Understanding the NBA.
The NBA (National Basketball Association) is a professional basketball league which is made up of 30 teams across Northern America that features the best basketball players in the world. There are 30 teams, which are broken down into two conferences with three divisions each.
Basketball is one of the most popular sports in America, second behind American Football. And, the NBA is second to the NFL in terms of popularity when it comes to sports betting, among the top five sports to bet on in America, you just know that fans and bettors alike adore placing NBA player props bets, and betting the moneyline on this fantastic athletic sport.
Now, for the hard question. What makes a team the best and the biggest in the NBA? Is it money, or is it fans? Maybe both? That’s a matter of perspective. A big team can have little money but loads of fans, or it can have loads of money but few fans. Either way, both of these factors tie into success for the franchises. So, today we will look at the teams that have the most value and most fans in the NBA.
NBA Franchise with the highest value- New York Knicks.
When we are looking at the franchise value per team in the NBA this year, the New York Knicks stand out like a sore thumb. They have been statistically voted as the most valuable franchise in the NBA by Forbes, with them having a total value of five billion U.S. dollars!
The Knicks are part of the Eastern conference and the Atlantic division. They were founded in 1946 and their home arena is Madison Square Garden in New York City. They have two championships under their belt from 1970 and 1973, as well as four conference titles in 1972, 1973, 1994, and 1999. They also have 8 Division titles from 1953, 1954, 1970, 1971, 1989, 1993, 1994, and 2013.
They had a downfall from 2000 until 2003, but they started rebuilding in 2008 until 2010, however they started to struggle again from 2017 until 2020 after their Phil Jackson era. Yet, they returned to the playoffs in 2020. From 2016 until 2020 they never qualified for the playoffs, however in the 2020 to 2021 season they did reach the playoffs even though they lost in the first round, they still made it, which is a good sign for the future!
NBA Franchise with second-highest value- Golden State Warriors.
The Golden State Warriors are the NBA franchise with the second-highest value, at 4.7 billion U.S. dollars. Only 0.3 billion dollars less than the Knicks, they have a lot of value as a team, and are highly revered in their hometown of San Francisco.
The Golden State Warriors are part of the Western Conference in the pacific Division. They were founded in 1946 as the Philadelphia Warriors, until they changed their name to the San Francisco Warriors in 1962 and then finally to the Golden State Warriors in 1971. Their home arena is the Chase Center.
The Warriors have 6 Championships under their belt; 1947, 1956, 1975, 2015, 2017, and 2018. As well as 6 conference titles; 1975, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, 12 division titles; 1948, 1951, 1956, 1964, 1967, 1975, 1976, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. Showing that despite how they’re valued 0.3 billion less than the Knicks, they sure have more titles to their name and have more recent success too!
NBA Franchise with the biggest fan base- Los Angeles Lakers.
The Los Angeles Lakers have the biggest fan base in the NBA, with 22 million fans. The Lakers have 16 championships to their name, and they were founded in 1947 as the Detroit Gems.
The franchise moved to Minneapolis and changed its name to the Minneapolis Lakers, but after struggling financially, they were relocated to Los Angeles before the 1960-61 seasons.
They are considered to be one of the NBA’s most successful teams in the history of the sport, as they have 16 NBA championships, having overtaken the previously top-notch team, the Boston Celtics. Not to mention how some of the greatest NBA players of all time have played for the Lakers. This includes players like Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O-Neal, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James. You do not even need to be an NBA fan to know most of these names, and they all played for the Lakers. That speaks louder than anything else we think.
NBA Franchise with second-largest fan base- Chicago Bulls.
The franchise with the second-highest number of fans and supporters is the Chicago Bulls, and it’s safe to say that this is likely to no surprise of most. The team saw its greatest successes in the 1990s, which is not really a surprise either, is it? Not when they had players like Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and the coach, Phil Jackson, who led the Bulls to six NBA Champions between ‘91 and ‘98.
The Chicago Bulls are also, astoundingly, the only NBA franchise to win multiple championships while never losing an NBA Finals series in their history. Their success played a major part in the popularization of the NBA worldwide.
The Celtics or the Lakers?
This leaves us with one question, who is the most successful, the Knicks while financially huge haven’t quite got the game, not like the Lakers. The Lakers, Celtics and Bulls have all got quite impressive counts of championships, but the Lakers and the Celtics are really calling it close.
For quite some time the Celtics led the game in championship titles, however, the Lakers now have the same amount of Championships as the Celtics, both at 17. However, the Lakers are trumping the Celtics in terms of finals appearances, the Celtics have 21 finals appearances, whereas the Lakers have 32, so far. Also, the Lakers have a lot more recent wins than the Celtics. The Celtics only won 1 of their 17 championships since the turn of the century, whereas the Lakers have won 6 of their 17 since 2000.