Cavs’ Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland among the most loved NBA players

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Not only do people in Cleveland seem to love the Cavaliers’ new star guard Donovan Mitchell. But that appears to be the sentiment across the board.

Action Network recently compiled a list of “The Most Hated (And Loved) NBA Players.” The site analyzed data from more than 8.7 million English tweets directed at the top 50 players in CBS’ 2022-2023 season rankings. The analysis spanned the beginning of the 2021-22 season up until September 23, 2022.

Of the players analyzed, Mitchell received the most “love” (or least hate) from fans as the top-50 player with the “lowest negative sentiment.” According to Action Network, just over 24% of tweets directed at Mitchell were negative.

It’s an impressive feat for Mitchell whose number of tweets certainly increased dramatically when he was traded from the Utah Jazz to the Cavs in early September. Cavs point guard Darius Garland also made the top 10, which you can check out below:

Players with the lowest percentage of negative tweets:

Other players weren’t so lucky. The Boston Celtics’ Marcus Smart (41%) and Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green (38%), came in No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, on the list of players with the highest percentages of negative tweets.

Of course, LeBron James had the most total number of negative tweets. Then, again, he had the most tweets directed at him in general with more than 704,000 during the data period.

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