There's been plenty of buzz surrounding the Los Angeles Lakers this 2017, in large part due to the team's selection of rookie Lonzo Ball at the NBA Draft.

Now, there are actual stats to back up that claim. As Chris Herring of FiveThirtyEight points out, Ball appeared in 702 published news stories on mainstream media platforms (according to Media Cloud) between 2013 and 2017.

Ball's 702 mentions trumps that of the coverage on the other top-three picks from this year's draft class in Markelle Fultz (436) and Jayson Tatum (211) combined. Its also worth noting that Fultz already ranks second on the list with his 436 mentions during the five-year span, beating out other headline-grabbing rookies of years past such as Andrew Wiggins (381), Ben Simmons (342), and Karl-Anthony Towns (302).

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Apart from being a standout point guard during his freshman year in UCLA, Ball's personal life certainly played a huge factor toward his ascension to widespread popularity. The 19-year-old point guard was born in Anaheim and grew up in Southern California his entire life. With SoCal being a mecca for media personalities, covering news on Ball was fast as it was easy.

It also helps that Lonzo's father, LaVar, has become a magnet for media coverage himself with his outspoken and rather polarizing personality. In turn, the eldest of the Ball siblings garnered even more attention being associated with his pops in the news than what he would've gotten on his own capacity.