To be clear, this is not how Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry envisioned the 2025-26 NBA season coming to a close, with his team having lost 17 of their last 23 games as they limp into the play-in tournament with a whisker of a chance to actually make the playoffs and a near-zero chance to advance to the second round if, indeed, they earn a a postseason date with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Things had been chugging along fairly well for Curry and the Warriors until January 19, when a string of nine wins in 12 games was interrupted by a torn ACL for star forward Jimmy Butler, who was KO’d for the season. Less than two weeks after that, Curry began having his own persistent knee pain, a tendinitis that he thought might keep him out for around a week but wound up putting the 37-year-old icon out for nearly two months.
The Warriors traded for center Kristaps Porzingis, but he, too, has been dealing with injuries. Forward Moses Moody tore his patellar tendon as well, leaving the Warriors a much-hobbled unit that is pretty much playing for pride.
But that won’t slow down one inevitable aspect of Curry’s game: He’s still immensely popular.
Stephen Curry Still Tops in NBA Jersey Sales
And on Monday, despite everything he has gone through, injury-wise, on a personal and team level, Curry did get some good news from the league office: His No. 30 Warriors jersey is still the best-seller in the league, beating out Luka Doncic of the Lakers, who was No. 2, as well as No. 3 Jalen Brunson of the Knicks and rising young star Victor Wembanyama of the Spurs.
Fellow well-aged NBA star LeBron James was fifth on the jersey-sales list.
The NBA announced the stats from Fanatics once the season ended. From the league website: “The National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) today jointly announced that the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry and the New York Knicks have secured the top spots on the NBA’s Top-Selling Jersey and Team Merchandise lists, respectively, for the 2025-26 regular season.”
Warriors Should Have ‘Super Easy’ Time Switching Up in Play-In
As for the Warriors’ immediate future, there is some hope that the team can pull together a run, despite Sunday’s loss to the Clippers, the very team the Dubs are facing to open the play-in tournament on Wednesday. The Warriors played Curry only 28 minutes in that game, and played the starting five of Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford, Brandin Podizemski and De’Anthony Melton 24 minutes or fewer, too.
The Warriors have experience at all levels of the postseason, Curry said, whether it is in play-in competition, or in playoff Game 7s.
Said Curry when asked how hard it is to turn on the win-or-go-home mentality: “Super easy. We’ve been there before, whether it is a Game 7 or the many play-in games that we have been fortunate enough to play in. Mentally, it’s just, coming in with the right approach and the right mentality, you’re going to have to, as a group, we’re going to have to withstand some runs. We know the ups and downs, you’re not going to play perfect. But can we just play hard for 48 minutes?”
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