Fan apparel company Lids released its top jerseys sales so far during the 2021–22 NBA season based on each state, and the map was heavily purple and gold for the Lakers and LeBron James.
Los Angeles led in jersey sales in 30 states. The Bulls led in the second-most states with eight.
There were only seven current NBA players who led jersey sales in a state: James, Damian Lillard, Donovan Mitchell, Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Trae Young and Jayson Tatum.
But some of states that don‘t house a pro basketball franchise purchased some very random jerseys this season.
Yao Ming led sales in Montana, far from Houston, where he spent the entirety of his NBA career. Additionally, the Charlotte Hornets then led Montana for team jersey sales.
One of the weirdest jersey sale leaders, though, is Mike Bibby in Alabama. Bibby played for six different squads and retired in 2011. So it’s unclear why are Alabamans purchasing his jersey at such a high rate.
Surprisingly, the only state that the late Kobe Bryant led for jersey sales was Alaska. Otherwise, retired players led in 14 states. Michael Jordan led in three states (Illinois, Delaware and South Dakota) to be the retired player with the most jersey states led.
