US basketball star player Kobe Bryant has been scoring as impressively on the Chinese market as in the Olympics since his team's recent winning streak.

The Los Angeles Lakers' top player's jersey has topped NBA sportswear sales in China for two consecutive years, according to the recently released US National Basketball Association (NBA) list.

Boston Celtics player Kevin Garnett ranks second and Chinese NBA star Yao Ming tenth - four places down from last year.

US Kobe Bryant jumps for the basket against Spain during the men preliminary round group B basketball match of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games at the Olympic basketball Arena in Beijing on August 16, 2008. US won the match 119-82. [Agencies]

The list is based on retail sales throughout China during the 2007-08 season, according to the NBA.

That Kobe's jersey is a top seller comes as no surprise to most Chinese basketball fans.

"It's easy to see why. Kobe's amazing skills and talent, especially obvious in his performance last season, could not fail to win Chinese hearts," 25-year-old Beijing basketball fan Zhong Yu said, adding that he spent 2,000 yuan ($295) on buying Kobe's 1996 shirt from the NBA website.

Bryant's brilliant performance last season, when he led the Los Angeles Lakers to the NBA Finals, earned him the hallowed MVP - NBA's most valuable player - designation.

"Nationality is immaterial when it comes to most favored basketball players. Fans go by skills alone," Zhong said.

Dyed-in-the-wool basketball fans, however, are unimpressed by market-based polls.

"Topping a sales list doesn't decide a player's caliber, only how much of a financial asset they are to the league," 31-year-old Beijing basketball fan Zhang Yayi said.

"No one would dispute that Michael Jordan is a legend, yet his name is nowhere on the list," she said.

Yao's declining ranking was to due to a general cooling-off of basketball fans, Zhang said.

"He was very popular when he first joined the NBA, but seems to have fallen from favor in recent years," she said.

Adidas is the label on NBA's money-spinning sportswear, and also official supplier of the best-selling Chinese Olympic athletes' red and yellow "luck cloud" design tracksuits, priced at 680 yuan each.

"Business has been particularly good lately," a salesman at an Adidas retail store in Beijing said.