The Lone Star State may be renowned for its football fandom, but don’t sleep on its longstanding ties to the NBA.
Texas’ three NBA franchises, in the Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, and San Antonio Spurs, have combined to win five titles since the dawn of the 21st century — putting the state in second place behind California (10 titles) by that metric.
It’s safe to say Texans should tip their hat to Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who has led San Antonio to NBA titles in 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014.
The Spurs’ northern neighbors lay claim to the other NBA title this century when Dirk Nowitzki and company knocked off LeBron James and the Miami Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals for the franchise’s first and only title.
The Rockets have won two titles in their storied history as well, though both came in the 20th century (1994 and 1995, to be exact).
There is no legal Texas sports betting, and it will be January before the state legislature reconvenes to potentially take on the matter.
Where Texas NBA Fans Rank Nationally
BetTexas.com developed a ranking system of the 30 NBA teams to find what fanbase has been rewarded the most over the last 11 seasons.
The first category — “Minutes Spent Per Win” — was determined by taking the amount of regular season games played by each team (from 2011-12 season to 2021-22 season) multiplied by the average length of an NBA televised game (2 hours, 13 minutes). Once we calculated that number, we divided it over the number of wins during those same seasons to arrive at the minutes watched by fans per regular season win over the last 11 seasons.
The second category — “Points Deducted for Playoff Success” — was utilized to decipher the value of seeing playoff success during those 11 seasons gathered in the first category. The point values were 1 point per playoff berth, 3 points per playoff series win, 3 points per NBA Finals appearance, and 15 extra points for NBA Championship win. After adding all the points together for every postseason from 2011-12 season to 2021-22 season, the points were deducted from Category 1 to arrive on the final points and rankings.
Our survey found fans of the Spurs are the third-most rewarded fanbase in the league, behind the Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat.
Much of that fulfillment comes from the franchise’s aforementioned titles, which gave San Antonio 62 playoff success points, good for the fourth-highest amount in the league.
The Spurs also had the lowest minutes spent per win, at 211, giving the franchise a total score of 149 points — ranking closely behind the Heat, who had 130 points.
The Rockets and Mavericks found themselves a bit lower on the league table, with Houston ranking ninth in the NBA, while Dallas came in at the 17th spot on our list.
Houston’s lack of playoff success ultimately tanked its ranking, as it had the eighth-lowest amount of minutes per win, but the 12th highest playoff points in the league, netting them a total score of 208 points, which was good for ninth overall.
The Mavericks found themselves in much the same conundrum, with 258 minutes per win (16th overall), but 13 points of playoff success (23rd overall) — giving the franchise a total score of 246 points, which put them in the 17th spot in the 30-team league.
Where Texas’ NBA Teams Stand This Year
The three franchises face disparate odds this season, with BetMGM giving the Mavericks +2500 odds of winning their second title, while the Rockets and Spurs find themselves at the bottom of the league list at +50000, in a tie with Detroit, Indiana, Oklahoma City, Orlando, Sacramento and Utah.
As far as Western Conference futures are concerned, BetMGM has the Mavericks at +1100, ranking sixth overall by that metric, while the Rockets and Spurs are listed at +25000, which is second-to-last, ahead of the Jazz, who are +100000.
