Nets becoming more and more popular

Analyst Nate Silver and his latest blog, fivethirtyeight.com, has found which basketball teams have been searched the most often in the past 10 years using Google Trends.

The Nets rank as the eighth most frequently searched team in the league with a relative frequency of 1.34. The league average is 1, so the Nets are fairly above the mean of NBA teams. The Nets are behind the big-market franchises such as the Knicks, Lakers, Bulls, Heat, and Rockets as well as perennial contender Spurs.

The website did take into account that different searches can get people to their specific team. For example, the website notes, ""NY Rangers" and "rangers hockey" should be counted as searches for "New York Rangers."" They also are aware that it is an "imperfect process," but fairly efficient. The Nets' move from New Jersey to Brooklyn may have taken away from their clear number of hits, but it is unknown what the search-term was used in true searches for the team.

Have it be noted that the decade-long trend search occurred after the Nets went to two NBA Finals. Not bad for a team that was considered more poor than great over the past 10 years. The Nets have seemed to advocate global branding and have fans all across the world, which is likely a large source to their ranking.

Silver, it should be noted, is often seen at Barclays Center.