Kristaps Porzingis' Knicks jersey sells like fire even in Brooklyn
That Kristaps Porzingis currently has the top-selling jersey among New York Knicks players this season is likely not a shock.
After all, the 7-foot-3 rookie is having a sensational first year in the league and has converted countless Knicks fans who initially booed him when the team took him fourth overall in last June's draft. Plus, those in the market for a Carmelo Anthony Knicks jersey have already had five years to buy one.
But it might come as a surprise that the buzz surrounding Porzingis hasn't been restricted to just midtown Manhattan, home of the Knicks and Madison Square Garden. In fact, Porzingis is also becoming one of the most popular players in Brooklyn, too.
According to Modell's Sporting Goods manager Nicholas Chang, Porzingis is so well liked in the borough that customers regularly come in looking to buy his jersey at Chang's Modell's near Barclays Center. Chang told FOX Sports that Porzingis jerseys sell better than any Nets player's, and that's despite a much larger stock and selection of Brooklyn gear at that location.
"We tend to sell what's hot in local markets," Chang said. "So we can't be two-thirds Knicks jerseys when we're across the street from the Barclays Center. ... (At Penn Plaza), they'll be probably two-thirds or three-quarters (Knicks), versus a quarter Nets. It's the same with Rangers and Islanders. We go after what people are looking for and what we're near."
The reason for the Porzingis demand, Chang says, doesn't have anything to do with the commitment of existing Nets fans, either. Rather, it's a result of the Nets' brief history in town -- the team moved to Brooklyn from New Jersey in 2012 -- and a growing borough full of people who are often new to the area and looking for someone to root for.
"With Brooklyn there are always a lot of different fan bases," Chang said. "Brooklyn is evolving, getting more gentrified. We still get the working class, the middle class, and now the upper-class mixture. Brooklyn is as big of a melting pot as Manhattan."
Many of those fans, Chang added, are from overseas, another contributor to the recent rush to buy the Latvian Porzingis' gear.
"Take a look at the population of New York," Chang said. "Porzingis is from Europe, and we have a huge untapped market (of European fans). It's just like the owner of the Brooklyn Nets (Mikhail Prokhorov). He's Russian, and for a while they had more Russian players and those (jerseys) were popular."
And while some may side with the Nets' own foreign-born players -- Sergey Karasev is Russian, Andrea Bargnani is Italian and Bojan Bogdanovic is from Bosnia and Herzegovina -- it's understandable why those fans may find more of a draw in Porzingis, who unlike the others, appears to have the makings of a star.
"There's an untapped market of Russian and European customers looking for players," Chang said. "That's why Dirk Nowitzki was so hot, because he was a great European player coming into the NBA."
Winning over a few Nets fans doesn't exactly mean global domination for Porzingis just yet, however. The 20-year-old still has a long way to go before he becomes the league's -- or even Brooklyn's -- hottest commodity.
"The No. 1 answer is Steph Curry," Chang said of the Golden State Warriors guard, whose jersey is also the league's top seller. "He's the No. 1 seller, even in the city. It's everyone -- locals, little kids that want to wear a jersey. He's almost, like, Jordan-esque."
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