Last week the New York Times wrote about Twitter and how many of its users buy their way to notoriety with an inflated number of followers, several of which are fake or inactive. The one glaring number that stood out like Shawn Bradley’s blinding legs was that a whopping 71% of Lady Gaga’s followers are reportedly bogus.

On Friday, Jason went ahead and took a look at the puzzling trend for members of sports media. Today, we look at athletes. I chose those with the highest follower counts, or close to the highest, for each respective league.

Results can be found below. One nugget I found amusing was that, similar to Darren Rovell coming out on top among the sports media members chosen, polarizing figures like Jose Canseco, Dwight Howard, and Chad Johnson also broke the 40 percent barrier of “good.” Canseco’s numbers (56%) were surprisingly legit.

Cristiano Ronaldo, Soccer player — 12,619,807 Followers

LeBron James, Miami Heat — 5,927,827 Followers

Dwyane Wade, Miami Heat — 3,751,254 Followers

Chad Johnson, Former football player — 3,718,065 Followers

Lance Armstrong, Bicycle rider — 3,694,111 Followers

Dwight Howard, L.A. Lakers — 3,435,478 Followers

Lamar Odom, L.A. Clippers — 3,277,285 Followers

Floyd Mayweather, Boxer/Money stacker/Fight dodger — 3,257,152 Followers

Serena Williams, Tennis player — 3,078,145 Followers

Reggie Bush, Miami Dolphins — 2,563,534 Followers

Nick Swisher, New York Yankees — 1,584,481 Followers

Jose Canseco, Time Travel Believer — 482,506 Followers

David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox — 316,957 Followers

Paul Bissonnette, Phoenix Coyotes — 316,697 Followers

What have we learned from this exercise? Either be hilarious and continually pose with hot chicks in Vegas like Paul Bissonnette, or spew pure insanity like Jose Canseco, go tanning, and ask your barber for a stunning pair of Neg-Burns during your next haircut. Playing it straight will only put you in last place.

And since I thrive on being transparent, here are my numbers, which beat Joey Canseco by 1%:

Previously: Which Sports Media Members Have the Most Fake Twitter Followers?