National Basketball Association

Ben Simmons is Selling a Lot of Jerseys

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

Ben Simmons is bringing the Philadelphia 76ers out of the basement in more ways than one. He’s upping their jersey sales already.

Ben Simmons was selected with the Philadelphia 76ers‘ first overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft. The team selected him with one thing in mind — winning. Well, they had more than that in mind with Simmons, but the winning was supposed to encompass all of it.

Simmons was supposed to be the player that brought the team out of the basement of the NBA. He was supposed to be the player that boosted ticket sales as well. He’s increasing revenue in more than just ticket sales however, despite the fact that the ticket sales do show the Sixers are on the rise in the court of public opinion.

Simmons is already popular enough to be in the top 10 of NBA jerseys sold so far this year after draft night, according to Philly.com (and Fanatics.com). He comes after some big names, including LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Dwyane Wade, and Kobe Bryant. Simmons is not just being mentioned as a top jersey with these names, he’s also been working out with some of those players this summer, which is incredibly important during the early stages of his development.

Chris Heck, who is chief sales and marketing officer for the Sixers, spoke to Philly.com about what it means to have Simmons on the top 10 list. He spoke on how charismatic he is, and how likable he is in the Philly community already.

“It’s really an interesting time. There’s a real appeal about having the No. 1 pick, particularly with the NBA, because it is a star’s league,” Heck said. “He’s not a star yet, but I think people see the potential with Ben and will see the potential on the other faces of the franchise now, such as Joel Embiid and Dario Saric.”

The team has a ton of appeal, and it’s shown by the money side of things. We can expect the Sixers to not only turn the corner in sales this season, but wins as well. The general expectation is to see more people tune into games this year to see what Simmons, Embiid, and Saric can do for the team.

It’s clear that we’re going to see a ton of Ben Simmons jerseys this year, as well.