The Los Angeles Lakers were swept out of the 2011 NBA Playoffs yesterday by the Dallas Mavericks, ending their two year run as world champions. Lakers head coach Phil Jackson said the game would be his last as a coach.

We measured buzz around the Lakers, comparing the championship buzz last year to the early exit sweep this year.

Lakers buzz

The Lakers have already generated more buzz in 2011, even though they played through June last year and won the world championship.

Lakers sentiment

Conversations around the Lakers are currently 60% negative. Players Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom were ejected from the game for flagrant fouls. Did the Lakers tarnish their legacy by acting like sore losers yesterday?

With the NCAA tournament wrapping up, MLB opening day in the books and NBA Playoffs about to begin, we thought it would be interesting to compare which of the major sports generated the most chatter.

Football vs Baseball vs Soccer vs Basketball vs Hockey (past year)

Football consistently generated the most chatter throughout the past year, even during the off-season.

Basketball sentiment

Soccer sentiment

Baseball sentiment

Hockey sentiment

Football sentiment

Interestingly, football had the lowest amount of positive conversations (80%) among the major sports, while basketball had the highest amount of positive conversations (86%).

The NCAA men’s college basketball tournament kicked off yesterday. Many sports fans call these the best sports days of the year, with 32 must-win games over the course of two days.

We used Social Radar to analyze chatter around March Madness.

March Madness vs NBA buzz

March Madness conversations had steadily increased over the last month, while NBA chatter has decreased.

March Madness sentiment

Chatter around March Madness is currently 81% positive.

After speculation throughout the entire season, the Denver Nuggets officially traded Carmelo Anthony to the New York Knicks this week as part of a multi-player blockbuster trade.

New York Knicks chatter

Chatter around the Knicks is up 1,500% this week.

NBA chatter

NBA chatter is up 680% since last week, thanks to last weekend’s All-Star game, blockbuster trades sending Carmelo Anthony to the Knicks and Deron Williams to the Nets, as well as negotiations with YouTube to stream NBA games live online.

NBA sentiment

Many have speculated that fans may not be happy about the latest trend in the NBA — elite players joining forces on superteams in big markets, leaving smaller market teams with no star players. Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett started the trend in Boston, followed by LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. Chris Paul is expected to join Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudamire in New York next season.

Sentiment around the NBA is currently 80% positive this week, however trending slightly more negative today following the trade announcements.

Facebook continues to become one of the most important platforms for brands to engage. The Next Web published a list of the top 25 most ‘liked’ brands on Facebook. Do more Facebook ‘likes’ mean increased chatter for brands online? We used Social Radar to run analysis on Web chatter around each of these brands in 2010. Compare the lists below.

Interestingly, there seems to be little correlation between which brands have the most Facebook ‘likes’ and which brands are being talked about most online.

The chart below contains the brands ranked in order of most Facebook ‘likes’, with bars representing online chatter.

As the NBA season begins, new Nike and Adidas ads are generating chatter and views online.

Nike’s new “LeBron Rise” spot, in which LeBron James repeatedly asks “What should I do” was the top viral video last week, with nearly 3 million views online.

Adidas’ spots with Dwight Howard and Derrick Rose were also among the most watched viral videos of the week.

Which of these billion-dollar brands is generating more conversation?

Nike generated three times more online chatter than Adidas throughout the past month.

Nike vs. Adidas chatter

LeBron was mentioned in an average of almost 3% of Nike conversations online during the last month, spiking over 7% on October 24 when the commercial was released.

LeBron mentions within Nike conversations

Chatter around both Adidas and Nike is overwhelmingly positive, with 90% positive chatter for Nike and 91% positive chatter for Adidas.

Nike vs. Adidas sentiment

With the 2010 NBA season kicking off tonight, we wanted to see which teams were most popular heading into the season. Each week ESPN publishes its NBA Power Rankings, which ranks teams based on overall performance. We thought it would be interesting to create a popularity ranking based on how much the teams were being talked about online.

We measured overall buzz for each NBA team throughout the last month. The table below lists ESPN Power Ranking and our Social Radar Buzz Ranking side-by-side for comparison:

Not surprisingly, the Miami Heat are the most talked about team after acquiring LeBron James and Chris Bosh this summer. The Cavs are also one of the most highly talked about teams, although they are one of the worst rated teams in ESPN’s ranking.

Interestingly, one of ESPN’s best teams, the Oklahoma City Thunder — picked by some, including Bill Simmons, to reach the NBA Finals — are ranked 20th in online chatter. Should the NBA be concerned that MVP candidate Kevin Durant and one of the its best teams is in a small market generating little chatter online? If the Thunder reach the Finals, how will television ratings be effected?

One of the biggest story lines of the summer was LeBron James’ decision to leave Cleveland and join the Miami Heat. Yesterday, Nike unveiled a new 90-second advertisement addressing the decision in an attempt to rehabilitate James’ image.

We ran sentiment on LeBron James in August after his announcement and found that while James’ chatter online was consistently near 80% positive throughout the 2009 NBA season, negative chatter equalled positive chatter for the first time after his announcement. In the weeks since, positive chatter around LeBron online did spike sporadically, but as Heat prepare to tip off the season tonight in Boston, LeBron’s sentiment is about 50% positive and 50% negative.

Should be an interesting NBA season to say the least.

As the Phillies, Giants, Rangers and Yankees compete in the MLB League Championship Series, the NFL in week 7 of its season is generating more than triple the amount of online conversation.

Interestingly, conversations around the MLB were more positive (79% positive) than conversations about the NFL (73% positive).

Hot topics of conversation for the NFL centered around the Brett Farve scandal, the trade deadline, the new dirty hit policy, and hot teams the Steelers, Jets and Cowboys.

Hot topics of conversation for the MLB centered around the Yankees, Rangers, Phillies and Giants.

Maybe the MLB needs more scandals and excitement fans can talk about?

The ratings tell a similar story. As sports writer Bill Simmons pointed out via Twitter, Monday night featured the “worst possible NFL game with 2 crap markets (7.2); best possible MLB playoff game with 2 huge markets (6.5).”

As the NBA season approaches, will the NFL continue to dominate the sports conversation in America?

The October 2009 Social Radar Top 50 measures the brands with the most active Web presence based on overall online conversation volume. To create the Top 50 list, we used Social Radar to analyze millions of blog posts, news feeds, forums, social networks and Twitter posts to aggregate a list of the words and brands mentioned most frequently on the Web during October 2009. The list measures the number of unique individuals or sources that posted content about each brand during October 2009 rather than the overall number of mentions, which would be more heavily influenced by big fans who post frequently about a specific brand.

There are no big surprises with the Top 10 this month. NFL dropped 10 spots as the season opening excitement has died down a bit, while NBA jumped 11 spots as the basketball season kicks off. AT&T has dropped, while other cell phone related brands have increased such as LG and Blackberry, as well as newcomers to the list – HTC and Android. With many new Android devices out and on the horizon, as well as the recent “droid does” campaign, Android has joined our list this month at a surprising 29th place.

View the full list below, or download the PDF. For additional information about how you can analyze chatter sentiment to gauge positivity/negativity, view key words mentioned about your brand and identify key influencers, visit www.infegy.com/socialradar.

Questions or comments? Twitter me @adamcoomes.

The September 2009 Social Radar Top 50 measures the brands with the most active Web presence based on overall online conversation volume. To create the Top 50 list, we used Social Radar to analyze millions of blog posts, news feeds, forums, social networks and Twitter posts to aggregate a list of the words and brands mentioned most frequently on the Web during September 2009. The list measures the number of unique individuals or sources that posted content about each brand during September 2009 rather than the overall number of mentions, which would be more heavily influenced by big fans who post frequently about a specific brand.

Twitter falls a bit, but still takes top spot. LG’s new BL20 Chocolate helped LG jump 11 spots. NFL rises again this month as the NFL season heats up. MTV jumps 13 spots due to buzz around the MTV Video Music awards. AT&T’s announcement of MMS support on the iPhone raised AT&T’s position up 5 spots.

View the full list below, or download the PDF. For additional information about how you can analyze chatter sentiment to gauge positivity/negativity, view key words mentioned about your brand and identify key influencers, visit www.infegy.com/socialradar.

Questions or comments? Twitter me @adamcoomes.