The last time a lot of people wanted to wear a Bulls jersey was… oh, yea, back when the Bobcats owner played for them.
Derrick Rose has a long way to go before he is mentioned in the same breath with Michael Jordan, but he is filling in that gap in some ways. For example, he led the NBA in jersey sales, the league reported. These are sales at the NBA Store on Fifth Avenue and on NBAStore.com from last April to now.
Rose was fifth last year but his win as MVP and the Bulls playoff run last year vaulted his popularity and status among fans.
Second place went to Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin, who sold more jerseys during the regular season than anyone. Like the couple weeks of Linsanity itself it was a perfect storm of Lin being in New York and also reaching deeply into the Asian American demographic.
Rounding out your top five are Kobe Bryant (who had been No. 1), LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony.
In terms of team merchandise, it was the Bulls in first followed by the Knicks, Lakers, Heat and Mavericks.
Both the Knicks and Celtics had three players in the top 15 in player jersey sales. For New York, Amare Stoudemire joined Lin and ‘Melo. For Boston it was Rajon Rondo (No. 10), Ray Allen (No. 12) and Paul Pierce (No. 13).
One other interesting note: the Clippers had two players in the top 15 with Blake Griffin (No. 9) and Chris Paul (No. 15). The last time the Clippers featured two players was in April 2002 with Darius Miles and Lamar Odom.
