The Miami Heat is Defeated On and Off the Basketball Court

Gina Carriazo, Miami

Miami was gripped with the excitement of the Miami Heat’s NBA Season, the play-offs and most of all with the Finals. Then, we were filled with disappointment. Our team had it all and somehow managed to let the championship slip away. The Mavericks stunned us with their superior performance and we watched them celebrate in our court on a well-deserved win.

In retrospect, we probably expected too much from a young team who played together for the first time. James and the entire Miami Heat organization said they learned a lot from this Season; and as communicators there is a lot to learn as well. After all, the Miami Heat and its players became the villains of the NBA and Lebron James reaffirmed his title as the most hated man in sports due to their behavior as an organization and in great part thanks to the power of the mainstream media and the online behavior of consumers.

From the Decision to the Celebration to the Finals, the media covered the Miami Heat in a less-than-favorable light and sports fans all over the country (and even the world) flocked to social media to express their disdain for the team and its players – specifically Lebron James.

During the Finals, negative media coverage sky-rocketed and consumer sentiment spiked on across social networks. The combination of these two factors left the team and James with a tarnished reputation in the country (mostly among basketball fans).

The graph below and the news and related blog posts demonstrate the just how relevant Lebron was online and the negative sentiment of the posts.

Here are just a few examples of the sentiment on social networks.

• On You Tube: Video of Wade and James mocking Nowitzi, reaches more than 500,000 views and is covered by mainstream media portraying them as childish and arrogant

• Ohio fans take to Twitter to support the Mavericks with a message of stopping the Heat. The Twitter handle gained 6,000 followers in less than a couple of weeks.  The Miami Herald reported, “Meanwhile, on Tuesday, a LeBron hater who goes by the name Cleveland Todd started a CavsforMavs Twitter account. By Thursday, he had 2,277 followers, including some from Australia, Colombia, England, and one who wrote: “Hey Man! LeBron hate from halfway around the world in India!”

•  The Facebook page has more than 13,000 followers

• LeBron James parody account reaches more than 31,000 followers

The Miami Heat and James are without a doubt the most scrutinized members of the NBA and an example of how in today’s digital age, sports teams need to win on and off the court. The Miami Heat received absolutely no credit for making it to the Finals in just one year; instead their loss was celebrated by thousands. Without a doubt, the Miami Heat and its players were defeated in the court of public opinion by the thousands of consumers (basketball die-hard fans and not) who took their passion for the game online.