It barely gets any British news coverage then how do NBA topics trend quite high on Twitter in the UK? Is it really popular over here?

Edited December 25, 20213 yr by zenon

I'm not sure - from my own social group I'm not sure I know many people (if any) who are openly into NBA although that's quite a small sample size! I suppose maybe American emigrants would bump up the number of people discussing it over here.

The issue is the timezones.

 

There's a reasonably large casual fans of NBA segment in the UK but games on middle of the night here, one of my favourite things about being nightshifted I'd knowing I can watch NBA on days off.

 

I think we view it the same way certain Asian nations view the PL - were interested but watching it's just not practical.

 

The fact the UKs own basketball league is a laughing stock probably helps divert British Basketball fans to the NBA too

Edited December 26, 20213 yr by ChristmasFridays

It's popular here to some quarters, but barely with the mainstream. It's why it appeals a lot better to the Twitter demographic. 15-20 years ago NFL was barely talked about here, but through the NFL growing the franchise here they have spotted the opportunity. If the NBA played games as somewhere like the 02 Arena, they'd sell like hot cakes. Helps a lot that our basketll league is tosh, but it's like all American sports that are fairly popular (Baseball, Ice Hockey) they just need a platform to grow.

If I'm being honest I didn't even realise we had a basketball league over here! Of course it's perfectly plausible that we do but the fact it gets very little media coverage to the point I've never heard of it can't be the best way to promote it. (If the UK league really is as bad as you say then I can imagine that's why)

 

I remember playing basketball in PE but it never interested me enough to look at the NBA or its British equivalent, in recent years it's just been one of the 'American sports' in my mind alongside baseball and American football. I'd certainly be interested to hear from people who actively support it though!

Ask people to name a British basketball player and I would guess that most people would struggle to name a single one. Ask them to name any basketball player and the response would be little better. I could name Meadowlark Lemon (who died in 2015) and that's about it.

I would say NFL is growing more here as it’s seems to become hip to support a team over the past decade.

 

I actively dislike American sports though they are all commercial and have no soul and they are just crap games to be honest!

That seems a bit harsh Steve! Although to be fair I've never really watched any American sports fully (the closest I get to it is the Olympics) so can't contest the opinion.

 

Looking into the British Basketball League, it seems that the most prolific players over here have still mostly been Americans which I suppose takes away the enthusiasm of cheering for a local star.