Ranking All 30 NBA Fanbases

It's time for another glimpse into the upcoming NBA season through the eyes of someone looking to enjoy the game as much as possible, this time examining which teams in the NBA have the best, most dedicated fans.

Earlier, I wrote about which teams' arenas are the most up-to-date and unique in order to help people figure out where to visit, but this is another huge part of the equation to factor in.

There are cities out there where basketball is the only thing they've got going besides local college sports, and we're talking the only thing within hundreds of miles. Those kinds of cities can create special situations where fans' dedication makes watching a game there, or even on television, a different experience.

I'll always be a sucker for a smart fanbase that follows its team around through thick and thin unless there's something specific it's rebelling against. These people know what they want, they love their team, but they're not going to be just another wallet for some greedy owners to pry another 50 bucks a night out of.

So, based arbitrarily on attendance over the past handful of seasons, dedication of the fans and just how much fun these guys have when their teams come home, here we have the best fanbases in the NBA.

30. Charlotte Bobcats

The fanbase for the Charlotte Bobcats is like the base of a cheerleader's human pyramid...it's made up of just five people.

Charlotte has always been a basketball town first when it comes to all the major sports (excluding NASCAR, I would think), but it seems to be more into the college game, at least until the Bobcats prove they're worth watching.

You can't blame a city much for ignoring a team that's made the playoffs one time in nearly a decade, but that means the people there can't be expected to earn much respect in terms of their fandom.

It's probably a fine city to watch a basketball game in, but don't expect a huge roar from the crowd at the opening tipoff.

29. New Orleans Hornets

Even when Chris Paul was still with the team, the New Orleans citizens cared more about Mardi Gras and football than they did basketball.

They've got a loyal base of fans just like anybody else, but the fair-weather fans don't flock well enough to make it look like this is a legitimate basketball town.

In fact, their best attendance rate since they came back from Oklahoma City—just below 17,000 in a season where they looked like they could have been title contenders—was pretty close to averaging a sellout. Pretty close, but no cigar.

28. Atlanta Hawks

The Atlanta Hawks have had a team with a shot at making it to at least the second round of the playoffs ever since 2008, but it's like somebody forgot to spread the word.

Sure, the Hawks get people into the games during the playoffs, and they even get a bit loud if it's a close game, but averaging near the bottom of the league in attendance when you've got a legitimately interesting team means one thing: Your fans just don't care.

Perhaps they've been jaded with the stagnation of the team, but even if that were the case, then they would have had some sort of spike and drop-off, but it's been pretty steady, crappy attendance.

27. Indiana Pacers

Maybe if they were to rename the team the Hoosiers, then some people would get mixed up and think they're on their way to a college game when they get into the car.

For now, however, people in Indiana don't really seem to care if their team is one of the three best in the Eastern Conference.

The Pacers ranked fifth from last in league attendance rate last year, filling their beautiful arena less than 80 percent of the way up.

When you've got a team featuring Roy Hibbert, Paul George and some exciting veteran players, that's just inexcusable. 

26. New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets

I can't tell you what the people in Brooklyn are going to do for the excitement going on at Nets games, but it can't very well hurt things too much.

You'd expect that a team so close to New York City offering cheaper tickets than the Knicks would at least get a second look from the big-city crowd, but that never seemed to be the case.

The Nets have been in the bottom five in attendance rate for the past four years, but it goes way beyond that. New Jersey fans had the best Eastern Conference team for two years running back in 2002 and 2003 and couldn't even crawl out of the bottom third of the league.

If you can't fill up the building for a winner, then you're probably not filling it up for a loser.

25. Orlando Magic

Whereas some previous groups of fans were never really into basketball at all, at least the Magic fans decided to hang around for a few minutes when they looked title-worthy.

They filled their arena to capacity nearly every night ever since the new one opened at the start of the 2010-11 season, but they don't exactly make the ground shake.

The group of retirees, people visiting Disney World and Tiger Woods tend to take in a game at a leisurely pace and not come back for a while if the team sucks. Basically, they're pretty level-headed, but they're extremely quiet fans.

24. Milwaukee Bucks

I'm not sure how many people out there actually fear deer, but I'm willing to bet that the Bradley Center isn't exactly a place that strikes fear into the hearts of NBA players.

The best run the Bucks have had in recent years came in 2010, when they made a surprise playoff push and nearly knocked the Atlanta Hawks out in the first round. The fans were loud when they needed to be, but they didn't exactly stuff the arena until things got serious.

A first-half disappointment probably dragged down the numbers, but they averaged an arena just over 80 percent full.

23. Detroit Pistons

I've got a soft spot in my heart for Detroit fans. They're so much like Cleveland fans that it's hard for me to dislike them, but they're not exactly doing their best to show this terrible Pistons team that they're ready to love them.

Can you blame them for filling their gigantic arena only 65 percent of the way full this past season? Who wants to support a franchise that is trying to move forward by signing three of the same type of player at three positions and overpaying the wrong guys?

Detroit will be back and exciting again, but it's going to take a lot for all the fans to come back.

22. Philadelphia 76ers

Is it fair to call a bunch of Philadelphia fans fair-weather if it's always sunny in Philadelphia and they're still only warming about 85 percent of the seats?

The 76ers have themselves a good team, and like with their football team, the base of fans they've got is an angry, rabid bunch, but the city doesn't fill the arena up enough to keep that average regular-season game interesting.

Although seeing this dude there doesn't hurt their case.

21. Washington Wizards

Ever since the 2008-09 season, the Wizards, as a team, have been too busy waving guns around, playing terrible basketball and being downright goofy for them to actually win basketball games.

Because of that, the script seems to be like that of Groundhog Day. Washington trots out a bad basketball team, the arena fills to about 80 percent full on a normal day and they move on to the next one.

Wizards fans can get excited for a good team, but that's not what they've had in recent seasons.

20. Memphis Grizzlies

I don't blame Grizzlies fans for not showing up during the 2010-11 season; they hadn't made the playoffs since the other Gasol was in Memphis, and management was halfway between bumbling and stumbling.

Not filling the arena for last year's team, however, when they only had to do it for 33 games for a team that took down the Spurs in the first round of the playoffs in the previous season, is inexcusable.

Maybe there's a bunch of people that have tickets to the games, only they just get distracted by smells of barbecue when they're walking to the stadium and never make it in.

19. Toronto Raptors

In terms of the dedicated guys, Raptors fans are like any other team with a solid core of people who absolutely love the team. They lament their existence more than they praise it, but they love the team regardless.

Toronto has gotten into a pretty decent groove of showing up periodically for the halfway-decent teams that they have every four or five years, and then leaving once the team blows up.

There's always a constant of that fun, dedicated base, but the fair-weather guys flee far too easily in comparison to the rest of the basketball cities.

18. Miami Heat

There are few teams in the NBA with fans quicker to jump off the bandwagon than the Miami Heat.

Sure, they're rocking right now and they just won a title, but let's take a look at a few years ago to really get a snapshot of their fans.

Back in 2006, the Heat won a title and the fans were stoked. Hell, they even got nearly 99 percent attendance the year that Dwyane Wade was out for most of the season.

However, fast-forward just two years later when the team made it back to the playoffs, but not past the second round, and the fans decided the team wasn't worth their time, dropping back to the middle of the pack.

Swap this Heat team with even an average team like the Rockets and they'd be dead last in the league.

17. Minnesota Timberwolves

Is there ever fair weather in Minnesota between October and April, because we may be holding the Timberwolves to an unfair standard? You could tell me that there is a foot of snow on the ground for eight months a year in Minnesota and I'd believe you.

I suppose if that were the case, they'd be used to it and still able to make it to games, which very much isn't the case.

It doesn't help that the Timberwolves did a terrible job of managing a franchise when they had one of the five best players in the game in Kevin Garnett, so fans may be reluctant to return.

They're nearly all the way back, however, as Minny filled the arena 90 percent of the way during the 2011-12 regular season.

16. Los Angeles Clippers

I've got a lot of love for Clippers fans. You know, the ones that knew who the Clippers were three years ago. They've obviously got some quirks to them that lure them away from the Lakers into the hateful arms of such a destructive franchise.

That base isn't very deep, however, and the people filling out the top of their pyramid most likely own Kobe Bryant jerseys as well.

Being the second option in a huge city is not their fault, but they can't expect too many breaks, either.

15. Denver Nuggets

It seems like the Denver Nuggets have a small core of dedicated fans who will show up for any team so long as their franchise isn't looking like a smoking crater in the ground.

Ever since they drafted Carmelo Anthony, they dipped below a 17,000-fan average only once, and that was only by 100 fans a game, which pretty much meant a 90-percent-full arena.

Those guys comes to the games, cheer their butts off and enjoy them some basketball, while the fair-weather guys seem to trickle in and out, not surge like tidal waves as they do in other cities.

14. Houston Rockets

We're starting to get into the territory with the Rockets where we'll really see what the fans are made of down in Houston, and if they don't show up in droves this season, nobody will blame them.

The Rockets were able to stay out of the bottom third in attendance last season, but it was their third year in a row without a playoff berth, and this will likely make it the fourth and possibly worst of those four.

One thing you can say about Rockets fans is that they seem to be the southern version of Trail Blazers fans.

That's not to say they've got an extremely dedicated core (which seems to be more or less true), but if you disagree with a move from the great Daryl Morey, then they show up in force, and I kind of like that in a fanbase.

13. Phoenix Suns

It takes a hell of a lot of recognition from a franchise's fans to give their superstar permission to leave and pretty much apologize to him as he's walking out the door.

It's as if Steve Nash's Canadian-ness rubbed off on the city and they're empathizing with him more than they should have.

Of course, this is also the city that had to deal with Charles Barkley's antics for four years, so they're not exactly going to be upset with an unassuming dude like Nash.

Suns fans show up for a good team and don't immediately run away from a bad team, the mark of good basketball fans.

12. Cleveland Cavaliers

There's a lot that can be said about Cleveland Cavaliers fans that has both not been said and beaten into the ground in the past few seasons.

Cleveland fans are hateful, but they'll love you like no other. They're both dedicated and fickle, loud and boisterous, but suspicious and unwilling to allow themselves to be attached to the idea of being good too quickly. 

They've seen their attendance tail off a bit in the post-LeBron-hatred swoon, but the people that come are still loud, and those that don't are quick to come back at the first sign of a halfway-decent team.

11. Los Angeles Lakers

It's hard to pin down what Lakers fans are exactly, but the best analogy I can think of is to compare them to Beatles fans.

On one side you've got this group of screaming, hysterical people who love them unconditionally, but don't necessarily understand everything going on with the team.

On the other side is a smaller, but equally acknowledged group of fans that exist to hate the group of screamers and love the Lakers simultaneously.

What people normally see are the screamers because of the attention they draw to themselves while the core is overlooked. 

It might be weird to refer to the Lakers' fans as a dedicated core because of how obviously fair-weather they can be, but Los Angeles does have a terrific core of fans who do more than go on the Internet and argue that Kobe Bryant is better than Michael Jordan.

10. Sacramento Kings

It's beyond me how the Maloof brothers are able to convince anyone in the city to come out to their games. They could have one guy in the stands at the newly named Sleep Train Arena, and my thought would be, "Damn, that guy in Sacramento really loves the Kings."

Seriously, this team would only work in about five cities in the country, and one of them doesn't even have a basketball team.

The fact that the insanely mismanaged Kings were able to be 22nd in attendance last year after drafting Jimmer Fredette might be the biggest miracle of my lifetime.

9. Utah Jazz

Is there a more surprising group of fans in any city in America?

When you picture Utah if you're not from there, then it's probably the white-washed Leave it to Beaver-looking population eating breakfast every morning and going to church every Sunday.

That doesn't exactly seem like a bunch of people that could be considered one the most hateful groups of fans in the NBA.

However, after seeing things like the people booing Derek Fisher every time he comes back to the city, it's pretty evident that Jazz fans are both dedicated and not-so-secretly dirty, kind of like John Stockton was.

8. Oklahoma City Thunder

I'm still a little leery of Oklahoma City fans in that I'm not sure exactly how to pin them down compared to cities that have had teams for decades.

Obviously, they've been great ever since the Thunder came to town, and were even awesome for the Hornets when they were temporarily in Oklahoma City.

However, you can't really judge someone until you've seen them at their best and at their worst, and Oklahoma City fans have yet to watch basketball that they would find disappointing.

Still, for now, they're a great bunch of fans, so keeping them out of the top 10 would be a bit out of line.

7. San Antonio Spurs

Elsewhere in Texas, there's a group of fans who have enjoyed the privilege of a borderline dynasty since 1999 and have done nothing but support their team.

Sure, they'll dip down a tad here and there, but San Antonio has been filling up arenas to the point where their average attendance dipped below 18,000 people just three times since 1994. How insane is that?

You know what's strange? Texas might be the most basketball-friendly state over the course of the past decade. 

6. Dallas Mavericks

The Mavericks' lowest attendance number in the past decade is an average of just over 19,500, which means they've sold out the hefty majority of their games for 10 years, at least.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that they've had one of the most fan-friendly owners in a time where they missed the playoffs exactly zero times with a team that always seemed to appreciate the people cheering for them.

Even still, you've got to appreciate a fanbase that would continuously show up while its team grew a bit stagnant, declined to re-sign a superstar, got screwed in an NBA Finals and toiled for a few more years until it finally broke through and won a title.

5. Golden State Warriors

They come to games, they get loud, they hang their heads when Stephen Curry rolls his ankle, he gets up, they get loud again and they go home.

That right there is basically what every Golden State Warriors fan does when he or she comes to a game.

Golden State has had some pretty bad teams ever since the "We Believe" Era when Baron Davis and Stephen Jackson helped it upset the Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs in 2007, but the Warriors have kept their attendance above 18,000 a game every year since then.

4. Boston Celtics

The Celtics aren't able to average the huge attendance numbers that other teams can because they've got a bit of a small arena, so somewhere around 17,000-to-18,000 people a game seems to be a good season, and that also seems to be an average season.

There has been more reason recently for them to jump off the bandwagon, but with so much history behind your team and titles seemingly around the corner every other year, it's no surprise that they've stuck around for the most part.

Celtics fans are possibly the only fans in the NBA that can be classified as both extremely smart and extremely drunk, which only gets them more bonus points.

3. New York Knicks

Knicks fans are constantly quick to overreact, they seem to love everything their team does until they actually have to play, and they constantly entertain the rest of us with their antics. Thank God we've got 'em, eh?

A packed house at Madison Square Garden is just under 20,000 people, so when you see that the Knicks have averaged at least 19,000 folks at the Garden every year but one since 1991-92, then it's pretty impressive.

Of course, there are more people in New York than there are in 13 Oklahoma Cities, but that can't take away from the fact that MSG is one of the coolest places to see a basketball game, and the fans there know it.

2. Portland Trail Blazers

There is nothing better in the NBA than when a dedicated fanbase gets ahold of a basketball team and doesn't let go unless it's forced to.

Some people will look at the past decade in Trail Blazers attendance, see the dip and say Portland isn't any different than any other city. Its team was terrible, so they stopped coming.

It's not that the team was terrible, but it was a group of intolerable people run by another group of intolerable people.

Taking a look at attendance rates from way back, the Blazers averaged a sellout at the old Memorial Coliseum of at least 12,666 people from 1978 all the way until 1995. After that, they got themselves a beautiful new arena and decided to fill that one up as well, averaging upward of 19,000 people through the 2002-03.

This is a group of people that loves basketball. We can't completely ignore the Jail Blazers Era, but then again, Trail Blazers fans can't, either, or they'll forget what it's like to truly dislike a basketball team—something every other fickle fanbase realizes once every five years or so.

1. Chicago Bulls

At this point, the best comparison you can have for Bulls fans outside of the NBA is Packers fans. They might not own the team, but they sure as hell do come to games like they do.

Chicago is annually near the top of the league in attendance, and when I say "near," I'm talking about top four, not top 10.

What's craziest about the Bulls (and probably not very surprising because of that Michael Jordan dude) is that they've averaged 20,000 fans or more for 15 of the past 18 seasons and haven't averaged fewer than 18,000 fans since the 1988-89 campaign.

They've only been near the bottom of the league a few times in that long stretch, but that shouldn't take any kind of luster away from their dedication.