“Big world outside of US”: Richard Jefferson on NBA vs NFL debate, cites 56M followers disparity

NBA legend Richard Jefferson supported X user Mev when the user debunked claims that the league has already been overtaken by the NFL in terms of hype by comparing the number of followers of both leagues' official Instagram pages.

Mev sarcastically tweeted "The NFL is more popular than the NBA" and showed that the top-tier basketball league now has about 84.9 million followers on Instagram, while the American football league only has 28.9 million, a huge difference of around 56 million users.

Richard Jefferson retweeted Mev's counter-argument with the caption:

"There is a big world outside of [the] US. Basketball is a global sport."

NBA vs. NFL: A game of popularity

Based on recent research by Nielsen, at least 200 million television viewers watched the 2012 NFL regular season.

During the fall season of that year, 31 of the 32 most-watched games were NFL games, and during the entire 17 weeks of the regular season, one game from each week made it to number one for a specific day.

Super Bowl 48 eventually became the most-watched program in US television history when an estimated 167 million fans witnessed the Seattle Seahawks dominate the Denver Broncos to win the NFL championship with a mini-concert from Bruno Mars as intermission.

In recent years, the NFL has played games outside of the United States, with London, the home of British rugby football, hosting one American football game since 2013.

Meanwhile, the NBA is believed to have grown in popularity tremendously during the 1992–1993 season, following the dominance of an All-Star team known as "The Dream Team" at the Barcelona Olympics en route to men's basketball gold.

Since then, the league has gradually attracted global attention, and it has begun inviting foreign media to cover its national finals and later the All-Star Game.

As technology advances over the years, access to the league has become easier for the global audience, all the more when they allow non-Americans to participate in the All-Star balloting.

The Philippines, currently with two players tracing its roots in the said country, is among the countries outside the US where the league is very popular.

According to Google Philippines, eight of the most searched sports topics in the Philippines this year were NBA-related, with "Lakers vs. Warriors" topping the list.

In conclusion, while the NFL might be ruling US sports domestically, the NBA has gained more prominence globally to make its claim in terms of popularity.