The Warriors are still the NBA’s most valuable team, according to Kurt Badenhausen of Sportico, who unveiled the website’s updated NBA franchise valuations for 2025 on Thursday.
Badenhausen projects the Warriors’ value at $11.33 billion, which represents an incredible 24% increase from last year’s $9.14 billion valuation. The NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, at $12.8 billion, continue to be the only global sports franchise whose valuation comes in higher than Golden State’s, according to Sportico’s projections.
As Badenhausen outlines, the Warriors lead the NBA in revenue by a significant margin, having generated an estimated $833MM last season. Golden State makes more than $5MM per game in ticket revenue, along with $2.5MM from luxury suites; the club also has a $45MM per year jersey patch deal with Rakuten, earns almost double what any other team makes in sponsorship revenue, and is one of the few teams to fully own and operate its arena, per Sportico.
After placing third a year ago, the Lakers have jumped to second place on Sportico’s 2025 list at $10 billion, based on Mark Walter‘s recent agreement to purchase the team at that valuation. The Lakers moved slightly ahead of the third-place Knicks, who come in at $9.85 billion.
Every team’s valuation has increased by at least 9% since last year, per Sportico, with the average value of an NBA franchise now at $5.51 billion (up 20% from 2024) and no team worth less than $4 billion.
The average valuation has more than doubled since 2022, when it was $2.58 billion. As Badenhausen writes, the NBA’s new $76 billion media rights deal and its global ambitions – including the possible creation of a league in Europe – have played a part in those gains.
Although the Warriors’ $833MM is something out of an outlier, NBA teams generated an average of approximately $408MM in revenue last season, according to Badenhausen, with the Grizzlies coming in last at $301MM. Memphis also ranks 30th on Sportico’s list of franchise values.
Despite placing at the bottom of this list, the Grizzlies actually had the most significant increase in their franchise valuation this past year, rising from $3.06 billion to $4 billion (31%). The Pelicans (30%), Timberwolves (29%), and Eastern Conference champion Pacers (27%) were the other biggest risers.
Of course, it’s worth noting that figures from Sportico or any other media outlet are just estimates and often don’t quite match up with the sale prices for franchises that change hands. But these projections are usually in the right ballpark and remain useful for getting a sense of the league’s most and least valuable teams.
Here’s Sportico’s full list of NBA franchise valuations for 2025:
- Golden State Warriors: $11.33 billion
- Los Angeles Lakers: $10 billion
- New York Knicks: $9.85 billion
- Los Angeles Clippers: $6.72 billion
- Boston Celtics: $6.35 billion
- Brooklyn Nets: $6.22 billion
- Chicago Bulls: $6.12 billion
- Miami Heat: $6.03 billion
- Philadelphia 76ers: $5.61 billion
- Houston Rockets: $5.53 billion
- Dallas Mavericks: $5.24 billion
- Toronto Raptors: $5.22 billion
- Phoenix Suns: $5.09 billion
- Atlanta Hawks: $5.02 billion
- Sacramento Kings: $5 billion
- Cleveland Cavaliers: $4.86 billion
- Denver Nuggets: $4.8 billion
- Washington Wizards: $4.78 billion
- Indiana Pacers: $4.76 billion
- Milwaukee Bucks: $4.54 billion
- San Antonio Spurs: $4.5 billion
- Oklahoma City Thunder: $4.34 billion
- Utah Jazz: $4.27 billion
- Portland Trail Blazers: $4.25 billion
- Minnesota Timberwolves: $4.24 billion
- Orlando Magic: $4.21 billion
- Detroit Pistons: $4.17 billion
- Charlotte Hornets: $4.13 billion
- New Orleans Pelicans: $4.02 billion
- Memphis Grizzlies: $4 billion
As Badenhausen notes, Sportico’s projections are based on a control sale price, rather than limited stake purchases. Controlling shares in the Celtics, Lakers, and Trail Blazers all changed hands this past year, though only the Celtics sale has been formally approved by the NBA so far.
William Chisholm is buying the Celtics in two stages, with an initial valuation of $6.1 billion and a blended valuation of roughly $6.5 billion. Walter is purchasing the Lakers at a valuation of $10 billion, while Tom Dundon is buying the Blazers at a $4.25 billion valuation.
Warriors valuation is as fake as it gets. Once Curry retires, warriors games will be wasteland
Lacob can thank Curry for making them all those billions. lacob was able to build a new stadium off Curry’s years. Now they are rolling in the money on certs there. Revenue will go down once Curry retires.
Chase never goes dark. So, they won’t have any problems.
It’s the explosion of wealth in the Bay Area over the last 20 years (due to tech company valuations) that is the primary reason for the Warriors’ valuation. And that doesn’t change when Steph retires.
Warriors make, by far, the most money per game — over $800 per game for each person that visits the Chase Center. It’s about 8-10x as much as New Orleans or Cleveland.
Oh, bless your dear heart. You are worried about the Warriors after Curry retires. Don’t fret. The Warriors have a smart FO. They’ll figure it out. Besides, Curry is not going that far away.
Yes because the warriors had a roaring fan base before Curry? The delusions never cease to amaze
The warriors actually did have a strong base before Curry came on. They were selling out games with a horrible team. Next time do some digging before making a claim.
Actually, they did not. Next time do some digging before refuting my claim
Curry wasn’t even a star when their sell out streak started. 3 years before his MVP season and they were not even a playoff team. So you might want to recheck your facts.
Haha what? So the sellout streak didn’t start until AFTER curry was on the team? That completely contradicts your previous comment. You might want to recheck what a fact is
how many years has that been? Curry wasn’t even a star. You lost the debate so dont try and pretend you didn’t.
310 sellouts, from March 9, 1989, to April 1, 1996. bet you can’t name a single player on top of your head from those dates.
Haha what? There weren’t even 310 games in that time frame. You just lred everything you said is pure delusion
And I would cook you in early 90s warrior trivia
89 to 96?? Wow you sure flunked math
@arc89 you just pulled the reciepts and cooked Big Dork in a stew
l m a o
They mostly definitely did have a roaring fan base. I didn’t have to do research. I was there. They never had problems selling out. Chase is a much quieter place than Oracle.
But they didn’t. They had cute little boost from the we believe team, but that’s it. If you were there, you would know that’s a lot it was, so I guess you weren’t there
Give it up big D. You are showing that you have not start watching the NBA before 2014.
No, I’m showing I’m the only one here that understands logic and facts.
You are openly lying by stating GSW had no fans before Curry besides a slight bump by We Believe. That is an outright fallacy. A complete lie. 310 sellouts, from March 9, 1989, to April 1, 1996, prove you are entirely wrong. The Bay Area was foaming at the mouth for good basketball every single year the Warriors were terrible. The Bay Area LOVES hoops. You are lying when you say otherwise, its just a joke at this point, literally every human from the Bay will say you are wrong. Because you are 100% wrong.
You are openly lying by stating GSW had fans before Curry besides a slight bump by We Believe.
Why are the raptors so low?
Corporate accounting shenanigans?
American bias?
I was going to say taxes, but looking into, the rich actually pay less taxes in Canada than the US, at least federally
Yeah the Toronto tax rate is a bit of a misnomer
I’m guessing it has more to do with how mlse, the parent company distributes assets and revenues
They’re owned by rogers who owns the building, tv network etc….
Warriors used to the lowest. Lacob and his partners are unbelievable. We all have been blessed since they have become owners. Now, the questiom is will Lacob sell?
Thank Curry not the owners lol.. your team will be back at the bottom when he retires just like the Bulls post 1998
> Now, the questiom is will Lacob sell?
IMO, not in the foreseeable future. There are very few investment opportunities with the growth and liquidity opportunities of NBA team ownership, even for Silicon Valley VC’s.
The NBA as a whole is being driven by international interest to > 30% annual revenue growth. We’re at the beginning of that growth ramp.
It used to be that it was difficult for NBA owners to profit from rising valuations without selling the team, but the NBA now allows a number of ways for owners to sell small amounts of equity passive investors. For example, Lacob’s original ownership group made a $1B in cash selling 15% of the team to private equity firm Arctos 2 years ago at an $8M valuation. Expect more of that in the future.
Warriors’ valuation would likely be double today if not for the fallout from the FTX pump/dump scam of Sam Bankman-Fried
They play in a low population area, have 75 years of history saying they are a dysfunctional franchise, they have a low fan base… but should be valued even HIGHER?! You know Curry is going to retire one day right?
I’ll never comprehend how the Heat aren’t top 3 on this list (with LA and NYC teams) They play in the most international city in the NBA (which is why they are one of, if not the most popular team globally).. they play next to one of the biggest cruise ship ports on earth, they are the most successful team in the league over the last 30 years… and they are respected as one of the best run organizations in all of sports.. makes no sense to me. Meanwhile a franchise that’s been a bottom dweller in every aspect until 2015 is #1? haha (PS the Magic should be much higher too but their low fan base probably detracts from their value.. and any team that ever plays in Vegas should have the same built in value due to location)
Miami is a strong market, but not nearly as affluent as the Bay Area, New York, or LA. (FWIW, San Francisco is now a more affluent and expensive city than Manhattan. Consider that 8 US high tech companies now account for 20% of all stock valuation in the entire world.)
Valuations translate to future cash flows. Outside of the league revenues from TV/streaming deals, which are shared equally across all 30 teams, valuations are determined by the affluence of the local market.
Affluence translates to the price paid for tickets, and even more important, for other arena amenities, like club, restaurant, and alcohol.
You value a franchise based on the net worth of the people in the surrounding cities?!?! REALLY?! Come on man lol
Can you show me pics of people outside the US wearing a warriors shirt that didn’t say curry on it? Cuz I can show you heat jersey’s with mourning, hardaway, wade, haslem, james, bosh, etc etc worn all over the world. Global impact branding should matter 10000x more than the “affluence” of the city around you lol… by that logic the Knicks should be worth 20 billion lol
@jeremyn, I’ll assume your exposure to finance is limited. If you pay attention, the ranked team valuations in the business press that you refute will make sense. You can obtain the same info from multiple other sources.
Repeating what I said earleier: “Valuations translate to FUTURE cash flows.”. The primary sources of revenue for NBA teams are these 3, the first 2 being shared/equal for all teams:
1) Merchandising (including jerseys) is 11%-15% — pooled and shared equally across all teams.
2) NBA TV/streaming media, which is also shared equally. (Local TV/radio licencses vary by team, but are a small percentage.) Every NBA team, no matter how small its ticket sales/seating/suite and arena amenities, is worth a least $3B because of its share of national TV and international streaming contracts.
3) Ticket sales/seating and arena amenities account for most of the remainder of a team’s valuation. It won’t matter how many games the Heat win in the future, they will never be able to charge nearly as much as the Lakers, Clippers, Knicks or Warriors do. Yes, that’s because people in those cities can pay more for tickets than in Miami.