Kobe Bryant beat the Golden State Warriors — on Twitter at least
About 1.1 million people posted more than 4.5 million messages on Twitter about Lakers star Kobe Bryant’s final game Wednesday night, according to tracking firm Nielsen.
That burst of activity placed the spectacle, which saw Bryant lead a comeback victory in the final seconds, somewhere between last year’s Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. boxing match and last week’s college basketball championship.
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The boxers drew almost 6 million tweets, while Villanova vs. North Carolina picked up 1.8 million tweets.
Bryant’s retirement game also topped the final game of Yankees legend Derek Jeter in 2014. “Kobe” was mentioned 4.2 million times on Twitter last night; Jeter received 1.3 million mentions when he retired.
Many of the tweets about Bryant landed in the final minutes of the game, with the number of posts per minute reaching 100,000 at one point.
Twitter chatter about the Jazz vs. Lakers contest, which aired on ESPN 2 nationally, easily topped the ESPN broadcast of what had been presumed to be the night’s marquee matchup: the Grizzlies vs. the Warriors. The Warriors won their 73rd game of the year, setting an NBA record, but the game generated just 625,000 tweets from about 311,000 users, according to Nielsen.
Both games drew huge TV ratings, with the Warriors barely edging out of the Lakers.
Facebook declined to share statistics about the number of discussions involving Bryant, but said at least 10 news agencies or journalists streamed live video related to the game, generating 779,000 views.
Twitter: @peard33
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