Forbes Magazine is a publication usually read exclusively by intelligent people, but they just happened to drop something for all of us common folk out there this past month. They rank all 30 NBA teams in order of value, and also provide us with some financial trends for the league as a whole.
Despite the average American having to pawn off most of their belongings over the past 12 months, most NBA franchises are living pretty large.
Last season was a rousing success for the National Basketball Association. The league’s two marquee teams, the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, met in the finals, and television ratings soared 51% over the prior year. The league’s two biggest stars, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, were on winning teams and getting a lot of prime-time exposure, wowing fans and sponsors.
League-wide revenues hit a record $3.8 billion during the 2007-08 season, 6% more than the prior campaign, and the average team posted a profit (in the sense of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of $10.6 million, the highest amount since Forbes began tracking NBA finances 10 years ago.
Check out after the jump for some highlights from the 30-team ranking…
- The New York Knicks are tops in the Association for the fourth consecutive year. Their value is up 1% from last year’s report and lies at approximately $613 million (they can’t give Marbury 21 million to shut him up?). On the opposite end of the spectrum are the Milwaukee Bucks, who are worth $278 million.
- The biggest jumps in value were enjoyed by the Trail Blazers, who saw their worth shoot up 21% over the past 365, and the Celtics who had a 14% jump. I guess that’s what happens when you replace Ryan Gomes and Gerald Green with Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. The two biggest drops were the Nets (-12%) and the Pacers (-9%).
- The Raptors came in the list at numero eleven with a value of $400 million (7% jump)
