost with that whole Flat Earth theory thing he said was a joke but almost certainly wasn’t. And second on that list, perhaps unsurprisingly, was Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball. He certainly would have plenty to search, including his signature shoe, the entire NBA world talking about him, and a rambunctuous father ready to say pretty much anything to keep his family in the news.
Here’s the top 10 of NBA athletes, provided by Google Trends.
Most Searched NBA Players, 2017
1) Kyrie Irving
2) Lonzo Ball
3) Russell Westbrook
4) Carmelo Anthony
5) Isaiah Thomas
6) Gordon Hayward
7) Paul George
8) James Harden
9) Kawhi Leonard
10) Chris Paul
The list makes a whole world of sense if you scrutinize it a bit. Irving, Anthony, George, Thomas and Paul were all the subject of trade rumors and then were actually traded. Gordon Hayward was the summer’s biggest free agent signing. Lonzo Ball was the most-hyped rookie in recent memory, and Leonard and Harden were both MVP candidates while Russell Westbrook had the most stunning statistical season in decades. It all checks out.
Meanwhile, LeBron James isn’t even more popular on a search than Chris Paul. Maybe he should be a bit more in the news next year, I guess.
The most popular team, however, was indeed the Cleveland Cavaliers. Here’s that Top 10 list.
Most Searched NBA Teams of 2017
1) Cleveland Cavaliers
2) Boston Celtics
3) Los Angeles Lakers
4) San Antonio Spurs
5) Houston Rockets
6) Philadelphia 76ers
7) Washington Wizards
8) Milwaukee Bucks
9) Utah Jazz
10) Minnesota Timberwolves
Perhaps the real shock of the Google Trends lists comes from the overall athlete search, which features a certain Big Baller higher than any NBA player that’s not named Gordon Hayward.
Most Searched Athletes of 2017
1) Floyd Mayweather
2) Gordon Hayward
3) Aaron Boone
4) LiAngelo Ball
5) Paul George
6) Tony Romo
7) Aaron Judge
8) Lonzo Ball
9) Carmelo Anthony
10) Sergio Garcia
We’re not sure how Hayward and George are higher than Kyrie on this list, but it’s clear that Creating an international incident certainly put LiAngelo Ball on the radar of a top of people who might not be too familiar with the middle Big Baller. Now that he’s off to play in Lithuania you probably have a wide contingent of international searches helping boost his numbers. But hey, there’s at least one thing LiAngelo can claim to be better at than his big brother Lonzo.
