Seattle guard Sue Bird led the way in WNBA jersey sales and the Storm were first in team merchandise sales this season, the league announced Friday.
Bird, in her 17th season in the WNBA, has won three titles with the Storm, who drafted her No. 1 out of UConn in 2002. She wears No. 10, and this is the first season she has topped the most popular jerseys list.
"I found out earlier today. It's pretty cool, I'm not going to lie," Bird said Friday after the No. 2 seed Storm beat the No. 1 seed Las Vegas Aces 93-80 in Game 1 of the WNBA Finals. "It actually kind of dawned on me, we must have some new WNBA fans. Because at this point, I've been here for so long, if you were a fan of me you probably got that jersey 10, 11, 12 years ago. So maybe it's a sign that there are new people getting interested in the league and they're copping those jerseys, but it's pretty cool."
Rounding out the top five in jersey sales are her former UConn teammate Diana Taurasi of Phoenix, Los Angeles' Candace Parker, New York's Sabrina Ionescu and Minnesota's Maya Moore. Moore did not play this season or last as she worked to free now-husband Jonathan Irons from prison.
The next five in jersey sales: 2020 MVP A'ja Wilson of Las Vegas, Seattle's Breanna Stewart, Washington's Elena Delle Donne, Chicago's Courtney Vandersloot and Dallas' Satou Sabally. Delle Donne, last year's MVP, did not play this season as she recovered from back surgery.
Former Oregon teammates Ionescu and Sabally were the Nos. 1 and 2 picks in April's WNBA draft.
Following the Storm in the top five in team merchandise were the New York Liberty, Los Angeles Sparks, Las Vegas Aces and Minnesota Lynx.
The league also announced its orange WNBA logo hoodie was the most popular item this season across official online retail partner Fanatics' network of e-commerce sites, including WNBAStore.com, and is the bestselling WNBA item ever.
