In April, Elon Musk stated he would “die trying” in the fight to eradicate Twitter from spam accounts. With Musk’s recent acquisition of Twitter, there has been continuing news surrounding the plans, but how could this effect the teams and players in the NBA’s Twitter followings?
Using SparkToro’s fake follower audit, the guys at Gambling.com have ranked which NBA Teams could be worst hit:
Los Angeles Lakers Set to Take the Biggest Hit on Twitter
It’s no surprise that they have a massive social media following considering their majorly successful history, but the Los Angeles Lakers are the ones who are set to be the most affected by Musk’s crack down on fake accounts, with 4.9 million of their 11.2 million followers estimated to be fake.
The Golden State Warriors and the Chicago Bulls could also be massively affected by Musk’s plans, with the two franchises each having an estimated 23.6 million and 2.0 million fake followers on Twitter, respectively.
The table below ranks all NBA teams in order of the number of followers potentially lost:
| # | Teams | Number of Followers (Twitter) | Percentage of Fake Followers | Fake Follower Number |
| 1 | Los Angeles Lakers | 11,168,725 | 43.5% | 4,858,395 |
| 2 | Golden State Warriors | 8,012,942 | 45.3% | 3,629,863 |
| 3 | Chicago Bulls | 4,721,589 | 41.4% | 1,954,738 |
| 4 | Miami Heat | 5,047,765 | 37.5% | 1,892,912 |
| 5 | Boston Celtics | 4,042,818 | 40.7% | 1,645,427 |
| 6 | San Antonio Spurs | 3,522,767 | 41.6% | 1,465,471 |
| 7 | Cleveland Cavaliers | 3,329,026 | 41.2% | 1,371,559 |
| 8 | Houston Rockets | 3,244,142 | 38.7% | 1,255,483 |
| 9 | Oklahoma City Thunder | 2,821,775 | 41.4% | 1,168,215 |
| 10 | Toronto Raptors | 2,575,814 | 40.9% | 1,053,508 |
| 11 | Philadelphia 76ers | 2,262,284 | 42.6% | 963,733 |
| 12 | New York Knicks | 2,445,679 | 35.1% | 858,433 |
| 13 | Dallas Mavericks | 2,160,741 | 36.6% | 790,831 |
| 14 | Los Angeles Clippers | 1,952,472 | 38.9% | 759,512 |
| 15 | Milwaukee Bucks | 1,915,883 | 39.6% | 758,690 |
| 16 | Brooklyn Nets | 1,915,369 | 37.5% | 718,263 |
| 17 | Phoenix Suns | 1,607,801 | 42.1% | 676,884 |
| 18 | Portland Trail Blazers | 1,530,122 | 43.8% | 670,193 |
| 19 | Orlando Magic | 1,602,737 | 39.4% | 631,478 |
| 20 | Atlanta Hawks | 1,540,252 | 39.0% | 600,698 |
| 21 | Indiana Pacers | 1,410,302 | 41.3% | 582,455 |
| 22 | Memphis Grizzlies | 1,509,872 | 37.2% | 561,672 |
| 23 | Washington Wizards | 1,249,316 | 42.6% | 532,209 |
| 24 | Utah Jazz | 1,240,423 | 42.0% | 520,978 |
| 25 | Denver Nuggets | 1,318,500 | 39.2% | 516,852 |
| 26 | Minnesota Timberwolves | 1,218,652 | 41.3% | 503,303 |
| 27 | New Orleans Pelicans | 1,329,038 | 36.9% | 490,415 |
| 28 | Charlotte Hornets | 1,187,752 | 38.9% | 462,036 |
| 29 | Sacramento Kings | 1,215,572 | 38.0% | 461,917 |
| 30 | Detroit Pistons | 1,101,178 | 36.6% | 403,031 |
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