• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, July 11, 2014

LeBron James is heading back to Cleveland to play for the Cavaliers, per Sports Illustrated, and, naturally, sports fans took to Twitter to voice their opinions. Kontera, a content marketing platform, has crunched the numbers and discovered that the initial fan reaction has been positive -- at least partially.

“Good” was the third most commonly associated word with LeBron James in the hours following the news. In the words of a Kontera representative: “[That] clearly wasn’t the case four years ago when he announced ‘The Decision’ to go to the Heat.”

“Team” was the word most commonly associated with the news. The second most common word associated with the news, though, isn't a word at all -- “LOL” -- and it's reasonable to think those "LOLs" were used mockingly. The mix of those three words/phrases -- team, LOL and good -- are representative of the mixed feelings fans have toward the superstar. 

There were 1.45 million tweets about the news in the hour following the announcement. While 1.45 million tweets about one specific topic in an hour is impressive, it pales in comparison to what Twitter measured during the penalty kicks when Brazil and Chile faced off in the World Cup. After the final shot was taken, Twitter measured 388,985 tweets per minute. Tweets related to the James news topped out at about 42,000 tweets per minute.

As one could have predicted, there were also several brands that looked to associate themselves with the news, though none have garnered much attention. Below are a few examples, including tweets from KFC, McDonalds and Pepsi.