While Canadians prepare to cheer on the Toronto Raptors in the upcoming NBA Finals, it appears the majority of Americans are also rooting for Canada鈥檚 team.
, all but three U.S. states (California, Nevada and Hawaii) are cheering for the Raptors ahead of their Game 1 matchup with the Golden State Warriors.
The data is based on how often social media users in each state added #WeTheNorth and #DubNation, the official hashtags of each team, to their tweets.
鈥淭his is pretty amazing,鈥� Christopher Doyle, head of sports partnerships at Twitter Canada, told 麻豆影视 Channel on Wednesday. 鈥淲hat the third-party data is showing is that there鈥檚 a tremendous increase in the 鈥�#WeTheNorth鈥� hashtag, not just in Canada.鈥�
According to Twitter Canada, American cities including Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Chicago have each seen at least five times more tweets using 鈥�#WeTheNorth鈥� than usual.
Even people in Florida, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin appear to be cheering for the Raptors this week, despite Toronto eliminating a team from each state through the playoffs.
鈥淚 think there is a theory here where once your sports team loses, you kind of hop on the bandwagon of the team that knocked you out,鈥� Doyle said.
He believes there are two primary factors behind the increase in U.S. social media engagement with the Raptors.
鈥淭he first one is that the Raptors are a surprise story down south鈥hey鈥檙e the underdog story,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd that I think that the Raptors have a transcending superstar in Kawhi Leonard and I think that Kawhi can steal a game for you, he can steal a series for you, so I think there鈥檚 a lot of interest in Kawhi versus the Warriors.鈥�
Game 1 of the NBA Finals begins Thursday at 9 p.m. ET.
