Forbes: Knicks are the most valuable franchise in 2013

Forbes released its annual NBA franchise valuations Wednesday and sitting atop the league valued at a ripe $1.1 billion are the Knickerbockers of New York. Forbes estimates the Knicks made a cool profit of $83 million in 2012 and pulled in an NBA-high $243 million in revenue.

By Royce Young

Jan 23, 2013 at 3:19 pm ET • 1 min read

Congratulations on your money, Mr. Dolan. (Getty Images)

Remember when the Knicks let Jeremy Lin go back in July and everyone freaked out about MSG stock prices taking a dip as the world wondered what financial impact that would have on the organization?

Yeah, that ended up being pretty stupid.

(Also, stupid: That lockout we had a little over a year ago.)

The Knicks' value has risen 41 percent over last season's price of $780 million, overtaking the Lakers as the most valuable NBA franchise. The Lakers, No. 2 on this season's list, are valued at $1 billion, up from $900 million last season. The Lakers will likely retake the top spot as their new 20-year, $3.6 billion TV contract kicks in this season.

Coming third are the Bulls at $800 million, fourth are the Celtics at $730 million and rounding out the top five are the Mavericks at $685 million.

The Nets saw their value rise a whopping 48 percent with their move to Brooklyn, up to an estimated $530 million, placing them ninth.

Interesting: The Clippers, who are sort of Los Angeles' new "it" team, are only 18th, valued at $430 million, roughly $570 million behind their roommates.

The average NBA team is worth $509 million, a 30 percent increase over last season. Forbes says the increase is due to "higher revenue from television, new and renovated arenas, and the NBA’s new collective-bargaining agreement, which reduced player costs from 57 percent of revenues to roughly 50 percent. The labor deal also increased the amount of money high-revenue teams provide low-revenue teams."

Here's how all 30 teams shook out:

1. New York Knicks: $1.1 billion

2. Los Angeles Lakers: $1 billion

3. Chicago Bulls: $800 million

4. Boston Celtics: $730 million

5. Dallas Mavericks: $685 million

6. Miami Heat: $625 million

7. Houston Rockets: $568 million

8. Golden State Warriors: $555 million

9. Brooklyn Nets: $530 million

10. San Antonio Spurs: $527 million

11. Sacramento Kings: $525 million