He sales are lumped into the nfl jerseys

Lebron James recently announced that he will retire his number 23 to honor Michael Jordon. This initiated discussions throughout the league about whether other teams should follow suit and retire number 23 altogether. Clearly this is a respectful gesture on Lebron's part, but is there an ulterior motive? After all, despite his MVP season in 2008-09, the top selling jersey belonged to the Finals MVP, Kobe Bryant. Even if The King doesn't switch teams, switching numbers will surely catapault him to top-selling jersey status since his biggest fans will buy his new jersey. Even Shaq, now in the twilight of his career, has managed to have his jersey reach top 10 status this year by switching teams.

Clearly a change in number or team will provide a reasonable bump in jersey sales.Lets look more closely into the motivation behind such a move. We know it's not driven by money. In the NBA, the total receipt from jersey sales are lumped into one big pool and then all the players are paid equally from that pool. So yes, the Celtics' Brian Scalabrine gets the same amount as the Paul Pierce and is grateful to Pierce every year for that paycheck. So if not money, could it be ego? Let's see, millionaire athletes competing against one another on the biggest stage of their sports. I think it's safe to say there is an element of pride. It's like winning a popularity contest, and better because it's measurable.

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