New York Knicks Named NBA’s Most Valuable Franchise at $4.6 Billion

This is the fifth year in a row the Knicks have been the NBA's most valuable franchise

One of NBA's Worst Teams Is Also Its Most Valuable
New York Knicks owner James Dolan a press conference. (Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty)
Corbis via Getty Images

Despite being one of the worst teams in the NBA for the better part of a decade, the New York Knicks are still somehow the league’s most valuable franchise.

The Knicks, who are in the midst of their seventh losing season in a row at 17-37 in the Eastern Conference, are worth $4.6 billion, making this the fifth year in a row the team has been the NBA’s most valuable franchise.

According to Forbes, New York is followed by the Los Angeles Lakers ($4.4 billion), Golden State Warriors ($4.3 billion), Chicago Bulls ($3.2 billion) and Boston Celtics ($3.1 billion). Rounding out the top 10 are the Clippers ($2.6 billion), Nets ($2.5 billion), Rockets ($2.48 billion), Mavericks ($2.4 billion) and Raptors ($2.1 billion).

Per the new valuations from Forbes, the average NBA team is now worth $2.12 billion, an increase of about 476 percent in the past decade.

“Despite the noise around lower TV ratings and business problems in China, NBA franchise values continue to soar and are up 14%, compared to an 11% increase for NFL teams and 8% in Major League Baseball,” said Forbes senior editor Kurt Badenhausen.

Thanks in large part to the NBA’s TV deals with ESPN and Turner, the league’s teams have increased in value at a much higher rate over the last decade than franchises in the NHL (192 percent growth), NFL (179 percent growth) and MLB (262 percent growth). 

As a whole, the NBA’s 30 teams generated a record $8.8 billion in revenue last season, up 10 percent over the previous year.

Slightly more than 20 years ago in 1999, the Warriors, Clippers, Raptors and Mavericks ranked in the bottom 10 in the NBA in terms of value. Now, they are all within the top 10.

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