With LeBron James signing with the Philadelphia 76ers, expect to see more Sixers games on national TV and an increase in Sixers merch sales next season.
Even at 41, James remains the top draw as the NBA’s favorite player. His teams have received a boost in popularity every time he’s moved as well. When we dig deeper into the data from Sports Poll, we see that fan base gains for his teams have mostly come from LeBron’s own fans.
Sports Poll has been tracking NBA fans’ favorite active players since 1994.
Among LeBron James “fans” (people who name James as their favorite player), the popularity of his teams has risen and fallen with his moves. The Sixers will be the fifth different stop of his career (including two stints with Cleveland). After each signing, his new team received a significant bump because of the migration of LeBron’s fans.
If the pattern holds, expect many of LeBron’s fans to follow him to Philadelphia and drive an increase in the Sixers’ fan base for next season.
Just don’t expect to see a bump in Sixers’ fandom from outside the James fan base. As LeBron’s career winds down, one of the biggest questions is what will happen to his fan base when he retires. Some may stick with the Sixers (assuming this is his final team), but history suggests that most won’t. Some may adopt another star. The biggest concern is that other fans will simply lose interest and engage less with the NBA. Because LeBron moved from team to team, his fans don’t necessarily have strong connections to a team like Stephen Curry fans have with the Warriors or Kobe Bryant fans did with the Lakers. This makes LeBron’s fans more susceptible to becoming lapsed fans once he retires.
