Forbes NBA Team Values

This ranking of the value of each NBA team by Forbes is very interesting.

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2011/32/basketball-valuations-11_rank.html

It shows that the most valuable NBA franchise this year is the New York Knicks. They are valued at $655 million. The least valuable franchise is the Milwaukee Bucks. They are valued at $258 million.

If you look at each team's individual information, there is a ton of interesting numbers that explain a lot. One of the most telling stats there is Revenue. The Knicks have the highest revenue in the league at $226 million. The New Jersey Nets, who are ranked 21st in overall value, have the lowest revenue at $89 million.

Another area of interest in this to me is Operating Income, which as far as I can tell is basically the profit made by each team in the last year. Once again, the Knicks are at the top with $64 million. What is really surprising about this is the team in last place: the Orlando Magic. Their operating income is -$23.1 million. This is surprising because the Magic are a title contending team this year and have been for the last few years. Usually the good teams are making money. There are 17 teams who lost money last year, 5 of those teams (Nets, Nuggets, Pacers, Bobcats, Magic) lost over $10 million. Having over half of the league's teams losing money each year is not good for the league. I think they should institute a system of Revenue Sharing by each team, similar to what the NFL has in place.

There is a lot of other interesting info in there, such as Gate Receipts (how much the team made from people attending the games and is a very telling stat), Average Ticket Price, and each team owner's Net Worth. I hope you take some free time to take a look at this info and consider yourself informed!

Best Value Teams pt. 8

The Bulls have become the 1st team besides the Spurs to have a Cost per Win under $1 million since Part 3 of this series. They have accomplished this by going 8-2 in their last 10 games. The Hornets have moved up a few spots by going on a 10 game win streak. The Clippers continue their meteoric rise in the rankings (up to 15th this week), however, their top scorer, Eric Gordon is out for a few weeks with an injury. So expect them to not stay as high as they are this week.

On the other hand, the Raptors (10 game losing streak) and Cavs (19 game losing streak) are struggling and have fallen to the bottom of the standings.

Biggest Improvement - Bobcats (+5)
Biggest Drop - Pacers (-6)

Rank - Team - Projected Wins - Cost per Win - (Last ranking)
1. Spurs - 70 - $973,278.29 (1)
2. Bulls - 57 - $986,626.40 (3)
3. Thunder - 53 - $1,093,482.75 (4)
4. Heat - 57 - $1,146,607.44 (2)
5. Hornets - 54 - $1,224,700.30 (8)
6. Hawks - 52 - $1,334,072.50 (7)
7. Knicks - 43 - $1,351,219.49 (5)
8. Celtics - 62 - $1,351,463.85 (6)
9. Blazers - 44 - $1,554,979.82 (11)
10. Lakers - 58 - $1,578,787.22 (12)
11. Mavs - 55 - $1,595,677.51 (10)
12. Jazz - 46 - $1,647,507.72 (53)
13. Nuggets - 50 - $1,677,248.80 (15)
14. Grizzlies - 40 - $1,679,058.45 (14)
15. Clippers - 31 - $1,698,993.65 (19)
16. Magic - 52 - $1,714,223.00 (13)
17. Suns - 38 - $1,722,423.13 (17)
18. Bobcats - 36 - $1,830,024.56 (23)
19. 76ers - 36 - $1,926,673.50 (20)
20. Warriors - 34 - $1,928,560.53 (18)
21. Rockets - 38 - $1,962,676.82 (21)
22. Pacers - 32 - $2,011,513.16 (16)
23. Bucks - 34 - $2,039,809.00 (24)
24. Kings - 20 - $2,189,920.05 (22)
25. Pistons - 30 - $2,197,260.70 (27)
26. Nets - 24 - $2,439,162.79 (28)
27. T-Wolves - 18 - $2,494,438.39 (25)
28. Wizards - 24 - $2,502,783.79 (30)
29. Raptors - 23 - $2,943,395.13 (26)
30. Cavs - 14 - $3,683,771.93 (30)

MLK Day

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. This day honors the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his role in the civil rights movement. Many people have the day off, and the NBA takes today as an opportunity to celebrate MLK. The NBA has 13 games today, starting early in the afternoon and running til late at night.

It's no secret that the NBA is considered a sport usually dominated by African-Americans. While Jackie Robinson and baseball get most of the recognition for breaking the color barrier in 1947, the NBA hasn't been far behind. 1950 saw the beginning of integration for the NBA. The first black player drafted by an NBA team was Chuck Cooper, picked in the second round of the 1950 draft by the Boston Celtics. In the eighth round of the draft, Washington chose Earl Lloyd of West Virginia State. At about the same time, the New York Knicks signed Nat "Sweetwater'' Clifton from the Harlem Globetrotters. Lloyd made his debut on Oct. 31, 1950, becoming the first black to play in an NBA game. Cooper made his debut a day later. Clifton, the first to sign a contract, played his first game on Nov. 4, 1950.

There are currently 10 black NBA head coaches, while there are only 8 black head coaches in the other major professional sports combined.

And it isn't just about black players. The NBA is full of foreign players too. It is a great mix of people from all races and backgrounds.

So even if you don't particularly enjoy the NBA, at least you can appreciate that MLK would be proud to see the sports world today, especially the NBA.

Best Value Teams pt. 7

It has been a while since I last updated the Best Value Rankings, and a lot has happened since then. A few trades that affect the rankings happened. The Lakers saved about $4 mil by trading Sasha Vujacic to the Nets for Joe Smith. The Magic saved about $5.5 mil by trading Vince Carter, Mickael Pietrus, Marcin Gortat to the Suns for Jason Richardson, Hedo Turkoglue, and Earl Clark. And also by trading Rashard Lewis to the Wizards for Gilbert Arenas. Also, the Heat have been nearly unbeatable recently. The Magic have gone a nice winning streak with their new players in place. The Clippers apparently do know how to play basketball. The Cavs and Wizards are getting worse every day.

Biggest improvement in standings: Clippers - 11 spots
Biggest drop in standings: Bucks - 6 spots

Ranking - Team - Projected Wins - Cost Per Win - Previous Ranking
1. Spurs - 68 - $998,059.49 (1)
2. Heat - 63 - $1,037,406.73 (4)
3. Bulls - 54 - $1,041,438.98 (3)
4. Thunder - 53 - $1,093,482.75 (2)
5. Knicks - 48 - %1,210,467.46 (5)
6. Celtics - 66 - $1,269,556.95 (6)
7. Hawks - 52 - $1,334,072.50 (10)
8. Hornets - 48 - $1,377,787.83 (7)
9. Jazz - 53 - $1,429,912.36 (9)
10. Mavs - 61 - $1,451,212.54 (8)
11. Blazers - 44 - $1,554,979.82 (15)
12. Lakers - 57 - $1,606,485.25 (11)
13. Magic - 55 - $1,620,719.93 (16)
14. Grizzlies - 39 - $1,722,111.23 (17)
15. Nuggets - 47 - $1,784,307.23 (14)
16. Pacers - 35 - $1,839,097.74 (13)
17. Suns - 35 - $1,869,157.31 (12)
18. Warriors - 33 - $1,987,001.76 (22)
19. Clippers - 26 - $2,025,723.19 (30)
20. 76ers - 34 - $2,040,007.24 (20)
21. Rockets - 36 - $2,071,714.42 (19)
22. Kings - 20 - $2,189,920.05 (26)
23. Bobcats - 30 - $2,196,029.47 (23)
24. Bucks - 31 - $2,237,209.87 (18)
25. T-Wolves - 20 - $2,244,994.55 (25)
26. Raptors - 27 - $2,465,504.52 (21)
27. Pistons - 26 - $2,535,300.81 (28)
28. Nets - 23 - $2,545,213.35 (27)
29. Cavs - 19 - $2,714,358.26 (24)
30. Wizards - 22 - $2,730,307.59 (29)