chef curry

It turns out Steph Curry’s on-court dominance in 2015-16 extended to the memorabilia shelves as well.

According to ESPN, the Warriors guard’s jersey was the NBA’s highest-selling for the second consecutive year. Kobe Bryant finished second in jersey sales, followed by LeBron James, Kristaps Porzingis, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.

The popularity of Curry’s jersey is obviously no surprise. He’s the best player in the league, one of the most exciting players of all-time and the star of a record-breaking team that has converted fans around the country. Plus, the Warriors have cool jerseys and lots of interesting alternates. If Curry DIDN’T have the league’s best-selling jersey, that would be a surprise.

But after Curry, this becomes a pretty interesting list. Kobe apparently saw a surge in jersey sales thanks to his retirement tour, though you would kind of think if you wanted a Black Mamba jersey you would have already bought one at some point in the past 20 years instead of waiting until he was a 37-year-0ld has-been 60-point scorer.

Then comes LeBron — ok sure, makes sense — and then… KRISTAPS! It just goes to show how desperate for a star Knicks fans are that they’ll make a rookie the fourth-most popular jersey in the league on the strength of 14 points per game, a cool name and some put-back dunks. Porzingis is the first rookie to finish that high on the jersey-sale list since LeBron and Carmelo topped the charts back in 2003-04.

Per ESPN, the Warriors were the best-selling team in terms of memorabilia, which is again no surprise, followed by the Bulls, Lakers, Cavaliers and Knicks. Chicago, L.A. and New York all cracked that list despite missing the playoffs, which goes to show that playing in one of the country’s three biggest markets has its perks.

We’ll see next year if the Curry and the Warriors can maintain their retail popularity next year or if the Golden State movement has already crested. If Kristaps Porzingis averages 20 points a game next year we might all be wearing his jersey a year from now.

About Alex Putterman

Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.