The most — and second most — viewed player pages on Basketball Reference in 2025. (Spoiler: there’s a lot of LeBron and MJ)
Dumb guys across America saying, “Alright, it’s time to get to the bottom of this.” As they open two tabs and type in “LeBron James stats” and “Michael Jordan stats” into Google.
100% exactly what’s happening lol.
Like those “Let’s settle this once and for all” threads on /New
r/NBATalk working on their next posts
God, that sub is peak for just scrolling through and making yourself feel like a genius.
About 2 and a half minutes before going on reddit/youtube/ig/x and fighting someone over their conclusion
Claiming they watched both play despite being born this millennium.
“I watched Jordan play for the Wizards and he wasn’t that great.”
Ha. I’m gonna start telling people I watched him play for the Birmingham Barons and he wasn’t very good so he’s clearly overrated.
Kobe scored 55 on Jordan in 2003 clearly Kobe>Jordan
This made me feel old af. 👴🏿
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Two minutes is wayy more research than most redditors would do.
“Well shit… I can honestly see both arguments.”
You go on Basketball Reference to compare their career stats. I go on their pages to compare who has more technical fouls. We are not the same.
Its LeBron right??
“Let me go back to that LeBrawn page to make sure”
The only stats that matter?
I think the data speaks for itself
one is rated 56% too low and other is rated 25% too high
Guy who misses the bit and is earnestly like “yeah, Space Jam 1 is about a 19% whereas Space Jam 2 is more in line with an 81%”.
You’re Lola Bunny, right?
Whereas we refined Redditors open up a “Tim Duncan stats” and “Kobe Bryant stats.”
Giving Reddit too much credit. Usually they just say “people only rank kobe highly because he died”
These two comments hit way too close to home for me, I feel attacked
I thought people only ranked him highly because he raped a girl?
That’s like 90 percent of discussion these days, so it certainly checks out.
The other 10% are the Kobe fans trying to convince everyone that he’s actually the goat
It’s probably more like dumb guys across the world saying “Alright, it’s time to find some information that confirms what I already think”. As they open the tab and type in “<my GOAT> stats” they then pick the stats that they can yell louder than the other guy who typed “<not my GOAT> stats”.
Honestly if people actually did that and spent time looking at the stats and accolades… while learning the context around the stats, taking them with caution and not as gospel, and going back to watch games for eras they didn’t live through… it’d probably result in better discussion that 90% of the shit on here.
Man you think HIGHLY of dumb guys
ANT is MJ confirmed
As context: these maps have been made for other sports (at least NFL), and none of them have this level of single-player saturation.
These maps are hilarious and amazing, so thank you.
Caitlin Clark had a pretty dominant showing on the WNBA side! https://info.basketball-reference.com/2025-bbr-wnba-season-review
And completely dominated in WCBB: https://info.sports-reference.com/25-26-wcbb-season-review
When you visit Nunavut you better check in with Napheesa Collier first.
I wonder why Nunavut is so interested in Napheesa Collier?
It’s probably only a few people searching, skewing the results to whoever the power users are interested in.
Someone wrote a program to Google her 10 times per second and uploads it to any computer they can access
It’s really confusing. She’s #1 even when factoring in all sports leagues.
honestly no clue but they got stellar taste up there
Nunavut is an interesting place… The population of the whole province is under 40,000, and it isn’t exactly known for basketball fandom in Canada at large at least 😅 The population is also mostly Inuit, and they haven’t exactly had the greatest time in Canada when it comes to being treated fairly (i.e. they were treated atrociously, with forcible relocation, forced assimilation, and a whole lot more) which is what directly led to the formation of the province in 1999 as a way to try and start “righting the wrong”. (Spoiler: Not much has changed; e.g. Child poverty was 42%(!) last year.) Inuit culture places big emphasis on the role and value of women.
My guess? Nunavut likes her first as a person who speaks up for women and is willing to spend her own money creating her own league that pays female athletes almost double what the WNBA does, and second as a basketball player.
Definitely has to do with the small population, which is more influenced by outliers. When you have like 40k total residents, even just a couple users making a shit ton of views on a page can beat out everyone else. Hell, even 1 crazy user checking the page a ton every day can do it.
It’s by total page views and not median views by unique user, which is why this can happen. It’s a non-issue when the population size becomes large enough as it is for a typical state/province — and also probably isn’t usually an issue even in Nunavut — but Nunavut and any other small population state/province is more vulnerable to a handful of users influencing stuff.
Wanted to see what Canada would look like. All Lebron except the Yukon is searching up a lot of SGA for some reason
Giannis in Wisconsin, Jokic in Colorado, SGA in Oklahoma makes sense, but people in the Yukon being big SGA fans is a weird outlier
I’m honestly surprised SGA isn’t more popular in Canada.
To be fair Lebron is more popular than Anthony Edwards in Minnesota, Jalen Brunson in New York, Devin Booker in Arizona, Jayson Tatum in Massachusetts. So no chance that Shai is most popular in Canada when he doesn’t even play for the Raptors.
While in highschool like 10 years ago Lebron was easily the most talked about player. That hasn’t changed much now. Kids in school make nametags and like 80% of the guys have Lebron on it. Shai is decently popular but it’s not the same tbh. Lebron is still Lebron.
This is wild lol
basketball is probably *the* sport around the world where an individual makes the most difference to success. Has to be a contributing factor.
It’s also cause it’s LeBron. He’s a juggernaut of a celebrity.
I’m sure in 2016 for NFL Tom Brady would have had even a bigger footprint than Mahomes does in the NFL map. I’d love to see baseball, could see Ohtani being in the same boat.
For the NFL, I can’t imagine any non-QB making it on any state.
Maybe Travis Kelce and Justin Jefferson but that’s it.
adrian peterson probably would have been oklahoma’s for a while lol
Ya I was surprised when I went on that link that there were 3 non-QBs in Sequon, Jefferson, and for some reason Hawaii loved Derrick Henry.
Here’s that link, looks like Eagles got a big boost (obviously) from winning the title https://np.reddit.com/r/nfl/comments/1pj532c/pro_football_reference_maps_of_the_most_viewed/?utm_name=nba
I think that’s mostly to do with how we don’t seem to have as much star power in position players right now. Jefferson and Chase aren’t at nearly the level of OBJ fever let alone like a Jerry Rice or a Moss. McCaffrey doesn’t touch AP, and players like Gibbs and Jonathan Taylor are magnitudes less famous even if they’re at the top.
Honestly the only major sport that truly has a face right now is baseball with Ohtani.
Back in the day running backs would have been absolutely crushing these popularity contests. Interesting how the game has evolved.
No in baseball the map was solidly split between Ohtani and Judge
It’s exactly this. Oftentimes people say that “the NBA sucks bc it only markets stars, not teams, unlike the NFL.” But the main reason stars have bigger weight in the NBA is literally inherent to the nature of the sport.
In no other sport can a single superstar completely change a team. The QB position in football is the closest, but even then they can’t play defense, and rely on other teammates (OL, receivers, etc.) more than NBA stars do for offense.
Baseball was basically all aaron judge for the US. And Canada every single province was vladdy jr
I wonder who it would be for Japan?
The difference is in the NFL one player means a lot less, in the NBA one incredible player can take a bad team and make them at least pretty good.
Meanwhile in the NFL one great player can not do the same thing, if the defense is trash you could have the GOAT QB on the roster, and it would not be enough to be even a pretty good team. Crap, if the O line is bad that could even make that QB look way worse.
Sure if your goal is a championship putting just prime LBJ or Jordan on the team might not be enough but it can take a trash team to at least the playoffs.
Context: You asked to see who the second most viewed players were in 2025, so the map wouldn’t just be 47 states of LeBron … now it’s 38 states of MJ.
The funny part is that the 3 states that aren’t LeBron, ARE LeBron for second most
probably those states are MJ for 3rd most
38 states having the same exact 1-2 punch.
Then you’ve got the four Jokic/Lebron, 3 Tatum/Lebron, and 2 Curry/Lebron states for good measure.
And 1 giannis/Lebron, and 1 sga/lebron
And 1 Ant/Lebron
It makes sense since LeBron is still active and his stats are still being added upon. Revisiting this in 20 years will be the decider unironically.
LeGerrymandering
Jeb! but LeBron!
JeBron
JeBron Lames 007
LeLectoral College
LePurplewave
Oklahoma holding it down for shai lol
It’s literally the 3 states with the main MVP candidates standing for their star players while everything else is LBJ
The thing that stands out is that Luka isn’t the one for LA, but that’s because LBJ is literally there lmao
And LBJ is second in those 3 states, so it’s not like he dropped off in search popularity there
Texas vote too split for wemby to have a chance, spurs might have to pull a 3 kingdoms, long divided must unite
We thought the monasteries brought peace to Wembanyama; instead, they readied him for war.
I think the surprising thing is Steph is second in California. Which makes a lot of sense but I thought LA would prevail in second too.
Need to gather data for the 8 million posts a day here
Seriously. There were a lot of Shai and OKC slander posts last season, and now we’ve flipped around to nothing but glaze. Which makes sense for the season he is having, but I just wish there was more even coverage of teams and players. I feel like it’s all Lakers, Knicks, Warriors, and then a bunch of MVP race agenda posting. Or drama and Giannis trade rumors.
What do you mean? Do you not like 40 posts a day when SGA sits a quarter ?
It’s so annoying. Like goddamn, yes I am aware that the most dominant team since the Warriors dynasty is putting belt to ass, I don’t need to see 20 different stat posts about how they are historically good in this specific advanced metric
Enough MVP glaze why is nobody posting Jay Huff highlights
I’m saying though, we barely even get Cade clips and the Pistons are first seed in the East. The Magic are the team I watch most in the East, and I feel like the only posts we get is when someone gets injured or Bane is acting up. There was a crazy play last game where I think it was Goga got an offensive rebound, got knocked onto on the floor on his back, passed the ball over his head to Bane, and Bane made the 3. And that clip is like nowhere. I guess I could post it, but I’ve been trying to cut back on my Reddit use. It would actually be kinda dope if teams had their social media manager or whoever post a few clips from every game from an official account
I think the shitty reality is that a lot of it does get posted and just never makes it to the top of the sub. The coolest clips I see are always 2-300 upvotes max. I just wish there was a dedicated place for small markets outside the team pages
Yeah, I get that small markets just don’t have much visibility. The thing that annoys me though is that like half the shit posted here is just podcast dudes talking
It’s for the Shai vs Jokic debates
LeCtoral College
LePublican Nominee
Crazy that LeBron is either #1 or #2 in each state.
less crazy than a dude who has been retired for 22 years being #2 in so many
he wouldn’t be number 2 if not for Lebron being so good that they’re constantly being compared
Kind of crazy that a guy who’s been retired for 25 years is #2. I mean as someone who lived that that era I get it. He really was that good… but it’s still kind of crazy
It’s not that crazy when you consider like 89% of basketball related discussion on the internet is LeBron vs Jordan GOAT drivel.
The worst is going to be 20 years from now when everyone is saying both MJ and Lebron were bums who could never hang in the gen-xyz league.
“MJ and LeBron were both scrubs who played with plumbers and Tiktokers. The real debate is between Wemby and Austin Reaves.”
Wemby and Austin Reaves.
playin against nothin but aura farmers and dropshippers!
Their main argument will be that Lebron is only averaging 15/8/8 that year.
LeBron has one thing helping him a ton. The footage is so much higher quality than it was in the 90s.
I’d argue that the ubiquitous availability of footage has worked against modern players as much or more than it has helped them. In the 90’s you didn’t have hordes of haters on social media crowdsourcing the deconstruction of every game to generate low light reels to circle jerk over. That’s not the kind of thing that traditional media companies were ever going to distribute, and you generally only got to see what they chose to show you.
The end result is that 90’s and earlier coverage was almost entirely positive because coverage and distribution of film was limited exclusively to groups that were in bed with the league. If you are old enough to have watched back then, you know how much more positive and celebratory media coverage was then. The social media fueled hate circle-jerks weren’t a thing then, and about the most negativity you’d regularly run into was someone at the barber shop calling the star player on the other team a bum or joking about how you can’t look at him funny without a foul call or a local beat writer putting a critical article in the news about some player they don’t like.
Am old - can confirm.
people are alr doing this with the 2010s saying that LeBron’s mvp years were mid compared to now due to stat sheet…
I like to imagine people who only got exposed to him in TikTok highlights and instagram shorts wondering if he was as good as hyped, then opening his bref page and seeing all the bold numbers.
Nikola Jokic
Giannis Antetokounmpo
LeUnited States
United States of LeMerica.
Lol it’s so funny seeing people in this sub get salty over how much upvotes LeBron content gets even when we’re getting our asses handed to us.
why does that one vertical line of states like Jokic so much?
Lmao I was going to comment that, like the Jokic Mountain Range there.
1 more ring and we’ll petition to have Jokic carved into the Rockies like Colorado’s own Mt Rushmore.
No teams in NM, WY, MT, so they ride with CO!
I am surprised that new mexicans ride with colorado instead of, dunno, arizona and texas?
They don’t have Jokic. See image above for more details.
None of those states have NBA cities. Fans likely take road trips to Denver.
Surrounded on all sides by Lebron, Jokic 🤝 SGA to hold the center.
Giannis is fighting in Wisconsin as well lmao
LeResistance
The Jokic belt
They’ve got another one that shows the most viewed player pages across their whole network (football, basketball and baseball) and it’s also basically just LeBron everywhere lol
511 electoral votes for LeBron, not bad. only better are fdr ‘36, reagan ‘84, and nixon ‘72.
Install hoops in the ballroom
Tatum :)
this is not even surprising. He’s lebron
Exactly. Aside from his on court performance and longevity, he benefitted from the social media era. And although we have people yelling “KOBE” when they shoot a paper ball into the basket, you have people saying “LeBrawwwwn Jaaaaaames” from that one Vine
Kids don’t yell Kobe anymore undoubtedly. Just us oldheads
United Nephews of America
I’m glad the best 3 players are justly represented in their states.
He is our sunshine
Massachusetts what da hell
“lebron James. Lebron James… Leeebron Jaaames”
The LeBron equivalent of when people say “KOBE” shooting a paper ball into the basket
I think this settles the Goat debate
LeElection
I’ll be honest here boys, it’s me, I spend I hours looking at LeBron’s basketball reference
Basically guys around America were going “let’s settle the Lebron vs Jordan debate”. Googles Lebron. Pretty good stats. Googles Jordan on the same tab. Pretty good too. Wait what’s Lebron’s stat again? Googles Lebron again.
I see the GOAT debate is living rent free across America.
That’s incredible
Hello my sweet sweet Serbian. May you live forever.
LeMerica
The debate rages on apparently
Honestly, I just did a google search last night because I forgot LeBron’s real age. That might be 90% of this.
The toxic LeBron vs MJ debate is carrying NBA stat websites 😂
Is there any sport where a long retired player is that on top of people’s minds like MJ is?
It’s guess a pretty small list:
Muhammad Ali
Pele
Wayne Gretzky
Usain Bolt
Michael Jordan
(Arguably) Babe Ruth
Wow every major sport?
Mike Tyson is for me
An enormous contributing factor is that NBA media and fans have a bizarre obsession with ranking players on an all time list. Not that other sports don’t do it, but it’s fucking ALL the time and super in your face in NBA media.
Muhammad Ali?
Goat debate settled
Shocking that Luka doesn’t make an appearance in either Texas or California, that trade transcended the sport and had randoms who have never watched a basketball game talking
STOP THE COUNT (except for Oklahoma, Colorado, and Wisconsin)
Even New England goddamn, Lebron is universal
LeBron is ‘Murica
LeUSA
Oklahoma and Colorado I respect you, the rest of you are sellouts
Games cooked if the most popular stars are either about to retire or from 25 years ago
Only thing that popped into my head upon seeing this: https://youtube.com/shorts/b3gQCPh0K5o?si=EbwtOGpxnXzj4rju
Literally 99% of basketball fans in an image:
“How does Lebron stack up against MJ - and does it confirm my view of who is the GOAT”?
Why do people keep looking up MJ’s stats so much in 2025? Shit ain’t changed in 20 years, just take a fuckin screenshot
Oh, time to play Immaculate Grid!
This gunna piss some haters off
Every state LeBron isn’t 1st he’s 2nd lol
colorado loves our big beautiful boy
This settles the debate,LeBron carries the electoral college.
Honestly Lebron’s stats are so unusual and interesting that it makes sense for him to be number one, debates and celebrity aside.
This ain’t basketball reference, this is LeBron reference.
Makes a lot of sense. Two brilliant well known players.
Jokes on them, I always VPN when I look up LeBron stats.
It would be cool to see my personal most viewed for the year. I would guess that it might be Jokic and Curry at 1 and 2.
But I would rather see the total number of players I viewed. I know I’ve looked up Frankie Brian this year so the number has to be high.
i think we give lebron president off of this
The Jokic-belt is quite funny
The whole country being Lebron and then there’s 3 small market fanbases holding it down for their MVPs lol.
I’m curious as to what the numbers are for the non-LeBron and Jordan states. Like how close were Tatum, Ant, and Curry to being number 1?
LeBron has been the face of the league, poster child of the league. Not surprising.
Wemby will be leading this data chart soon enough.
Le Bron Jame’s
Well shit I can’t avoid a LeBron post or article while online. I accidentally look at one at least 6 times a day.
since its a global game it would nice to know how the rest of the world looks in this regard
We love JT but the lookups are probably in reference to injury status.
Literally this https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5y_cl3WIO6A
For NBA this needs to be like those USA most spoken languages maps where they automatically exclude English and Spanish to actually make the chart interesting.
Unexpected Ant sighting
Nobody seems to care about SGA outside of OKC and Boston is more interested in LBJ than Tatum.
Wild!
Damn, when first place is you and second place hasn’t played in 25 years.
To be fair, everything I have watched of LeBron has been 100% against my will.
With this big of an outlier might as well give me the 3 4
This proves LeBron is the goat
Keegan Murray erasure
Nba fans stuck in the 90s
MJ still being second is absolutely ridiculous
LeBronto is dead. Long live LeBronsin.
Hypothetical: if Jordan had been a millennial, could he type as well as Lebron?
This Lebron smile is legendary
Typical USA naval gazing. Where’s Toronto?
And people still downplay LeBron
“The league is ready to move on from LeBron”
God basketball fans are the fucking worst