LeBron, Durant, Giannis among world's most publicized sports stars / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: USA TODAY Sports-Scanpix Credit USA TODAY Sports-Scanpix

Sports stars are undoubtedly at the forefront of the public eye. Their performances and achievements in their respective sports are well-publicized, especially since the rapid rise of the internet and social media. NBA players get a lot of attention from the media, focusing on both their on-court and off-court action.

LeBron James

Position:SFAge:36Height:203 cmWeight:113 kgBirth place:Akron, United States of AmericaProfileNewsStatistics

GolfSupport.com analyzed the latest data from online analytics tool Buzzsumo to establish which currently active sports stars in the world have been the most publicized online in the past year (July 2020 – June 2021).

While Lionel Messi - quite predictably - proved to be by far the most "exposed" sports star online, with an estimated 490,632 online articles written about him in the past 12 months, basketball star LeBron James came in the second place. The Lakers forward had approximately 216,268 online articles published about him over a one-year span.

Kevin Durant is the next basketball star to occupy a place on the list (No. 9), with 88,086 pieces devoted to him. Giannis Antetokounmpo didn't make the TOP 10 but sneaked among the first 15 most-publicized athletes with 34,229 articles. The TOP 20 list also features Russell Westbrook at No. 17 and Stephen Curry at No. 19.

Credit USA TODAY Sports-Scanpix

Overall, 5 basketball players made a list, which also includes football players Neymar Jr. (171,406), Cristiano Ronaldo (145,042), and American football legend Tom Brady (140,153). Interestingly, Naomi Osaka is the highest-ranked female (No. 8), with approximately 93,637 online articles published about the young tennis sensation between July 2020 and June 2021.

The numbers of online articles published for each sports star on the list are the estimates/approximates and only account for online articles worldwide.

The Most Publicised Sports Stars in the World!

Rank

Sports Star

Sports

Number of Online Articles Published About Sports Star (July 2020 - June 2021)

1.

Lionel Messi

Football

490,632

2.

LeBron James

Basketball

216,268

3.

Neymar Jr.

Football

171,406

4.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Football

145,042

5.

Tom Brady

American Football

140,153

6.

Virat Kohli

Cricket

127,797

7.

Conor McGregor

Mixed Martial Arts

105,880

8.

Naomi Osaka

Tennis

93,637

9.

Kevin Durant

Basketball

88,086

10.

Roger Federer

Tennis

75,823

11.

Khabib Nurmagomedov

Mixed Martial Arts

55,433

12.

Patrick Mahomes

American Football

45,126

13.

Lewis Hamilton

Formula 1

39,924

14.

Giannis Antetokounmpo

Basketball

34,229

15.

Serena Williams

Tennis

27,924

16.

Tyson Fury

Boxing

22,679

17.

Russell Westbrook

Basketball

20,631

18.

Anthony Joshua

Boxing

18,574

19.

Stephen Curry

Basketball

16,523

20.

Phil Mickelson

Golf

14,121

In terms of methodology, GolfSupport.com identified from reputable sources such as Forbes the biggest names/players from a range of sports that included football, tennis, cricket, golf, Formula 1, boxing, mixed martial arts, and more. Once a comprehensive list of sports stars was drawn up, each star’s name was inserted into the Buzzsumo database to identify how many articles were published online about that respective person.

July 2020 to June 2021 time frame was used because it represented a 12-month period for conclusive analysis, and June 2021 was the last available month for the latest data published by Buzzsumo. Once the number of online articles published (from July 2020 to June 2021) for each sports star was established, they were ranked from highest to lowest based on the number of online articles published, with the top 20 sports stars included in the final presented results/data table.

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