In honor of Social Media Week (SMW) that is running from February 23 to February 27 in New York City and in other major cities throughout the world such as Milan and Hamburg, BESportsBiz takes a look at the social media presence of the top earning African-American NBA players. This list may be a tale-tale sign as to how Twitter followers and Facebook likes correlate into gaining major endorsements…or not.
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We correlated the earnings of players as published by Forbes with the player’s number of Facebook likes and Twitter followers.  According to Forbes, LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers comes in Number 1 as the top earning player when you combine salary and endorsements. His social media ranking also makes him Number 1 on our NBA ballers social media list. James’ combined Facebook likes and Twitter followers is 41.7 million, almost 15 million more than Kobe Bryant who comes in No. 2 in our social media ranking. Kevin Durant, who is No. 2 in earnings, is No. 3 in our social media ranking with 19.2 million combined Facebook likes and Twitter followers.
See the Top 5 NBA earners and their social media ranking here. Follow @BESportsBiz.
Social Media Rank: No. 1
Earnings Rank: No. 1
Team: Cleveland Cavaliers
Total Earnings: $64.6 million with salary and endorsements
FB: 22.5 million
Twitter: 19.2 million
Total FB and Twitter: 41.7 million