Pro sports teams shouldn’t tweet losing scores

The Oklahoma City Thunder had a rough go of it last NBA season: 24 wins in 82 games made them the league’s third-worst team, highlighted by a record 73-point loss against the Memphis Grizzlies. It hurts, man.

Pretty much every pro team across every sport tweets out final scores…which means the Thunder tweeted about each L—all 58 of them. This blowout against the Memphis Grizzlies? Well, it went just as poorly on social media as it did on the hardwood: 33,300 likes makes the below tweet the Thunder’s fifth most-engaged tweet, but check the replies—absolute savagery, rightfully ripping both the loss itself and the kinda laughable copy.

It got me thinking…are we sure pro sports teams should post their losing scores?

Telling the fans about the Ls really only serves to damage team, brand, and player reputations.

If you know you’re gonna lose, have a different strategy

Odds-makers in Las Vegas expect five NBA teams to win less than 25 games this season. That means the Thunder, Jazz, Pacers, Rockets, and Spurs will likely lose 70% of their 82 games.

If your team’s expected to lose the majority of your games, your social strategy should be wildly different from championship contenders, especially on game nights. You’re not on the championship hunt, where every final score gets the team closer to a great playoff seeding. The aforementioned teams might be losing on purpose, possibly hoping the NBA Draft Lottery system will reward their poor play with franchise-changing rookies next season. Title contenders and bottom dwellers are different teams with different organizational goals with different measurements for success, requiring different content approaches.

Yet almost every NBA team will take the same approach when the buzzer sounds, posting a stylized graphic with the final score + photo from the game.

Perfect example: when my Clippers (yes, I’m a Clippers fan) lost by a franchise-record 51 points. I didn’t need to know. I didn’t need to see it on Twitter, or have my friends DM it to me. We went to the Western Conference Finals just six months later! That regular season game didn’t matter, but posting about it made the loss more real.

As fans, we’re programmed to think in final scores. But as the team account, you get to decide the narrative of the night. By posting the losing scores, you’re affirming to us the score is the big takeaway, when it’d make more sense to focus on positive outcomes—or even a different narrative to focus on from the game

You’re building a brand, not a news outlet

A pro sports team’s social media accounts exist to market the team. Every action they take should focus on elevating the brand, the fanbase, or the bottom line. There are all sorts of fascinating content opportunities to hit those needs, ranging from the fan-favorite highlights to more original content.

For example, check out this post from the Chicago Cubs on September 30 that thanks the fans, while highlighting the team and the storied Wrigley Field. It’s a five-minute drone video that zooms throughout Wrigley. As the season wraps up, and it’s another losing season for the Cubbies, showing appreciation for the fans (in this case through a series of posts) at the end of the season is a great way to go beyond the single game result tweet (which, of course, the Cubs do, too).

I wanna emphasize again—most teams already do these sort of posts! But if you’d stop unnecessarily highlighting your down moments, these amazing assets will sing even louder.

Yes, team news will always be part of a sports social strategy, but team handles aren’t ESPN or Bleacher Report or The Ringer—they’re brands. And as a brand, they should curate which news they do and don’t share based on what’s best for the team. You don’t get internet ~authenticity~ points for sharing insignificant news like a regular season loss. If your team’s getting blown out, posting the final score only serves to create negative sentiment toward your team.

Brands don’t wanna sponsor bad news, anyway

Look around NBA Twitter, and you’ll notice many final score graphics are sponsored content, with brand partner logos right next to the numbers. Smart! Love that your company has turned a repeatable social concept into a sponsorable opportunity. Those sorts of sponsorships can be easily negotiated to include caveats for certain game outcomes: player injuries, blowout losses, or any unfriendly exits.

It wouldn’t be hard at all to add a note that the team won’t post a final score graphic for any loss worse than 20 points, then including a make-good option within those sponsorship deals. You’re not doing brands any favors when your 40-point trouncing is brought to you by that brand.

Or, you know, if you expect to lose, you could come up with a different sponsorship opportunity than the final score. There are always other content ideas.

Your fans won’t miss it anyway

The majority of social users swipe through their feeds, then watch whatever the algorithm throws their way. They’re not running to your team’s Twitter to check the final score—they’re happening upon it. Really consider if you want your fans catching bad news about their favorite team during that late night scroll.