In yet another version of the fantastic FanSided 250, a ranking of 250 fandoms across culture, the LA Clippers found themselves near the top.
One of the greatest yearly traditions around here is FanSided 250, when a bunch of really talented people take the time to rank 250 fandoms across all sorts of pop culture. So you’ll see the LA Clippers on there, but you’ll also see TV shows, actors and actresses, etc.
How are these rankings determined? I’ll let the folks who did the work explain it:
"“This year, we’ve adjusted our values as well, placing a greater emphasis on buzz — how hot a fandom was in 2020 — than ever before. Our team took into account our longstanding values of magnitude (a fanbase’s size and scope), legacy (longevity and loyalty of the fanbase) and passion, but buzz was most important. If the fans of a player, team or entertainer have buzz, we see them all over social media, they are inescapable, they dominate every physical and virtual water cooler conversation.”"
So there you go – size, scope, longevity, loyalty, passion and buzz were the main metrics for determining these fanbase rankings.
Enough beating around the bush; you want to know where the LA Clippers rank here. Among all fandoms, not just the NBA, the LA Clippers fandom comes in at number 25 out of 250. That puts us in the same company as K-pop band BTS (#23), Tom Brady (#24) and the Boston Celtics (#29).
Among pro basketball teams, the LA Clippers came in at #5 out of 29 teams who made the top 250. For a team that’s only really seen some sustained level of success in the past decade, being in the top 10 percent or so of fandoms is a point to be proud of!
Looking at the NBA teams ranked higher than us, it’s easy to see a path to pushing our fanbase’s rankings higher. At number 4 in the NBA are the Milwaukee Bucks (#22 overall), number 3 are the Denver Nuggets (#16 overall), number 2 are the Miami Heat (#9 overall), and number 1 are some other NBA team that I guess also play in Los Angeles?
With their longstanding success and generational fanbases, it’s hard to see the LA Clippers, immediately overtaking the other Los Angeles team and the Miami Heat, but the Bucks and Nuggets are beatable. Success and hope for the future breed a passionate fanbase, so a deep playoff run that culminates in a title would send the Clippers screaming up this ranking.
Of course, you can help get the LA Clippers higher in the 2021 ranking! Be sure to follow Clipperholics on Twitter (where we just reached 10,000 followers!) and be sure to follow along here on FanSided.