Which NBA Teams Are Worth Over $1 Billion: Forbes List Franchise Prices For LA Lakers, New York Knicks & More: Ballmer Overpaid For Clippers? Will Mikhail Prokhorov Sell Brooklyn Nets?

The NBA now has 11 teams worth over $1 billion, with three teams — the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls — now worth over $2 billion, says a new report from Forbes. The whopping new evaluations come as two of those eleven, the league-leading Atlanta Hawks and struggling, Russian-owned Brooklyn Nets are up for sale (potentially, at least, with the Nets), and the league enjoying a league-wide boom in revenue. But it still appears that billionaire and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer overpaid for the Chris Paul and Blake Griffin-led Los Angeles Clippers when he bought the team for $2 billion in 2014.

Forbes' annual list of NBA valuations from Kurt Badenhausen has the Los Angeles Lakers topping the 30 NBA franchises at a whopping $2.6 billion, followed by the Knicks down from top place last year to a still kinda impressive $2.5 billion, and the Chicago Bulls at $2 billion.

They're followed by the Boston Celtics ($1.7 billion), Los Angeles Clippers ($1.6 billion) and Brooklyn Nets ($1.5 billion) as the top six most valuable franchises.

Forbes: Brooklyn #Nets valued at $1.5 billion, 6th most expensive NBA team. https://t.co/mfGssUor9L pic.twitter.com/5Wv9h1NB9F

— NetsDaily.com (@NetsDaily) January 21, 2015

The other five worth over a $1 billion are the Golden State Warriors ($1.3 billion), Houston Rockets ($1.25 billion), Miami Heat ($1.175 billion), Dallas Mavericks ($1.15 billion) and 2014 NBA champions, the San Antonio Spurs ($1 billion).

LeBron James's return to the Cleveland Cavaliers now means that they're worth $915 million, good for 15th on the list, while the 'for sale' and league leading Atlanta Hawks are ranked 22nd at $825 million.

The full list can be found here.

The most Valuable NBA teams: 1. Lakers 2. Knicks 3. Bulls Full coverage: https://t.co/VXHw7mW6Yv

— Forbes (@Forbes) January 21, 2015

Forbes add that "The average NBA team is now worth $1.1 billion, 74% more than last year." The point out that that's the largest "one-year gain since Forbes began valuing teams in the four major U.S. sports leagues in 1998."

Badenhausen points out that one of the main reasons the Lakers top the list is because they have "the richest local TV deal in the sport: a 20-year, $4 billion contract with Time Warner that kicked off in 2012. Ratings on SportsNet LA were off 54% last year, but the team still pocketed $125 million for the season from Time Warner."

Despite an injury to star Kobe Bryant last year the team, Forbes report, still had an NBA-record operating income of $104 million.

As ESPN's Darren Rovell adds, former Chicago Bulls superstar Michael Jordan "hasn't had an easy road as owner of Charlotte's NBA team, but the former great certainly is in a good position financially. What he paid $275 million for five years ago is now worth $725 million."

At least one of the franchise valuations - the Nets - is slightly different to other predictions, with valuations expert Peter Schwartz telling Bloomberg that the Nets would be worth around $1.3 billion, and $2 billion when including their arena.

But it appears that Dancin' Steve Ballmer overpaid when he bought the LA Clippers from Donald Sterling in 2014 for $2 billion.

Strangely, none of the valuations appear to take on-court performance much into account. As CBS Sports's Matt Moore says, "It's also pretty maddening that competitive efforts have almost no translation to value, as the Knicks, Nets, and Celtics are all awful teams while the Hawks and Grizzlies are the toasts of the league and still in the bottom ten."

Forbes: 11 teams valued at over $1 billion https://t.co/JjHDRSh4Ud

— Matt Moore CBS (@MattMooreCBS) January 21, 2015