Are the Clippers really worth $2 billion? Five things that drove up the price.

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Any time you mentioned the Forbes Magazine NBA franchise valuations to some involved with the league, they scoffed at the numbers. They were seen as wildly inaccurate. (We in the media kept using them because outside of the occasional team sale there were no other good measures.)

Forbes estimated earlier this year that the Los Angeles Clippers were worth $575 million.

Thursday Shelly Sterling agreed to sell the Clippers to Steve Ballmer for $2 billion. (Whether that sale holds up legally remains to be seen.)

That sum raised a lot of eyebrows — are the Clippers really worth $2 billion? Everyone’s first reaction is that it seems high (and if the Clips are worth $2 billion, what are the Lakers worth?).

The easy capitalist answer is that a team is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. So, yes, that sense the Clippers are worth $2 billion.

But there are a series of factors that drove up the Clippers price to incredible heights.

• The team is in Los Angeles. L.A. is the second biggest media market in the United States with more than 13 million people in the metropolitan area. More importantly than that, the City of Angels has a whole lot of very rich people — Forbes estimates there are 30 billionaires in Los Angeles County alone, there are more than 200,000 millionaires — and those are the people that buy expensive seats near courtside. There are 14 Fortune 500 companies based in Los Angeles and countless more large corporations with offices there — the kind of companies that buy expensive luxury suites to impress clients. The bottom line is if you put a good product on the court you can sell the expensive seats that are the revenue fuel for professional sports teams in this era. Plus the Clippers have a string of 141 consecutive sell outs going. Yes, Los Angeles is a Lakers town first (that’s not changing soon) but there is more than enough market for a second team.

• New television deals are coming up. Right now the Clippers have a local television deal with Fox Sports West that pays them $20 million a season — which is less than teams like the Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers make — but that deal is up after the 2016 season. Clippers broadcast rights are going to spark a bidding war as entities like Time Warner Cable are expected to try to poach the team while current rights holder Fox Sports desperately needs to keep the Clippers to have enough good content to justify the two regional sports network channels they have in Los Angeles (Fox Sports West and Fox Sports Prime Ticket). Fox lost the Lakers and Dodgers to gigantic Time Warner deals in recent years, they can’t afford to lose the Clippers, and the Clipper ownership will benefit from that. This isn’t going to be as big as the Lakers deal (Los Angeles is still a Lakers town) but it will be big.

Then there is the fact the NBA is in the process of negotiating a new national television deal that will be much bigger than the current deal (rights for sports broadcasting have been going through the roof in recent years because it’s must-watch programing — people don’t DVR games and fast forward through the commercials). Currently teams get $30 million a season in national television revenue, soon that number is going to make a big leap. It is rumored that as part of the new deal Fox Sports will enter the national broadcast picture (with TNT and ABC/ESPN) and broadcast at least a game a week (likely Saturday night). The national broadcast rights fees are divided up equally among the 30 teams, so a raise in revenue is coming.

• The lockout was good to the owners. Make no mistake about it, the NBA owners won big in the last lockout. (Some may say it wasn’t enough, but did you ever hear of a really rich person who said, “I’m making enough, I should distribute more of this money to my employees.” Exactly.) The players went from getting 57 percent of the league’s “basketball related income” (money from national television deals, merchandise sales, a percentage of ticket and concession revenues) down to 50 percent. That works out to an estimated $280,000 million a season. That’s nearly $10 million a season more per team going to the owners. With the more strict salary cap and other devises put in place, that CBA made the NBA a good investment for the rich, not just a toy.

• NBA franchise values are already skyrocketing. Since the new CBA went into effect and people who could afford it figured out the NBA was a good investment, the value of NBA franchises has gone through the roof. In 2010 (pre-lockout) Joe Lacob and Peter Guber set the record for money spent to buy a franchise at $450 million for the Golden State Warriors. Since then Vivek Ranadivé led a group that paid $534 million to buy the Sacramento Kings (and they are paying more to get a new stadium built). Just weeks ago hedge fund guys Marc Lasry and Wes Edens spent $550 million to buy the small market Milwaukee Bucks (and they are going to have to put up a lot of money for a new arena, too). Prices for NBA franchises have been going through the roof, and now here comes one on the market in one of the nation’s largest cities, and a team that has been run poorly for decades and has room for growth.

• The frenzied bidding process. We love to watch auctions because they are dramatic. People selling things like auctions because buyers get caught up in the competitive, exciting bidding process and spend more than they maybe should on the item up on the block. That would be the case here — this was a rushed, frenzied bidding process. There are a lot of one percenters who want to get into the NBA club and getting a bunch of them to bid against each other in a rushed process is a good way to get someone to overbid.

Lakers’ LeBron James says he could need offseason foot surgery

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LeBron James wanted back on the court. He saw the glimpses of what this current roster can do when healthy and focused — the same glimpses that have Laker exceptionalism running strong in Los Angeles — and he sees a West without a dominant team. Together those things mean opportunity.

LeBron could have shut it down when he felt something pop in his foot last month, admitting that two doctors told him to get surgery. However, the “LeBron James of foot doctors” told him he could be back this season — and he made that return Sunday. Still, LeBron admitted he could need off-season surgery.

“I don’t know. Right now, I don’t need it, so we’ll see what happens. I’ll probably get another MRI at the end of the season and go from there. But if I end up having to get surgery after the season, you guys won’t know. I don’t talk to you guys in the offseason, and by the time next season starts, I’ll be fine. I’ll be ready to go.”

As for what motivated him to get back on the court this season and not shut it down.

“Now we sitting at a chance to be able to… to hell with the play-in, we actually can be a top-[six] seed. That definitely changed my mindset on me coming back and trying to be a part of this, obviously, so — well, I don’t really want to say changed my mindset, it just enhanced what I was trying to do as far as my workouts, as far as my treatment and everything”

The Lakers sit tied for 9/10 in the West, one game below .500. While LeBron can say, “to hell with the play-in,” his Lakers would need help from the Clippers or Warriors to climb into the top six even though they are only 1.5 games back (time is short for L.A., if the Warriors or Clippers go 4-3 the rest of the way, the Lakers need to go 6-2 over their last eight). Los Angeles also is just a game up on Dallas for the 11 seed, and if the losses pile up they could fall out of the play-in completely.

With LeBron back, missing the play-in is unlikely. But having him back (and eventually a healthy D'Angelo Russell, who was out Sunday with a hip issue) also is no guarantee of wins — the Lakers still need peak Anthony Davis to compete. When he has a solid game of 15 points, nine rebounds and five assists (as he did Sunday), they lose. The Lakers need bubble Davis every night, or even if they make the postseason it will be short-lived.

Dončić dodges suspension, NBA rescinds 16th technical

Dallas Mavericks v Charlotte Hornets
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This was unexpected, especially after crew chief Kevin Scott said after the game last night: “Doncic was assessed a technical foul for his use of profanity directed at the officials in protest to a no-call that was correctly judged in postgame video review.”

The NBA league office reviewed the incident (as it does with all technicals) and rescinded what would have been Luka Doncic’s 16th technical.

That 16th technical would have triggered an automatic one game suspension. With it rescinded, Dončić is clear to play Monday night when the Mavericks take on the Pacers.

Sunday night in Charlotte, Dončić was given a technical when he didn’t get a call on a leaning baseline jumper and said something to the nearby official.

This incident comes days after Dončić was fined $35,000  for making a money gesture towards a referee in frustration after a  Mavericks loss.

Through all this the Mavericks have lost four straight, 7-of-9, and have slid back to 11th in the West, outside even the play-in. Their team is disintegrating and if they don’t pick up some wins fast they have less than two weeks until they are on summer vacation.

MVP showdown off: 76ers to sit Joel Embiid due to calf tightness

Philadelphia 76ers v Phoenix Suns
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Recently Joel Embiid said,” ‘If I win MVP, good. If I don’t, it’s fine with me.” Today’s news plays right into that narrative.

Embiid has been playing through calf tightness for a few games now — he only played a half against the Bulls last Wednesday — but still putting up numbers (46 points against the Warriors, 28 and 10 against the Suns). However, there had been some concern in the organization about not pushing things and making sure Embiid is healthy for the playoffs. Which is why they will rest him on Monday night, short-circuiting an MVP-race showdown against Nikola Jokić and the Nuggets. Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN broke the news and John Clarke of NBC Sports Philadelphia has confirmed it.

Embiid did go through part of the 76ers’ shootaround this morning. The decision was made after that point.

Undoubtedly this will spark the load management discussion around the league again, and Embiid is going to take heat for this — but this is a situation where the team’s medical staff made the call, likely over Embiid’s objection.

From the 76ers perspective what matters is having Embiid healthy during the playoffs — they are going nowhere without him — and there is no reason to take undue risks with the team all but locked into the No. 3 seed in the East.

James Harden is still expected to make his return to action Monday from a three-game absence.

But it robs fans — including those who bought tickets in Denver — of one of the great showdowns in the league, and one of the more anticipated games of the season’s final weeks. The NBA has to find a way to balance player health with having their best players on the court for the biggest games. Keep telling fans the regular season doesn’t matter and they will start treating it like that.

Joel Embiid not stressing about MVP: ‘If I win MVP, good. If I don’t, it’s fine with me.’

Philadelphia 76ers v Phoenix Suns
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Joel Embiid is the MVP betting favorite — -160 at our partner PointsBet — heading into Monday’s showdown with the reigning two-time MVP Nikola Jokić (+180 at PointsBet).

Embiid campaigned for the MVP award the past couple of years but came up second to Jokić. This season, Embiid is not stressing about it. Or at least trying not to stress about it. Here is what Embiid told Shams Charania of The Athletic.

What matters — it’s just about winning, winning, winning. I’ve been focused on that. We’ve been doing that. Whatever happens, happens. If I win MVP, good. If I don’t, it’s fine with me.

Why hasn’t Embiid won the MVP? Outside of Jokić also being deserving and the complaints of Antetokounmpo and others that the criteria for the award are constantly changing (which suggests there are criteria for the award, but there are none officially), Embiid thinks it’s because he is not well-liked.

People always thought that I was crazy when I said this — I really believe that I’m not well-liked. And it’s cool with me, that’s fine. I’ll be the bad guy. I like being the a–hole anyway. I like being the underdog. So that’s fine with me. My thing is … when I leave the game, I want to make sure that they say: No one was stopping him offensively and defensively, and he was a monster.

There’s no doubt he will leave the game remembered as one of the great 76ers and a “monster” on both ends when healthy. However, resume matters with legacy and an MVP award helps with that. Just not as much as being the best player on a championship team, something more difficult to pull off because it requires a lot of help (it’s up for debate whether Embiid has the help he needs around him to win it all, and if they can stay healthy enough to make that run).

This season the MVP race is a tight three-way contest between Embiid, Jokić and Giannis Antetokounmpo (+450 at PointsBet). There are legitimate cases to be made for each member of this trio. However, with the Sixers surging (and the Nuggets stumbling a little), things may break his way this season.

Another dominant performance against Jokić with just a couple of weeks left in the season would stick in voters’ minds and help his cause.