Their Clippers estimate may date from a time when they were both perpetually sucky and inextricably owned by Sterling. The big-market values there are still low, sure, but they don’t necessarily scale linearly.
Anyway, if the Lakers are worth the better part of $2B even as bad as they’ve been for the last couple of years, it isn’t completely crazy that the other LA team, now that it’s good and on the market, could exceed that.
They’re from January 2014. And none of Forbes’ lists are worth anything, as far as I’m concerned. They’re mostly-fictional numbers made up to get people to read the magazine or visit the website. The circumstances behind the sale of the Clippers are unusual and I’m not saying every NBA team that goes on sale will go for $2 billion, but it gives you more of an idea of where the team prices are headed. The new CBA is a big asset, there are local TV deals, the new NBA TV deal and expanding content platform blah blah blah will be a big deal.
Forbes is making their value estimates based on what a businessman or corporate interest **should **pay for them, upper end, if they intended on using them as a money-making enterprise. They’re very rough estimates anyway, but that’s what they are.
However, that is absolutely NOT why Steve Ballmer wants to buy the Clippers. He wants to buy the Clippers because Paul Allen owns the SuperSonics. He wants to buy the Clippers because tha’s as close as he can get to being part of a sports team. He wants to buy the Clippers because it makes him cooler. He’s a rich guy who values being Pro Sports Team Owner more than he values $2 billion.
Practically speaking, it is impossible for Forbes or anyone else to predict who will be at the top of that particular heap at any given time.
That’s really part of their value because everyone who buys a professional sports team feels that way. In any case if Steve Ballmer sells the Clippers in 20 or 30 years, I don’t think he’s going to wind up in the red.
I was reading The Book of Basketball this morning and came across a tidbit:
Donald Sterling paid $19 million for the Clippers.
His gain on this $2 billion sale?
$1,981,000,000
We should all be punished so harshly!
That’s what happens if you own a professional sports franchise for a couple of decades. He’s not making $2 billion on the sale, of course, since there are taxes and lawyers to be paid and lots of other things, and who knows how Sterling Marriage Inc. handles its property. In any event: the guy was already a billionaire, and he was already a disgrace.
Well… some professional sports franchises. I wouldn’t buy the New Jersey Generals for $10. 
Didn’t Clay Bennett say roughly the same thing?
Trailblazers.
He actually moved the Sonics to a *smaller *market.
For now. 
Unless Ballmer pulls a Clay Bennett and gets his team to Seattle before Allen does. Do those guys like each other, anybody know?
Yes, but when he bought them he said he had no plans to move them. And now Ballmer is saying he won’t move the Clippers to a smaller market.
Has there been any speculation that Allen would move the Trailblazers north? If he wanted to fill the vacuum left by the Sonics, he’s had a few years already to do so.
It would be nuts to move the Clippers, that has been a profitable franchise while being a decades long joke of the league. You just don’t move out of LA.
Mostly they were profitable because of Sterling’s extreme cheapness. It’s kind of a different time in that regard. You can spend far more money than he did and still make a profit.
This isn’t a done deal at all. In fact, it’s questionable if it’s a deal at all. Cite.
I’d quote the article, but it’s only about 6 sentences. In a nutshell, Donald Sterling’s attorney is denying that Sally Sterling has the legal authority to do this without Donald’s approval, which won’t be forthcoming.
Why the heck would Donald Sterling want to stop this deal? He may not be happy about the whole thing but he should be happy about the amount of money to be made. And someone pointed out on the radio that the notoriety from his racist statements probably contributed to the high price (by publicizing the fact of the team’s sale).
Because Donald Sterling is a shithole and wants to stick it to the NBA more than he cares about money. He’s 80, what’s he going to do with an extra $2 billion when he’s already a billionaire? Fuck that guy, I wish he’d die soon
It’s a done deal. He has been declared legally incompetent and has no power to stop the sale. Ballmer will be approved as the new owner within a week. The question is whether we should laugh at Donald Steeling for getting legally outfoxed by his wife or feel sorry for him because he has dementia.
What about Anaheim? The Clippers almost moved there in 2006 but Sterling vetoed the idea because he has an irrational fear of venturing outside of LA city limits.
The sale agreement stipulates that he won’t move the team.
Not so sure it’s a done deal. CNN says only that two neurologists have deemed him mentally incapacitated, but nothing about a court declaring him so. In my state, that would be grounds to institute conservatorship proceedings, but he’d be entitled to service of process, and the chance to present testimony from his own doctors if desired. Could take weeks or months to litigate.
He’s suing the NBA for a billion and seeking a restraining order to block the sale in federal court. If he wants to fight, he could possibly seek to block the sale in state court as well.
But doesn’t that just mean that Ballmer agreed not to move the team out of the LA basin? If so, that would still leave open the possibility the Clippers could still move to Anaheim or some other arena in the area. In fact, if I were Ballmer’s position and was clearly forbidden from taking the team to Seattle (like I’d want to do), my first order of business would be to end Sterling’s policy of living off the Lakers’ scraps at Staples and move to a different venue where the Clippers could carve out a distinct identity and fan base.