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Stephen Curry just completed a season in which he won MVP for a second straight year, smashed the single-season record for three-pointers, and led the Warriors to within two minutes of another championship.
His popularity at seemingly an all-time high (save for the burns on those shoes), Curry's No. 30 jersey was the top-selling in the entire league for the duration of the playoffs, from April until the end of the postseason, according to NBAStore.com, the league's official website for merchandise.
In fact, he has had the best-selling jersey in every period tracked by NBAStore.com since the end of the 2014-15 regular season, when he earned his first Most Valuable Player award.
Merchandising, merchandising, merchandising, where the real money is made.
Further, according to ESPN's sports business reporter Darren Rovell, Curry's jersey was the top seller in every state save Ohio and Oklahoma (Kevin Durant, welcome to the Bay!). Steph is en vogue, in Nebraska, Maine, Idaho; in New York and Massachusetts; and of course, here in California: The two-time MVP, the most popular player nationwide, helping to revolutionize the way the game is played, inspiring millions of youth to hoop, the best player on the league's best team.
And his time on the top of merchandising lists should only continue, what with continued exposure as the best player on the league's most entertaining, and, as of this summer, most-hated team; national TV games through the roof; and a place in the pantheon of Bay Area superstars.
LeBron James finished second, with the now-retired Kobe Bryant third, and Game 7 hero (villain?) Kyrie Irving fourth. (The Cavaliers and Warriors ended June at the peak in terms of most popular team merchandise; off the court as well as on, Cleveland topped Golden State to finish the season.)
Then comes the Warriors squadron: Klay Thompson, he of the shoe deal with Anta and two years after signing an extension that looked like a solid deal then but now makes him severely underpaid, is fifth. Draymond Green, after a much-ballyhooed NBA Finals, is seventh. New Warrior Kevin Durant finished eighth, but make no mistake he will be as popular as ever.
https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/751179102778957825
The Warriors say they sold more than 1,000 KD jerseys in their first two hours on sale pic.twitter.com/JA9fbTgLmu
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) July 7, 2016
And hey, Andre Iguodala was fourteenth on the list! Look at that. He really is on his way to running the league.