2025-26 · Season

Season

From the first play-in night on Apr 14 to the last night of the Finals, comments about players never cooled to their regular-season level of 35.2% negative. The single most negative night of the season still came in February.

Negative share
Positive share
Each night, sized by its comments
Regular-season level

Lines: the 7 nights around each night

Method

Every comment about a tracked player, 1,787,520 of them. A night runs 6 am to 6 am Eastern, so a late West Coast game stays on its own date. Each point on a line is the 7 nights around it with all their comments added up, then the share taken, so the season's loudest night (30,664 comments on Jun 13) counts for more than a quiet Tuesday. Rates are never averaged. Over the whole season the negative share is 37.4%, the leaderboard's own figure. The All-Star Game is not in the game log, so Feb 15 counts as a night with no game.

The turn came with the games

On a playoff night with no game, r/NBA was about as negative as on an ordinary regular-season night. The rise came on game nights.

Regular season32.335.3

Playoffs35.541.3

Finals34.443.6

Game nights
Nights with no game (10 · 8 · 6)
Regular season, all nights

The rooms · regular season vs. playoffs

Where did the playoffs turn negative?

In the playoffs, comments about players went from 35.2% to 41.0% negative. About a third of that is game threads taking over the conversation; the rest is nearly every big room getting more negative.

35.2 → 41.0% negative, regular season → playoffs892,175 and 756,594 comments about players under a post whose room is known.

+1.9 of the 5.8 ptsBecause the crowd movedInto harsher rooms: game threads went from 14% of the comments to 40%. Each room held at its regular-season tone.

+3.9 of the 5.8 ptsBecause each room got harsherEvery big room got more negative except news. The crowd held at its regular-season spread.

Where people talked, week by week

Comments about players

How each room talked

Bar length is the room's share of the comments, regular season (RS) against playoffs (PO). In most rooms the positive share barely moves between the two; the playoffs took neutral talk and made it negative.

Game threads14% → 40% of commentsRSPO39.430.146.125.3

Post-game threads6% → 5% of commentsRSPO33.933.239.031.7

Daily chat thread0.05% → 2% of commentsRSPO32.829.147.824.1

Front page46% → 36% of commentsRSPO33.026.436.324.6

Highlights14% → 8% of commentsRSPO36.128.139.225.8

News17% → 8% of commentsRSPO36.918.235.619.8

Everything else1.1% → 1.5% of commentsRSPO41.917.047.615.4

Every room, the whole season

Every room over the whole season: comments, share, the split, and the negative share regular season against playoffs
Room	Comments	Share	% neg	% neu	% pos	% neg, RS → PO
Front page	760,466	42.6%	34.1	40.4	25.5	33.0 → 36.3
Game threads	433,645	24.3%	44.0	29.2	26.7	39.4 → 46.1
News	260,983	14.6%	36.1	45.4	18.5	36.9 → 35.6
Highlights	197,743	11.1%	36.8	35.7	27.5	36.1 → 39.2
Post-game threads	93,012	5.2%	35.8	31.6	32.6	33.9 → 39.0
Daily chat thread	18,151	1.0%	47.4	28.3	24.3	32.8 → 47.8
Lowlights	12,442	0.7%	47.1	36.6	16.2	47.1 → 47.4
Injury posts	6,195	0.3%	46.1	40.5	13.5	40.0 → 50.9
Discussion posts	2,760	0.2%	30.7	47.0	22.3	29.3 → 34.7

Nearly every player is talked about more harshly in the game thread than on the front page: 56 of the 67 at the official minimum, by a median of 8 points. The exceptions are players whose season was a story more than a schedule: Damian Lillard, Kyrie Irving, Bronny James, Zion Williamson, Kawhi Leonard and Ja Morant.

Method

A room is the kind of post a comment was written under; 1,785,397 of the 1,787,520 comments sit under a post whose room is known. The split holds each room's tone at its regular-season level and moves only the crowd (+1.9), then holds the crowd and moves the tone (+3.9); the two add up to the rise exactly. Weeks start Monday; a week counts as playoffs when most of its nights fall on or after the first play-in night, the Finals included. Lowlights, injury and discussion posts are folded into Everything else in the charts; the table lists every room. The player comparison counts a room only when it holds at least 200 comments about that player.

Season arcs · how r/NBA's view of a player moved, his first 8 weeks vs. his last 8

Redemptions and heel turns

Cooper Flagg won r/NBA over more than anyone: his net sentiment went from 15 points negative in his first 8 weeks to 12 positive in his last 8, among the 44 players measured. Alperen Sengun fell the furthest, 50 points, and his last 8 weeks ended in the first round.

First 8 regular-season weeks
Last 8 weeks he played, coloured by net sentiment

Rose the most

−50−40−30−20−100+10+20+30+40

Cooper FlaggDAL · Season end · to Apr 12Rose through the regular season−15 → +1235 → 23 · 21 → 35 Kawhi LeonardLAC · Play-in · to Apr 15Turned in January, slipped back in the playoffs−34 → −1148 → 36 · 14 → 25 Rudy GobertMIN · Second round · to May 15Rose all season−28 → −848 → 40 · 20 → 31 Bronny JamesLAL · Second round · to May 9Turned in the playoffs−25 → −1243 → 35 · 18 → 23 Karl-Anthony TownsNYK · Finals run · to Jun 13Turned in the playoffs−16 → −337 → 36 · 21 → 33 Zion WilliamsonNOP · Cut short · to Apr 5Rose through the regular season−29 → −2145 → 40 · 16 → 19

Fell the most

−50−40−30−20−100+10+20+30+40

Alperen SengunHOU · First round · to May 1Turned in February, held through the playoffs+5 → −4534 → 59 · 39 → 15 Austin ReavesLAL · Second round · to May 11Turned in the playoffs+8 → −3930 → 53 · 38 → 15 Chet HolmgrenOKC · Conference finals · to May 30Turned in the playoffs−1 → −4233 → 58 · 32 → 16 Victor WembanyamaSAS · Finals run · to Jun 13Turned in the playoffs+29 → −518 → 35 · 47 → 29 Stephon CastleSAS · Finals run · to Jun 13Turned in the playoffs+10 → −2327 → 44 · 37 → 21 Tyrese MaxeyPHI · Second round · to May 10Turned in the playoffs+35 → +218 → 36 · 53 → 37

Barely moved: Desmond Bane (−15 → −14), Russell Westbrook (−27 → −25), Luka Doncic (−18 → −16), Stephen Curry (+6 → +4), Paolo Banchero (−26 → −23) and Joel Embiid (−25 → −27).

Method

Net sentiment is the positive share minus the negative share. Each player's first 8 regular-season weeks are set against the 8 weeks ending at his last game played, so a Finals run, an April exit and a season cut short by injury are measured by one rule. Each window needs 1,000 comments, and the two may not overlap; 44 of the 67 players at the official minimum of 5,000 comments clear both. The line under each row reads the arc at three points, early, the last 8 regular-season weeks and the playoffs, and names where it moved. Net sentiment alone can hide a split room, so both shares sit beside it.

Game threads · by comments about players

The loudest game threads

In the playoffs

1
SAS 122 @ OKC 115West Finals · Game 1 · May 18Recap
18,121 about players, of 53,003 in the thread
34.5%25.4%40.1%
Mostly about Victor Wembanyama, 19.6% negative on 6,783. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander 57.0% negative on 2,846.
2
NYK 94 @ SAS 90NBA Finals · Game 5 · Jun 13Recap
18,120 about players, of 56,307 in the thread
51.7%26.3%22.0%
Mostly about De'Aaron Fox, 70.3% negative on 5,007.
3
SAS 106 @ NYK 107NBA Finals · Game 4 · Jun 10Recap
16,459 about players, of 73,619 in the thread
49.0%27.8%23.2%
Mostly about Victor Wembanyama, 44.6% negative on 4,614. De'Aaron Fox 75.8% negative on 2,656.
4
SAS 111 @ OKC 103West Finals · Game 7 · May 30Recap
15,815 about players, of 51,944 in the thread
46.2%26.4%27.4%
Mostly about Victor Wembanyama, 32.4% negative on 3,776. Chet Holmgren 72.3% negative on 2,515.
5
NYK 105 @ SAS 104NBA Finals · Game 2 · Jun 5Recap
15,329 about players, of 54,897 in the thread
46.4%27.2%26.4%
Mostly about Victor Wembanyama, 54.4% negative on 5,474.

Regular season

1
HOU 124 @ OKC 125Opening night · Oct 21Recap
6,708 about players, of 20,023 in the thread
42.7%30.1%27.3%
Mostly about Kevin Durant, 47.8% negative on 1,449. Reed Sheppard 68.4% negative on 732.
2
SAS 111 @ OKC 109Regular season · Dec 13
4,346 about players, of 14,989 in the thread
32.2%31.2%36.7%
Mostly about Victor Wembanyama, 19.8% negative on 1,781.
3
GSW 119 @ LAL 109Opening night · Oct 21
2,827 about players, of 6,775 in the thread
48.6%28.8%22.6%
Mostly about Luka Doncic, 42.3% negative on 710. Deandre Ayton 71.7% negative on 530.
4
DEN 121 @ OKC 127Regular season · Feb 27
2,596 about players, of 7,202 in the thread
50.1%25.8%24.0%
Mostly about Nikola Jokic, 55.3% negative on 832. Lu Dort 71.1% negative on 502.
5
NYK 124 @ SAS 113NBA Cup final · Dec 16
2,508 about players, of 8,936 in the thread
33.8%31.3%34.9%
Mostly about Victor Wembanyama, 38.8% negative on 886.

Method

A game's threads are its game thread and its post-game thread together. The first figure counts the comments in them about a tracked player, not every comment in the thread, and the bars are drawn from those on one scale across both lists; the second is every comment Reddit counts in the same threads. The play-in counts with the playoffs. A second name appears when a player with at least 500 comments in the thread ran 20 or more points harsher than the thread.

The nights

Rose the most

Fell the most

In the playoffs

Regular season