Former Super Bowl champion Keyshawn Johnson said Shohei Ohtani was a bigger international star than LeBron James, citing Ohtani’s Dodgers success. The article notes the NBA’s wider global reach and says available figures cannot establish which player is more popular worldwide.
Johnson made the comparison on the “All the Smoke” podcast and said Ohtani was Los Angeles’ signature athlete while James was with the Lakers. The article cites a YouGov estimate of nearly 2.4 billion NBA fans worldwide; it says MLB has no official global audience estimate. James has 55.2 million X followers and 154 million Instagram followers, while Ohtani has 10.7 million Instagram followers and no official X account.
