NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - As sports fans head to the mall this holiday season, they'll find that Allen Iverson has ousted Michael Jordan as king of licensed merchandise sales.
But maybe not for long. The question is whether King James is ready to assume the throne.
LeBron James, the popular rookie star of the National Basketball Association's Cleveland Cavaliers known by the nickname King James, is already one of the most popular players in terms of uniform sales, according to U.S. sales data collected from retailers by SportsScanINFO. He has had nearly a half-million of his uniform shirts sold in less than five months in stores.
The SportsScanINFO data does not include sales at various stadiums and arenas, nor on the various leagues' Web sites. These numbers also don't include athletic-shoe sales named for various athletes. James' first shoe from Nike is due in stores just before Christmas.
In terms of year-to-date uniform sales, James is already third, behind two other basketball icons -- the new No. 1 sales leader, Iverson of the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers, and Jordan, who has fallen to No. 2 on the list.
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Jordan, who retired in April, has seen his year-to-date uniform sales through Nov. 9 come to only about a third of his full-year 2002 sales. And although about 20 percent of basketball-uniform sales can be expected in the last seven weeks of the year, it's clear he'll end the year far behind last year's total.
Meanwhile, Iverson's year-to-date total is already above his full-year 2002 total of 776,868 uniforms sold, and he could top 1 million uniforms sold with a strong Christmas season.
But James' showing is all the more impressive because his Cavaliers uniforms have only been available in stores since mid-July, the period that is the slowest sales period of the year for NBA apparel. He was drafted out of high school earlier this summer.
"The numbers are just staggering, considering the head start everyone else had," said SportsScanINFO spokesman Neil Schwartz.
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James' uniforms are ahead of any National Football League star and far in front of any baseball, hockey or college player. Atlanta Falcons star quarterback Michael Vick, who has been injured and yet to play a minute of this NFL season, is the top football star in terms of uniform sales, just behind James' total.
Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant, who has been making most of his headlines in a criminal court rather than basketball court since he was charged with sexual assault earlier this summer, is No. 5 on the list. Last year his sales came in at just over 600,000, while year-to-date sales stand at about 339,000.
Yankees are top team
In terms of all licensed merchandise and apparel, the New York Yankees are still the most popular team, with nearly 10 million items sold, including uniforms of various players. But the Yankees' totals, and baseball totals overall, are helped by strong sales of baseball caps. The sport and its athletes trail badly in terms of uniform sales highlighting its star players.
Yankees star Derek Jeter, the most popular baseball player in terms of uniforms sold, comes in at No. 11 overall in terms of all major athletes, with just over 80,000 uniforms sold. He trails far behind two other New York-area athletes. New York Nets basketball star Jason Kidd is No. 6 on the list, with just over 300,000 uniforms sold, while New York Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey is No. 7, with just under 300,000. No NHL star makes the list of top 20 athletes.
Winning a championship can help a teams' overall sales tremendously. The Florida Marlins, who beat the Yankees in this year's World Series, have been the hottest selling team for the last month, after being almost invisible earlier in the year. The national college football champion, Ohio State University, and NFL champ Tampa Bay Buccaneers also make the list of top 10 teams in terms of goods sold.
Overall industrywide sales of licensed sports merchandise is off 9 percent in terms of units sold to 148.8 million, but up 7 percent year-to-date in terms of revenue to $3 billion. Basketball, helped greatly by James, is the one sport showing strong increases, with a 72 percent increase in units sold and nearly a doubling of dollars. But the other major team sports are showing single-digit increases in revenue despite a drop in units sold.
"They've changed the mix -- people are buying less caps, more of the more expensive versions of the uniforms," said Schwartz.
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