Lakers most valuable NBA franchise

The purple and gold top the NY Knicks, according to the latest Forbes ranking, thanks in part to a new 20-year television deal with Time Warner Cable worth an average of $200 million annually. That drives up the value of the Lakers to $900 million, up 40 percent from a year earlier. In third place, after the Knicks, it's the Chicago Bulls, followed by Dallas and Boston. In general, blockbuster TV deals, along with a new collective bargaining agreement, have boosted team values by 6.5 percent over last year, to $393 million. From Forbes:

Time Warner will create two new regional sports channels to feature the Lakers, one in English and one in Spanish. The Lakers have by far the biggest TV audience of any NBA club, averaging 271,000 households on Fox Sports West last season, which was 73% higher than the next-most-watched team, the Chicago Bulls. The NBA's TV ratings soared nationally and locally last year, jumping more than 50% on regional sports networks for at least eight teams.

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NBA revenues hit a record $4 billion last season, up 4.2% from the prior year. The average NBA team had an operating profit (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of $5.8 million last year, down 5% from the prior year. That profit is inflated by the top teams as the Lakers, Knicks, Bulls and Heat average $46 million in earnings while the rest of the league had a cumulative loss. Overall, 15 teams lost money, led by the Charlotte Bobcats and Memphis Grizzlies, who both were $25 million in the red.