12/21/24
April 16, 2003
Seven of the top selling NBA teams in terms of merchandise: are from the Eastern Conference. Jordan, no. 4 in terms of individual jersey sales.
posted by dales15 to basketball at 11:14 PM - 7 comments
This is interesting. I think that the Lakers, Celtics, and Knicks are going to sell a lot of jerseys regardless of the quality of the team in any given year. They're the classic teams and the ones that kids that live in Des Moines and Omaha and Laramie and all of the little cities in between are going to buy. The same could be said to a lesser extent for Chicago and Philly. The individual sales aren't too surprising to me until you hit #10. I'm really quite surprised that Finley does so well. He hasn't exactly had a stellar season (especially when compared with three or four years ago when he was an All-Star). Vince Carter was in the top 10 best-selling jerseys last year but dropped to No. 20 this season. There is some justice in the world. I'd like to see him fall even further.
posted by Ufez Jones at 09:13 AM on April 17, 2003
Gah, I didn't finish my thought. The teams that I listed like Boston, NY, LA, etc. are present in almost every sport. In Baseball you have the Mets, Yanks, Red Sox, White Sox and Tigers, plus a few others. Football there's always the Raiders, Cowboys, Redskins, um, and a few others I'm sure (but I don't follow football too much). Hockey, I'm guessing, would be teams like the Devils, Bruins, Rangers, Wings, Blackhawks. They're the teams that are well known and popular, and even the most casual fans of the game will buy a hat or t-shirt or something.
posted by Ufez Jones at 09:16 AM on April 17, 2003
Popular or not, I wouldn't wear a Lakers shirt, not with those garish colors!
posted by billsaysthis at 09:42 AM on April 17, 2003
Ufez, I was amazed at the number of Vince Carter jerseys sitting around at 60% off when I was in Toronto a few weeks ago. Apparently (and thankfully), the wave of VinceMaina that swept through a few years ago has dissipated.
posted by wfrazerjr at 11:31 AM on April 17, 2003
And in a related story, Pat Riley announces the Heat will be retiring the numbers of all the players in the top ten...
posted by kloeprich at 12:32 PM on April 17, 2003
heh, kloeprich.... wfrazer, let's just hope that the rest of the basketball watching public follow suit and they don't elect Carter to the All-Star game again even though he'd played less than a dozen games.
posted by Ufez Jones at 01:00 PM on April 17, 2003
I was thinking about this just yesterday when I saw clips of Jordan's last home game, and they busted out the retro-Wizards ne้ Bullets jersey. My first thought was how cool they looked, because it reminded me of the SuperSonics only title which they beat the Bullets for in 1979. But then I realized it was just one last final opportunity to squeeze blood from the Michael turnip. Shameless.