After defeating the Miami Heat in the 2019-2020 NBA Finals last night and tying the Boston Celtics for a record of 17 NBA titles, the Los Angeles Lakers have become the top-selling NBA Finals champion in Fanatics history. In the first 12 hours alone, the Lakers sold more merchandise than the previous record holder, the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers, who beat the 73-9 Golden State Warriors after overcoming a 3-1 deficit.
Finals MVP LeBron James was the top-selling player jersey, followed by the late Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter accident in January. After his death, the Lakers added a patch with Bryant’s initials to their jerseys in his honor. Fanatics currently has six of Bryant’s jerseys on their site.
Since the league’s restart in the bubble, James and the Lakers have topped the individual jersey and team merchandise sales lists. Forward Anthony Davis had the third highest-selling jersey, behind James and Dallas Mavericks star Luka Dončić. Lakers merchandise has been sold to fans in over 110 countries thus far, with 85% of the sales coming directly from mobile devices.
James led the Lakers to the best record in the Western Conference and in the playoffs defeated the Portland Trailblazers, Houston Rockets and Denver Nuggets all in five games before beating Miami in six. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there is no victory parade planned for the team to celebrate in the streets of Los Angeles. However, people swarmed around the Staples Center Sunday night to celebrate the team’s accomplishment—resulting in 76 arrests, damage to more than 30 buildings and injuries to eight police officers.
