Since the early 2010s, LeBron James and Stephen Curry have been the co-faces of the NBA, with one of the two stars leading the NBA in jersey sales every year except 2011-12 (Derrick Rose) and 2012-13 (Carmelo Anthony).
The James-Curry era is finally drawing to a close. On April 14, the NBA announced that Lakers star Luka Doncic led the league in jersey sales for the 2024-25 season. Jersey sales are typically the most accurate metric of a player’s popularity. As such, Doncic may have surpassed James and Curry as the most popular active NBA star.
Through a press release, the NBA revealed that overall jersey sales shot up 21% after the Lakers acquired Doncic in a blockbuster deal ahead of the February 6 deadline.
“Doncic, who is from Slovenia, is the first international player to top the most popular jerseys list and the first player other than Stephen Curry or LeBron James to top the list since the 2012-13 regular season (New York Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony).
Luka Doncic’s Popularity Grows
“Since the NBA trade deadline on Feb. 6, jersey sales on NBAStore.com are up 21% compared to the same period last year, primarily driven by Doncic’s trade to the Lakers,” added the report.
In addition to jersey sales, Doncic was third on the NBA’s list of most-viewed players across all digital and social platforms, trailing only James and Curry.
“The Lakers’ James (3.23B views), Curry (2.56B views) and the Lakers’ Doncic (1.82B views) topped the list of the most-viewed players on NBA social and digital platforms during the regular season. The Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander tripled his total view count from last season with 1.06 billion views.”
A year after guiding the Mavericks to the NBA Finals, Doncic is on a mission to do the same with the Lakers. This time, he will have a running mate in LeBron James, who is equally hungry to capture a championship after going ring-less since 2020.
First Playoffs With Lakers
After the Lakers secured their 50th win of the season, and with it the third seed, Doncic sent out an ominous warning to the rest of the league.
“It’s gonna be hard to stop us, but it’s not just me and LeBron,” Doncic said, via Lakers Nation. “We have a great team around us, everybody helps us in so many ways. So if we wanna win the championship, it’s gonna take all of us.”
“That’s gotta be our own goal, and that’s our only goal,” Doncic said of capturing a championship. “I think we have the team to do it, but everybody’s locked in, they’re a hard team to beat, so that’s our goal.”
As per ESPNBet, the Lakers (+1300) have the fourth-shortest odds to win the championship, behind co-favorites Thunder (+180) and Celtics (+190) and the Cavaliers (+575).
The Lakers will host the Timberwolves in Game 1 of their first-round series on Saturday, April 19. Doncic has previous experience of playing Anthony Edwards and Co. in the postseason. He led the Mavericks to a 4-1 win over Minnesota in the 2024 Western Conference Finals en route to the NBA Finals.
