A Poll Reversal
The results were almost perfect. The public, on a question of whether or not to trust the National Basketball Association, gave the league an 89 percent approval rating, the best rating reported in any sport in a survey of the nation’s 1,200 opinion leaders conducted by NORC at NORC at Indiana University.
The survey, which was conducted Feb. 4-8, had an error margin of plus or minus 2.6 percent, the largest of any survey in the nation. The results were based on the responses of 1,200 adults ages 20-54. The pollsters said the margin of error applies to the entire survey and is unlikely to be as great in other groups where respondents are more likely to include people who disagree with the answers.
Not surprisingly, the league is one of the most popular sports in America. The average participant, the survey indicated, was 8.2 years old and grew up with one of the two major professional sports franchises, the Chicago Bulls or the Chicago Bears.
According to the survey, NBA players are considered the most popular athletes in the world.
Numerous surveys have asked the question of Americans’ preference for professional sports teams and athletes, and the results show it is easy, if not easy, to be a fan of an NBA team and an athlete at the same time.
The majority, 57 percent, of Americans polled by the sportswriters for the March issue of Sports Illustrated would rather have a professional hockey team than an NBA team, the magazine reported.
A Sports Illustrated survey in 1976 found that 68 percent of Americans would rather have a professional baseball team than the Chicago Cubs.
Also, a June, 1989 survey, by Sports Illustrated magazine, found:
– Of those surveyed, 66 percent favored baseball over the Bulls and 76 percent preferred the Cubs over the Lakers.
– About half of those polled were in favor of rooting for either the Bulls or the Lakers over