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We have researched the data to reveal the the best basketball cities to live in based on the number of sports bars, food and drink prices, as well as winning percentages and championships.
Best Basketball City in America
1. Philadelphia – (6.74 basketball fan score)
Philadelphia takes the top spot with a basketball fan score of 7.47. The Philadelphia 76ers have the second-highest average win percentage over the last five years at just over 42%, behind the Milwaukee Bucks.
2. Boston – (6.37 basketball fan score)
Boston takes second place with a score of 6.37 out of 10. The Boston Celtics are the most successful team in the NBA, with 17 championships. The Celtics have also won over 40% of their games in the last five years. However, their food and drink prices are very expensive compared to the rest of the NBA teams.
3. San Francisco – (6.00 basketball fan score)
San Francisco complete our top three with a basketball fan score of 6 out of 10. San Francisco is the home of the Golden State Warriors, who have seven championships to their name. However, the food and drink prices at their stadium, the Chase Center, are the second most expensive in the NBA.
Best Cities to be a Basketball Fan
| Rank | City | NBA Team | Sports Bars per 100,000 | Stadiums | Food and Drink Price Score | Average Win % (Last 5 Years) | No. of Championships | Fan Score /10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Philadelphia | Philadelphia 76ers | 3.1 | 38 | 5.56 | 62.95% | 3 | 6.74 |
| 2 | Boston | Boston Celtics | 5.8 | 32 | 1.36 | 61.14% | 17 | 6.37 |
| 3 | San Francisco | Golden State Warriors | 9.5 | 25 | 0.74 | 56.42% | 7 | 6.07 |
| 4 | Atlanta | Atlanta Hawks | 5.8 | 36 | 9.51 | 40.77% | 1 | 5.93 |
| 4 | Los Angeles | LA Lakers LA Clippers | 0.8 | 90 | 3.45 | 55.39% | 17 | 5.93 |
| 6 | Chicago | Chicago Bulls | 3.8 | 60 | 5.31 | 38.55% | 6 | 5.63 |
| 7 | Detroit | Detroit Pistons | 5.3 | 31 | 7.65 | 36.74% | 3 | 5.41 |
| 7 | Houston | Houston Rockets | 2 | 56 | 4.81 | 50.60% | 2 | 5.41 |
| 7 | Miami | Miami Heat | 5.3 | 27 | 1.6 | 56.34% | 3 | 5.41 |
| 7 | San Antonio | San Antonio Spurs | 1.5 | 23 | 8.77 | 49.64% | 5 | 5.41 |
| 11 | Dallas | Dallas Mavericks | 2 | 72 | 6.05 | 49.72% | 1 | 5.26 |
| 12 | Denver | Denver Nuggets | 7.2 | 37 | 2.84 | 61.76% | 0 | 5.19 |
| 12 | Milwaukee | Milwaukee Bucks | 6.8 | 12 | 2.47 | 65.93% | 2 | 5.19 |
| 14 | Toronto | Toronto Raptors | 2.3 | 32 | 4.45 | 62.47% | 1 | 4.89 |
| 15 | Oklahoma City | Oklahoma City Thunder | 2.4 | 24 | 8.4 | 47.85% | 1 | 4.52 |
| 16 | Washington | Washington Wizards | 8.8 | 26 | 4.69 | 43.22% | 1 | 4.37 |
| 17 | Orlando | Orlando Magic | 11.2 | 30 | 6.42 | 36.58% | 0 | 4.3 |
| 18 | Charlotte | Charlotte Hornets | 4.7 | 26 | 8.4 | 45.02% | 0 | 4.15 |
| 18 | Cleveland | Cleveland Cavaliers | 5.2 | 19 | 8.52 | 39.52% | 1 | 4.15 |
| 18 | Minneapolis | Minnesota Timberwolves | 5 | 46 | 5.18 | 43.79% | 0 | 4.15 |
| 18 | Portland | Portland Trail Blazers | 5.6 | 19 | 3.45 | 52.59% | 1 | 4.15 |
| 22 | New York | New York Knicks Brooklyn Nets | 1.2 | 91 | 0.49 | 44.43% | 2 | 4.07 |
| 22 | Phoenix | Phoenix Suns | 0.7 | 51 | 6.67 | 48.85% | 0 | 4.07 |
| 22 | Sacramento | Sacramento Kings | 3.9 | 31 | 5.56 | 40.64% | 1 | 4.07 |
| 25 | Salt Lake | Utah Jazz | 3.5 | 13 | 4.94 | 62.52% | 0 | 3.63 |
| 26 | New Orleans | New Orleans Pelicans | 9.2 | 20 | 3.33 | 45.48% | 0 | 3.41 |
| 27 | Indianapolis | Indiana Pacers | 0.6 | 23 | 8.03 | 51.29% | 0 | 3.33 |
| 28 | Memphis | Memphis Grizzlies | 2.1 | 16 | 7.41 | 46.94% | 0 | 2.96 |
Methodology
- Using our research into the teams with the best home-field advantage to get the average win percentage for each team in each city for the last five years.
- For cities with more than one team, we took the average for those teams to get the city’s average.
- We used Wikipedia to get the number of championships each NBA team had.
- Our average beer, soft drink, and hot dog prices came from Team Marketing.
- We used Yelp to find the number of sports bars, as well as the number of stadiums and arenas in each city. We looked at sports bars, stadiums, and arenas within five miles of the city center.
- We normalized the above factors to get a score out of 10, before taking an average of these scores to get our results, focusing only on the city’s local team for that sport.