Kevin Durant has said publicly that he’s sick of being number two to Lebron James and ever since he’s been closing that gap.  Not only is he the projected MVP this year, his sneaker sales have jumped 400% according to Forbes.

Sales started off slow when Durant signed the seven-year $60 million deal with Nike in his rookie year 2007, but they more than doubled when the Thunder made the NBA Finals in 2012, and rose again in 2013 especially around Christmas.

Still we all know who the leading seller is, King James is dominating the market as Nike sold $300 million of his signature sneaker last year as Lebron won his fourth MVP and second NBA championship title.  James is the NBA’s leading endorser, pulling in $42 million a year with a big $20 million of that coming from Nike.

Kobe Bryant comes in third with much of his sales coming from China where he is the NBA’s most popular player.  Bryant’s current deal with Nike pays him more than $15 million annually.

Coming in fourth is Derrick Rose who is famous for signing a 13-year, $185 million deal to become the face of Adidas in the US and help close the gap between them and Nike.  So far it hasn’t worked out with Rose spending much of his time on the sidelines after tearing his ACL in 2012 and tearing his meniscus in 2013.  He had $40 million in sales last year.

Of course they’re all trying to follow the model of the man who started it all and is still leading, Michael Jordan.  It’s been 11 years since Jordan has played an NBA game but his signature sneaker line hit $2.25 billion in retail sales last year, commanding 54% of the U.S basketball shoe market.

Nike has signed up current NBA players to carry the torch with new releases of the Jordan Brand. Carmelo Anthony ($30 million) and Chris Paul ($30 million) both have their own signature shoes for Jordan. Other NBA Jordan athletes include: Blake Griffin, Russell Westbrook, Ray Allen and Joe Johnson.

Here’s the current NBA list:

U.S. Retail Basketball Shoe Sales

LeBron James (Nike): $300 million

Kevin Durant (Nike): $175 million

Kobe Bryant (Nike): $50 million

Derrick Rose (Adidas): $40 million

Carmelo Anthony (Jordan): $30 million

Chris Paul (Jordan): $30 million

John Wall (Adidas): $5 million

Dwight Howard (Adidas): $5 million

Info provided by and you can read more on Forbes

– Shaina Auxilly (@Shay_Marie)