{"id":237945,"date":"2019-11-20T00:59:01","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T05:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=237945"},"modified":"2019-11-25T02:52:52","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T07:52:52","slug":"the-nba-teams-with-the-biggest-celebrity-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/11\/20\/the-nba-teams-with-the-biggest-celebrity-fans\/","title":{"rendered":"The NBA Teams with the Biggest Celebrity Fans"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-237945 gallery-columns-1 gallery-size-full'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/11\/20\/the-nba-teams-with-the-biggest-celebrity-fans\/photo-1532040683343-edbde6dd500d\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"755\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/photo-1532040683343-edbde6dd500d.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-237947\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/photo-1532040683343-edbde6dd500d.jpg 755w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/photo-1532040683343-edbde6dd500d-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 755px) 100vw, 755px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-237947'>\n\t\t\t\tThe Lakers biggest player right now is, without a doubt, LeBron James. For celebrities who tend to follow their favorite stars instead of teams, he is the man to follow. (Photo by Ramiro Pianarosa on Unsplash)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/11\/20\/the-nba-teams-with-the-biggest-celebrity-fans\/photo-1553174968-b6b7bb5f1e86\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"334\" height=\"501\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/photo-1553174968-b6b7bb5f1e86.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-237948\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/photo-1553174968-b6b7bb5f1e86.jpg 334w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/photo-1553174968-b6b7bb5f1e86-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 334px) 100vw, 334px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-237948'>\n\t\t\t\tThe Raptors have a long list of celebrity fans, from all walks of life: musicians, actors, athletes. Perhaps two of the biggest fans are Drake, a Toronto native and world-renowned rapper, singer, and actor; and Wayne Gretzky, arguably the best NHL player of all time.  (Photo by Christian Mendoza on Unsplash)\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">Who are the biggest fans of the NBA? Certainly the greatest <em>number<\/em> of NBA fans tends to be in the U.S. \u2014 out around Colorado, along the west coast, on the east coast, around the Great Lakes, and in the south around Texas. And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2018\/11\/20\/the-nba-is-chinas-most-popular-sports-league-heres-how-it-happened.html\">then there\u2019s China<\/a> and the area around Toronto. So that\u2019s where the biggest NBA fans tend to be \u2014 where the numbers are. In those areas, games are more of a spectacle: music, lights, performances, and plenty of merchandise.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">But do the teams with the most fans tend to be the winning teams? Basically yes. So in this regard, you certainly can judge a team by its fans. But that\u2019s not the only way you should judge a team, because some fans stay put out of loyalty, even if their team hasn\u2019t won a championship in decades. (We\u2019re looking at you, Knicks.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">So, how else should you determine the best teams? More so than following the fans, the best way to find out who will be the team to root for this NBA season is by following the latest commentary, analysis, and statistics online, and getting into the action by guessing the favorites. Whether if it is for point spreads, totals, moneylines, player and team props, or division,\u00a0sites like Foxbet\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbet.com\/basketball\/nba\/\">offer a wide range of options<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">But one thing you <em>can\u2019t<\/em> rely on is judging the best teams by which big-name celebrity is their number one fan. Sure, this applies if a celebrity supports the Lakers or the Raptors, but it certainly doesn\u2019t apply when they support the Knicks. (And there are a lot of celebrities who support the Knicks, as you\u2019ll see below.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">Here are some of the NBA teams with the biggest celebrity fans:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span lang=\"EN-US\">The Los Angeles Lakers<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">Being based in L.A., the Lakers have no shortage of celebrity fans. (Although some do support the Clippers, like actor Billy Crystal.) Two of the biggest celebrity fans of the Lakers are definitely actors Denzel Washington and Jack Nicholson. They have both been longtime supporters of the team and are frequently seen attending the games.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">The Lakers biggest player right now is, without a doubt, LeBron James. For celebrities who tend to follow their favorite stars instead of teams, he is the man to follow. And wherever James goes, Rihanna follows. Rihanna isn\u2019t a strict fan of any one team in the NBA \u2014 her current favorite team is whichever team he currently happens to be playing for.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span lang=\"EN-US\">The Toronto Raptors<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">The Raptors have a <a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/06\/10\/drake-wayne-gretzky-among-the-celebrities-taking-in-game-5-of-the-nba-finals\/\">long list of celebrity fans<\/a>, from all walks of life: musicians, actors, athletes. Perhaps two of the biggest fans are Drake, a Toronto native and world-renowned rapper, singer, and actor; and Wayne Gretzky, arguably the best NHL player of all time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">While Gretzky tends to be a quieter fan, Drake is perhaps one of the most well-known NBA fans in the entire league because of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2019\/may\/30\/drake-toronto-raptors-nba-celebrity-fans-nba-finals\">how involved he is<\/a>. He even has several NBA tattoos. So it\u2019s pretty safe to say that Drake is, by far, the NBA\u2019s biggest fan.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span lang=\"EN-US\">The New York Knicks<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">Many celebrities who call New York City home are fans of the Knicks, like director Woody Allen, comedian Howard Stern, singer Alicia Keys, comedian Jerry Seinfeld, and comedian Jon Stewart. (You might think Jay Z would support the Knicks, but he\u2019s a loyal Brooklyn Nets fan.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">Spike Lee is another well-known Knicks fan. In fact, he\u2019s so passionate about the game that he often can\u2019t keep his comments to himself \u2014 ESPN even focused on him in one of their documentaries over his infamous outburst over Reggie Miller.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">Although certainly not one of the most well-known celebrities on this list, Michael Rapaport, an actor and comedian born and raised in NYC, is a huge fan of the Knicks. He\u2019s not only majorly vocal about his love for the Knicks, but he even directed a film about their 1970 championship win for ESPN (which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-US\">The NBA certainly has no shortage of fans \u2014 celebrities or otherwise.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who are the biggest fans of the NBA? Certainly the greatest number of NBA fans tends to be in the &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":237947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","mauthors-ilan-kaps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237945"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237949,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237945\/revisions\/237949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}