Sentiment · 2026-27

League sentiment board

How fans and media talk about players and teams. The two are shown side by side, never merged into one number.

Data as of Oct 7, 2026Headlines· Oct 71,719 headlinesFans· Oct 734,845 fan postsCurated· Aug 22prototype values, not measured

A language model rates the tone of headlines, fan posts and comments toward the players they name. Team scores and fan posts from before the model still use a word list, so read those as rough.

Sources and method

Headlines· Oct 7Media lanes. 1,719 NBA headlines from 23 publishers, Jul 24 to Oct 7. A player needs 3 headlines in the last 7 days to get a score. A language model rates each headline as positive, neutral or negative toward each player it names. Checked against 127 labeled headlines, it matched the label about 7 times in 10 and never rated one the opposite way. Players named only in the summary, and team scores, still use a word list. 72% of this week's player mentions have a model rating.
Fans· Oct 7Fan lanes. 34,845 fan posts: 1,363 headlines from 30 team fan blogs, 2,260 social posts and 31,222 video comments, Jun 25 to Oct 7. A player or team needs 5 posts in the last 7 days to get a score. Comments under the same video share weight, so 100 comments on one video count for less than 100 posts spread across many places. Fan blog headlines get the same model rating as news headlines. Social posts and video comments that name a player are rated by the same model when they are collected, up to a nightly limit. Checked against 143 labeled fan posts, it matched the label about 3 times in 4 and rated 2 the opposite way. The word list matched about half and rated 18 the opposite way. Older posts, posts past the nightly limit and team scores keep the word list. 30% of this week's player mentions in posts and comments have a model rating.
Curated· Aug 22Hand-written prototype values dated Aug 22, 2026. They show how the board works and are not measurements.

How often the tone rating matches a hand labelSame as the labelOne step offOpposite side

News headlines 63 headlines

Language model

71% match0 opposite.

Word list

52% match2 opposite.

Social posts 72 posts

Language model

76% match0 opposite.

Word list

44% match6 opposite.

Video comments 71 comments

Language model

72% match2 opposite.

Word list

54% match12 opposite.

A coding agent labeled each one positive, neutral or negative toward one named player, not a human panel. One step off means a neutral rating where the label picked a side, or the reverse. The headline set leaves out the half used to tune the word list.

Fan and media tone are kept separate from performance metrics and Movement Center evidence. The privacy page lists what is kept from each source.

League mood · 7d

50% is neutral. The thick line is a 3-day average once there are enough days.

Fan mood

Fans· Oct 7

57% · 28,359 posts

Media mood

Headlines· Oct 7

56% · 1,203 headlines

Fan vs media gaps

Last 7 days · Oct 1 to Oct 7

Where fans and outlets disagree most this week. Open a player to see what each side talks about.

FansMediaTrack runs 0% to 100% positive, 50% in the middle

Scoot Henderson62%vs13%Fans +50 pts
Fans talk about
training
camp
day
6 fan posts, Oct 1 to Oct 5. Words from 1 fan blog headlines.
Media writes about
extension
unlikely
trade
receive
earn
offers
pour
rumors
portland
deadline
stance
hint
contract
bad
news
major
decision
future
4 headlines, Oct 6 to Oct 7. Words from 4 headlines.
Bigger words show up in more headlines. Fan words come from fan blog headlines only, because social posts are scored but their text is not kept.
Player sentiment
Tobias Harris54%vs14%Fans +40 pts
Fans talk about
preseason
calf
strain
questionable
season
opener
open
thread
trained
george
gervin
28 fan posts, Sep 30 to Oct 6. Words from 2 fan blog headlines.
Media writes about
injury
preseason
calf
strain
season
update
miss
questionable
mitch
johnson
cryptic
hints
start
worrying
forward
sidelined
entire
hit
bad
news
biggest
offseason
pickup
left
8 headlines, Oct 4 to Oct 6. Words from 8 headlines.
Bigger words show up in more headlines. Fan words come from fan blog headlines only, because social posts are scored but their text is not kept.
Player sentiment
Ariel Hukporti47%vs8%Fans +40 pts
Fans talk about
injury
achilles
brown
knicks
add
backup
center
miss
torn
jaylen
scoring
burst
needed
positive
moment
leaves
game
apparent
leg
edgecombe
dominant
looms
preseason
win
73 fan posts, Oct 1 to Oct 7. Words from 5 fan blog headlines.
Media writes about
injury
achilles
preseason
suffers
center
leg
opener
right
knicks
season
non-contact
torn
ex-knick
tearing
embiid
leaves
scary
season-ending
lebron
update
news
joel
backup
tendon
33 headlines, Oct 4 to Oct 7. Words from 33 headlines.
Bigger words show up in more headlines. Fan words come from fan blog headlines only, because social posts are scored but their text is not kept.
Player sentiment
Dillon Brooks48%vs10%Fans +38 pts
Fans talk about
meet
jordan
ott
coaching
staff
rockets
player
previews
fred
vanvleet
112 fan posts, Oct 1 to Oct 7. Words from 2 fan blog headlines.
Media writes about
preseason
charged
dui
arrest
march
john
collins
opener
pistons
minutes
star
grabs
choked
heated
altercation
stemming
15 headlines, Sep 30 to Oct 6. Words from 15 headlines.
Bigger words show up in more headlines. Fan words come from fan blog headlines only, because social posts are scored but their text is not kept.
Player sentiment
RJ Barrett60%vs26%Fans +34 pts
Fans talk about
role debate
contract
extension
scoring
training camp
mvp case
defense
injury return
trade rumors
17 fan posts, Oct 1 to Oct 6. Topic tags, since none were headlines.
Media writes about
heat
extension
talks
important
scottie
barnes
injury
news
24-point
loss
drop
first
preseason
game
substantive
engaged
serious
4 headlines, Sep 30 to Oct 5. Words from 4 headlines.
Bigger words show up in more headlines. Fan words come from fan blog headlines only, because social posts are scored but their text is not kept.
Player sentiment
Donovan Mitchell52%vs84%Fans −32 pts
Fans talk about
defense
scoring
role debate
19 fan posts, Oct 1 to Oct 7. Topic tags, since none were headlines.
Media writes about
adidas
signs
multiyear
extension
deal
teammate
reveals
feels
cleveland
star
joins
lebron
james
stephen
curry
multi-million
5 headlines, Oct 1 to Oct 3. Words from 5 headlines.
Bigger words show up in more headlines. Fan words come from fan blog headlines only, because social posts are scored but their text is not kept.
Player sentiment
Julius Randle54%vs86%Fans −32 pts
Fans talk about
brooklyn
need
63 fan posts, Sep 30 to Oct 7. Words from 1 fan blog headlines.
Media writes about
michael
porter
lead
dominant
preseason-opening
win
coach
amazing
job
egor
demin
mikel
brown
ready
challenge
fantasy
basketball
points
league
draft
strategy
targets
fades
true
6 headlines, Oct 1 to Oct 7. Words from 6 headlines.
Bigger words show up in more headlines. Fan words come from fan blog headlines only, because social posts are scored but their text is not kept.
Player sentiment
John Collins57%vs25%Fans +32 pts
Fans talk about
training camp
role debate
scoring
defense
contract
trade rumors
title odds
31 fan posts, Sep 30 to Oct 6. Topic tags, since none were headlines.
Media writes about
dillon
brooks
preseason
grabs
opener
immediately
big
mad
throat
mere
minutes
pistons-suns
neck
heated
exchange
suns
involved
dustup
suns-pistons
game
4 headlines on Oct 6. Words from 4 headlines.
Bigger words show up in more headlines. Fan words come from fan blog headlines only, because social posts are scored but their text is not kept.
Player sentiment

How this works

The two lanes are never blended into one score. Both sides here cover the same 7 days, and a gap is only shown when both are measured. A side with only a few mentions can swing a lot, so check the counts when you open a player.

Headline tone

Headlines· Oct 7

Warmest and coolest coverage in the last 7 days, among players with 3+ headlines. Score · headline count.

Warmest

Coolest

Topic heat

Headlines

What outlets wrote about in the last 7 days. Pick a topic to filter players.

training camp27% · 409 headlines · 135 players
contract19% · 288 headlines · 101 players
role debate10% · 156 headlines · 92 players
trade rumors9% · 140 headlines · 84 players
availability9% · 131 headlines · 52 players
scoring6% · 84 headlines · 61 players
extension5% · 78 headlines · 38 players
defense5% · 72 headlines · 51 players

How this works

Share of keyword topic tags across NBA headlines from the last 7 days, not all discussion.

NarrativesCurated· Aug 223 hand-picked storylines, including who fans call overrated. Not measured from this week's posts.

Overrated player

Curated· Aug 22

rising · 14,200 mentions

Fan threads labeling a star as over-ranked, over-paid, or inflated by team record relative to two-way impact.

Trae Young
22% of narrative
Fan 33%
Media 53%
Playoff exit threads revived empty-stats framing; All-NBA snub debate.
Devin Booker
18% of narrative
Fan 39%
Media 59%
First-round loss amplified fair-weather criticism despite scoring volume.
Karl-Anthony Towns
15% of narrative
Fan 36%
Media 48%
Defense-first narratives resurfaced after NYK playoff expectations.
Luka Doncic
12% of narrative
Fan 46%
Media 56%
Availability monitoring kept him in overrated discourse despite Lakers hype.

MVP case

Curated· Aug 22

rising · 9,800 mentions

Positive fan volume arguing a player should lead MVP ballots.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
41% of narrative
Fan 71%
Media 78%
Extension news reinforced best-player-in-the-world framing.
Nikola Jokic
24% of narrative
Fan 66%
Media 69%
Steady media praise; fan volume split with SGA.

Trade speculation

Curated· Aug 22

stable · 11,200 mentions

Unresolved movement language in fan spaces. These are not official transactions.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
41% of narrative
Fan 44%
Media 52%
Hypothetical trade-package threads spiked despite OKC extension reporting.
Luka Doncic
28% of narrative
Fan 46%
Media 56%
Availability monitoring keeps Lakers star in unresolved movement language.

More detail: every player, all 30 teams, and the latest headlines.