The Clippers may have sold for a record $2 billion last year, but they trail four other teams in the annual franchise valuations that Forbes has unveiled for all 30 NBA teams. The Lakers and Knicks, as usual, top the list, followed by the Bulls and Celtics. The Clippers are worth only $1.6 billion, according to Forbes, suggesting that Steve Ballmer overpaid for the club. Still, the rankings reflect dramatic rises in team value, with the average team at $1.1 billion, a 74% spike over last year. That represents the largest jump for a league in any one year since Forbes began compiling team values for the NBA, Major League Baseball, the National Football League and the National Hockey League in 1998, as Kurt Badenhausen of Forbes.com notes.
There are 11 NBA teams worth more than $1 billion just two years after the Lakers and Knicks became the first teams ever to cross that threshold. The Hawks, who are up for sale, are worth $825MM, while the Nets, another team reportedly on the market, have a value of $1.5 billion. Officials from teams around the league often dispute the figures that Forbes puts out, though they’re widely cited as authoritative reflections of what each team is worth.
Here’s the complete list of the Forbes valuations:
- Lakers: $2.6 billion
- Knicks: $2.5 billion
- Bulls: $2 billion
- Celtics: $1.7 billion
- Clippers: $1.6 billion
- Nets: $1.5 billion
- Warriors: $1.3 billion
- Rockets: $1.25 billion
- Heat: $1.175 billion
- Mavericks: $1.15 billion
- Spurs: $1 billion
- Trail Blazers: $940MM
- Thunder: $930MM
- Raptors: $920MM
- Cavaliers: $915MM
- Suns: $910MM
- Wizards: $900MM
- Magic: $875MM
- Nuggets: $855MM
- Jazz: $850MM
- Pacers: $830MM
- Hawks: $825MM
- Pistons: $810MM
- Kings: $800MM
- Grizzlies: $750MM
- Hornets: $725MM
- 76ers: $700MM
- Pelicans: $650MM
- Timberwolves: $625MM
- Bucks: $600MM
And yet the players only share in the revenues!!!