The 2025 NBA conference finalists—the Oklahoma City Thunder, Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers—are an atypical group of contenders. Only one (the Thunder) is a No. 1 or No. 2 seed, and none have won an NBA championship since the 1970s.
They also have stars still in the process of building their profile. None of the 25 most-followed active NBA players on Instagram are on a team still in the postseason. Kyrie Irving (No. 4), Luka Dončić (No. 11) and Jayson Tatum (No. 19) all advanced this deep last season, and later rounds in the 2010s always featured mega-superstars like LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant.
This year, the most-followed star left in the final four is the Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards, whose 4.8 million followers rank 27th in the NBA. Right behind him are the Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns (4.3 million) and the Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (4.1 million), but nobody else in the league’s top 50 will take the court for the rest of this season. It’s not for a lack of trying, either, as Gilgeous-Alexander has carefully curated a feed to match his personality.
Alex Caruso, who started three games this year for Oklahoma City, has the fourth-most followers among players in the conference semifinals (1.3 million). Minnesota rookie Rob Dillingham, who hasn’t played a minute in the playoffs so far, has the sixth-most.
But making the conference finals will have a major impact on players’ social media brands. In the 24 hours before his Game 1 against the Timberwolves, Gilgeous-Alexander gained more than 20,000 followers, the highest mark in the NBA. Eight of the top nine 24-hour gainers are still active in the postseason, with the exception being Tatum, who was recently eliminated.
The stars still alive in the playoffs are far from no-names, even as they search for broader reach. Social media following is just one indicator of marketability.
Among the NBA’s best-selling jerseys this season, Jalen Brunson ranked No. 5, Edwards ranked No. 7 and Gilgeous-Alexander ranked No. 9. Brunson also co-hosts a podcast with his Knicks teammates called the Roommates Show that boasts more than 200,000 Instagram followers of its own.
Edwards and Gilgeous-Alexander earned $20 million and $18 million, respectively, off the court in 2024, ranking fifth and sixth among NBA players on Sportico’s highest-paid athletes list.
The lack of Instagram stars remaining in the playoffs is, more than anything, a testament to the youth of the teams that won out in the early rounds. Pacers star point guard Tyrese Haliburton is just 25 years old, Gilgeous-Alexander is 26, Edwards is 23 and both of the Knicks’ All-Stars (Towns and Brunson) are still in their 20s.
Franchises that went all-in on two or three big-name, established players, such as the Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks, were less successful this postseason, with thin benches and injuries proving costly.
Read the full article here