The Philadelphia 76ers just gave star big man Joel Embiid, undoubtedly one of the most talented players in the league, a massive four-year extension. That's a good thing, of course. But it also means that the team's success for the foreseeable future (as of now) depends on Embiid staying healthy and well-rested, which isn't always a given. This, then, comes with some stress. You know what I mean if you happened to be paying attention down the stretch of the 2021 regular season, when he hyperextended his knee, or in the playoffs, when he played through a meniscus tear.
Listen to sports talk now on Audacy and shop the latest NBA team gear
And somehow, all these fans' worries about Embiid completely pale in comparison to the general concern regarding the Ben Simmons situation and what the heck is going to happen there.
Related
Don't get me wrong. There's a lot to be excited about in the world of Philadelphia basketball. But it's typically not a smooth-sailing ride through a season, or a postseason, or an offseason, and all of that is at a pretty high level right now. So it doesn't come as all that much of a surprise when BetUS tells us that the 76ers fan base is worried about their team during games more than that of any other organization in the league (h/t Cassie McGrath of MassLive.com).
How was this data obtained? Like so many others, through social media, where 100,000 tweets and forums (like Reddit) were pulled and analyzed for certain keywords using a tool called TensiStrength.
"TensiStrength is a system that detects the strength of stress and relaxation expressed in text," the website reads. "It uses a lexical approach and a set of rules to detect direct as well as indirect expressions of stress or relaxation in order to allocated a score. The percentage is the number of stressed words according to our total database."
According to the table, the 76ers' percentage was 29, while the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers were tied for second at 27. Rounding out the top five were the Heat and Clippers, making Cleveland the odd team out in terms of playoff contention in 2020. Still, it makes sense as to why fans would be stressed, as it's been just a little while since the Cavaliers have truly been an exciting basketball town. In the past three seasons, they've gone 60-159 — yikes — and the hope is that draft pick Evan Mobley can spur some serious change.
At the bottom of the list is the Bulls fan base, which is also fairly surprising, seeing as Chicago hasn't posted a winning season since 2015-16 and made some big moves in an attempt to get back to relevance in 2021-22. But hey, once you've lived through an era like the Jordan-Pippen Bulls, you're probably content knowing your team — or any team, for that matter — will never be able to reach those highs again.
Check out the rest of the list for data on NFL, MLB and NHL teams.
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy Sports
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram