Twitter built a fascinating interactive data map for NBA fans

 By 
Sam Laird
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The Jazz absolutely own Utah, the Golden State Warriors run the Bay Area and the Toronto Raptors have a stranglehold over most of Canada.

But the Los Angeles Lakers -- mired in a laughably bad season -- still dominate the NBA when it comes to fandom, according to a fascinating interactive data map released by Twitter Wednesday morning.

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Much like the NFL fandom map it released in October, Twitter's latest offering lets you analyze the locations where NBA teams attract followers, while sorting by franchise and location. You can play around with the embedded map, below, or check out the full shebang on Twitter's website.

Here are a few of the more interesting takeaways we noticed:

Love them or hate them, the Lakers truly are the NBA's signature franchise. The sheer volume of counties in which they dominate is pretty staggering, penetrating every corner of the United States -- and even Canada.

Portland, Phoenix, Utah, Denver, Minnesota, Chicago, Indiana, Cleveland and New York all dominate their home states more than most teams. Aside from the Knicks, which share their state with the Brooklyn Nets, those teams all benefit from being the only team around. But they don't draw a whole of lot of support away from home.

The Seattle Supersonics were famously bought in 2006 by an Oklahoma City billionaire who then promptly moved the team (which featured a budding star named Kevin Durant) to his hometown, and renamed it the Thunder. It's considered one of the great tragedies in NBA fandom history, and many former Supersonics supporters remain heartbroken to this day. Unsurprisingly, the Thunder don't get much support in Washington, claiming a grand total of zero counties in the Evergreen State.

Have fun nerding out with Twitter's new map, NBA fans. Meanwhile, here are a bunch of poor saps getting dunked on:

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