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I'm a little reluctant to make this thread because I'm not trying to open the floodgates for people to insult players they don't like. But as an NBA fan and someone who has an interest in human interest, I thought this was, well, interesting.

This article analyzed over 8.5M tweets and came up with players who got the highest and lowest number/percentage of negative tweets. So basically, the most hated (and loved) players with Twitter users.

Most Hated NBA Player Analysis Key Findings:
Marcus Smart received the highest share of negative Tweets. 41.03% of all Tweets directed towards him were deemed negative.

LeBron James was Tweeted at the most. He had more than 704k Tweets mentioning him, with the highest number of negative messages (115,764).

LeBron was also the target of most positive Tweets. He earned 249,086 positive Tweets throughout this time frame.

Donovan Mitchell is the ‘least’ abused player in the top 50 in terms of the share of negative Tweets directed at him. He ‘only’ had 24.32% negative sentiment rate.

LeBron James, Ja Morant and Ben Simmons received a combined 326,160 negative Tweets. 21% of all negative Tweets reviewed were directed at these three players.

Players With the Highest Percentage of Negative Tweets:
Marcus Smart – 41.03%
Draymond Green – 38.27%
Bam Adebayo – 37.33%
Trae Young – 37.24%
Jimmy Butler – 36.7%
Ben Simmons – 36.63%
Chris Paul – 36.46%
Jaylen Brown – 35.35%
Rudy Gobert – 34.66%
Jayson Tatum – 34.63%

Players With the Highest Total Number of Negative Tweets:
Lebron James – 116,764
Ja Morant – 107,056
Ben Simmons – 102,340
Trae Young – 83,717
Kevin Durant – 80,545
Kyrie Irving – 72,710
James Harden – 72,290
Stephen Curry – 57,025
Chris Paul – 55,634
Jimmy Butler – 55,165

Players With the Lowest Negative Sentiment (most liked/least hated):
Donovan Mitchell – 24.32%
CJ McCollum – 26.27%
Giannis Antetokounmpo – 26.65%
Kawhi Leonard – 26.77%
Nikola Jokic – 27.19%
Darius Garland – 27.41%
Stephen Curry – 27.45%
Domantis Sabonis – 28.03%
Zion Williamson – 28.30%
Bradley Beal – 28.33%

https://www.actionnetwork.com/nba/the-most-hated-and-loved-nba-players-according-to-more-than-8-5-million-tweets

My initial thought is: Damn, y'all really hate my guy Smart! Haha. What are your thoughts about this? Any surprises?

I am surprised Bam is so hated. The rest don't really surprise me.

only thing that stands out for me is the Tatum and Brown hate, but I could see that being Boston hate just being thrown at them.

Suprised Herro isn’t on the list. Miami Heat always hated and disrespected by media.

What are people hating on Ja Morant for???

I know a couple posters who are going to be big mad a certain guard made this list lol.

And agree Bam does not seem to fit with the others who are all to be expected to a degree. Wondering if its mostly a sample size issue where nobody is really talking about him much so a playoff series against two aggressive fanbases like Philly and Boston caused this?

timing is everything. of course people are going to be posting negatively about Smart/Tatum/Brown when they are in the Finals (and Tatum playing poorly, to boot) against a popular team

not sure of the timeframe they looked at, but perception can change quickly in the NBA

Lol poor Bam. But I don't think he's hated by the NBA fan community in general, in fact I'd estimate that almost the entirety of his negative tweets are sourced from actual Heat fans and Deuce Tatum

rate_ wrote:Suprised Herro isn’t on the list. Miami Heat always hated and disrespected by media.

Hah yeah if you go by the Heat RealGM board you'd think Herro would receive nothing but negative feedback everywhere. But while I'm sure he gets his fair share of twitter hate from Heat fans, the proportion is probably balanced by love from the Tiktok crowd who don't have the requisite minimum attention span or actual interest in basketball to participate in an NBA message forum. And then Herro probably just isn't relevant enough within the NBA sphere to break into the top 10 of total hate tweets

I was kinda surprised by Kyrie being on the list for highest total of negative tweets but not highest percentage of negative tweets. Meaning lots of people tweet about him and he gets his share of negativity, but most of the tweets about him are positive (or neutral I guess).

For all his haters the guy apparently still has a lot of fans.

bisme37 wrote:I was kinda surprised by Kyrie being on the list for highest total of negative tweets but not highest percentage of negative tweets. Meaning lots of people tweet about him and he gets his share of negativity, but most of the tweets about him are positive (or neutral I guess).

For all his haters the guy apparently still has a lot of fans.

I think he has fans but he also had a political party embrace him for his COVID stance. I'm sure that's the vast majority of the positive tweets, not from NBA fans at all.

Marcus Smart being #1 probably has a lot to do with him winning the DPOY award last year where lots of tweeters thought it was undeserving. Perceived flopping doesn't help either. Most folks are just a bunch of angry mfers in general.

bisme37 wrote:I was kinda surprised by Kyrie being on the list for highest total of negative tweets but not highest percentage of negative tweets. Meaning lots of people tweet about him and he gets his share of negativity, but most of the tweets about him are positive (or neutral I guess).

For all his haters the guy apparently still has a lot of fans.

A lot of casuals must like Uncle Drew, who don't keep up with his kookoo shenanigans

Giannis only #3 on positive list? He should be #1 and miles ahead of #2. He always say the right thing in front of cameras, everyone is saying he plays the game the right way, got lot of inspirational stories on IG and Youtube, has that "diversity" bonus points with a multi-culture background, and he is a family guy. He should be the runaway favorite on that list IMO.

strokerace wrote:Marcus Smart being #1 probably has a lot to do with him winning the DPOY award last year where lots of tweeters thought it was undeserving. Perceived flopping doesn't help either. Most folks are just a bunch of angry mfers in general.

I'd wear that as a badge of honor if I were Smart to be hated for your tenacity and defense

It's different than being hated for being just obnoxious on court (this last finals run) like Draymond

jasonxxx102 wrote:What are people hating on Ja Morant for???

Only thing I can think of is him saying they’ll beat the warriors if healthy

strokerace wrote:Marcus Smart being #1 probably has a lot to do with him winning the DPOY award last year where lots of tweeters thought it was undeserving. Perceived flopping doesn't help either. Most folks are just a bunch of angry mfers in general.

“Perceived”

bisme37 wrote:Players With the Highest Total Number of Negative Tweets:
Lebron James – 116,764
Ja Morant – 107,056
Ben Simmons – 102,340
Trae Young – 83,717
Kevin Durant – 80,545
Kyrie Irving – 72,710
James Harden – 72,290
Stephen Curry – 57,025
Chris Paul – 55,634
Jimmy Butler – 55,165

This right here tells you who and why the national sports media chooses to devote their coverage to and what's also missing from that list is one international player which also tells you why they receive the coverage they do and why they'll never be the faces of the league. In the media landscape if you are not hated or polarizing you're irrelevant. Attention is the new currency.

I'm surprised any percentage is positive social media is the absolute worst place to discuss sports since it's filled with nothing but casuals, children, homers, and hot take specialists

Texas Chuck wrote:

bisme37 wrote:I was kinda surprised by Kyrie being on the list for highest total of negative tweets but not highest percentage of negative tweets. Meaning lots of people tweet about him and he gets his share of negativity, but most of the tweets about him are positive (or neutral I guess).

For all his haters the guy apparently still has a lot of fans.

I think he has fans but he also had a political party embrace him for his COVID stance. I'm sure that's the vast majority of the positive tweets, not from NBA fans at all.

He's ridiculously skilled with a basketball, in ways that are frequently & intensely highlighted by his co-workers (professional basketball players), relatively.

He's not shy with generosity (an example of practical contribution). Maybe other humans can appreciate or relate to that.