Basketball fans everywhere have a new reason to feel proud of their favorite sport. A recent study conducted by Geezers Boxing, a UK-based boxing company, has ranked basketball as the single most attractive sport a person can play or watch. The findings have sparked quite a bit of conversation online, especially among fans of sports that landed near the bottom of the list. It turns out that the game of hoops carries a certain magnetism that no other sport can quite match.
The study analyzed a list of 35 sports, including padel, basketball, football, boxing, and swimming. Researchers gathered data from a wide range of online sources, including Reddit threads, search engine behavior, fan-fiction volume, and global viewership numbers. All of that information was then used to rank each sport from most to least attractive. The methodology may be unconventional, but the results paint a pretty clear picture of how the public perceives different athletic pursuits.
Basketball claimed the top spot, with NFL American football coming in second. Ice hockey, rugby, and soccer rounded out the top five, making it a list dominated by high-intensity, team-based competitions. On the other end of the spectrum, padel landed at the very bottom as the sport considered the biggest turn-off. Triathlon came in second to last, followed by open-water swimming in third, and Hyrox, the popular fitness competition format, shockingly placed fourth from the bottom despite its surging popularity in recent years.
Leon Bolmeer, a personal trainer and director of Geezers Boxing, weighed in on why some sports score higher than others in the attractiveness department. “Some sports are great for fitness but don’t necessarily signal attraction,” he said. He went on to explain that “sports that score highest tend to showcase full-body athleticism, competitive intensity, and personality,” adding that “these are things people instinctively find attractive, even if they don’t follow the sport closely.” His comments shed light on why sports like padel and Hyrox, despite their fitness benefits, may come across as less appealing in social and dating contexts.
Bolmeer also noted that sports like padel and Hyrox, while efficient and accessible, can risk coming “across as performative or overly structured in dating contexts.” This distinction between raw athletic expression and structured fitness routines seems to be a key factor in how people unconsciously judge attractiveness through sport. Basketball, with its fluid movement, one-on-one matchups, and explosive plays, clearly checks all of those boxes according to the data.
Basketball has a rich history that stretches back to 1891, when Dr. James Naismith invented the game in Springfield, Massachusetts. Today, the sport boasts an estimated global following of over 2.5 billion people, making it one of the most widely watched and played sports on the planet. The NBA, founded in 1946, serves as the premier professional league and has produced some of the most celebrated athletes in sports history, including Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James. The sport is known for its fast pace, high scoring, and the remarkable athleticism of its players, combining speed, strength, coordination, and vertical leap in ways few other sports demand.
Share your thoughts on whether you agree with these rankings in the comments.
