Both James Harden as an individual and the Houston Rockets as an organization each moved up slightly on the NBA’s official lists of most popular player jerseys and team merchandise.
Sales were calculated based on sales at the official NBA Store from October 2019 through December 2019. It was the league’s first sales update since the end of the 2018-19 regular season.
Relative to a year ago, Harden moved up from No. 6 to No. 5 in jersey sales, while the Rockets edged up from No. 8 to No. 7 in team sales.
The Rockets are one of only three Western Conference teams in the top 10 in sales, joining the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors.
When compared to sales from two seasons ago (2017-18), Harden and the Rockets have risen from No. 9 and No. 10, respectively, to their current placements at No. 5 and No. 7 in the league.
In part, the higher 2019-20 sales could reflect Houston’s offseason modifications to its uniforms and the addition of a new secondary logo.
They also do not show any negative sales impact from the China controversy involving GM Daryl Morey, which took place in early October.
Newcomer Russell Westbrook has seen his sales fall off over that same period, going from No. 6 and No. 7 in the two prior seasons to No. 13 in jersey sales in 2019-20. However, that decline could be because he’s splitting sales in Houston with another former MVP in Harden.
After Westbrook’s departure, the Oklahoma City Thunder have dropped from No. 7 in team merchandise sales over each of the past two seasons to out of the top 10 entirely, which likely reflects the team’s absence of star power following the trades of Westbrook and Paul George.
As for basketball, it’ll be a star-studded matchup Saturday night when Harden, Westbrook, and the Rockets (26-14) host LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Western Conference-leading Los Angeles Lakers (33-8) in the first ABC primetime game of the 2019-20 season.
James and Davis rank No. 1 and No. 8, respectively, on the list of 2019-20 jersey sales, while the Lakers are again No. 1 in overall team sales.
