U.S. obsessed with Lebron, but Nevada favors Mayweather

The U.S. has a thing for Lebron James — but Nevada isn’t playing ball.

James was the most-Googled athlete in 23 of the 50 states, according to data compiled by besttickets.com. He dominated the rankings in the South and East and was the most searched-for athlete in a string of states surrounding Nevada, but the Silver State’s searches favor boxer Floyd Mayweather.

Nevada is the only state where Mayweather came out on top, which isn’t surprising considering how often the boxer has fights in Las Vegas (and Las Vegas’ lack of professional major league sports teams).

Mayweather also made headlines in 2009 after the mother of three of his children filed a domestic violence complaint against the boxer, saying he assaulted her because she was dating another man. Mayweather was ultimately sentenced to 90 days in the Clark County Detention Center because of the incident.

There weren’t many surprises elsewhere on the map, either. California favors Lakers guard Kobe Bryant and much of the Mountain West went to Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning. Washington went to Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, who was perhaps helped along by the Seahawks’ 2013 Super Bowl win.

Check out a full-size version of the map here.

Contact Stephanie Grimes at sgrimes@reviewjournal.com. Find her on Twitter: @stephgrimes