Today the NBA as a whole generates around eight billion U.S. dollars in revenue per season, an average per team of around 264 million U.S. dollars in the 2019/20 season. In that year, the Golden State Warriors, the New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers were the only teams with more than 400 million U.S. dollars in annual revenue. All other teams in the NBA generated more than 200 million U.S. dollars in revenue in the 2019/20 season, with the New leans Pelicans generating the lowest revenue in the league - 209 million U.S. dollars.
The New York Knicks are the most valuable franchise of the league with a total value of around five billion U.S. dollars. All other NBA franchises have a value of at least 1.3 billion U.S. dollars or more. The least valuable franchise is the Memphis Grizzlies with a value of 1.3 billion U.S. dollars. On average, NBA franchises have an estimated value of around 2.2 billion U.S. dollars. In comparison, the average franchise value in the NFL was just over three billion U.S. dollars, in the MLB 1.85 billion U.S. dollars, and in the NHL 653 million U.S. dollars. During the NBA regular season, a league wide total of 1,230 games are played, with each team playing 82 games. The average regular season home attendance in the league was 17,750 during the 2019/20 season.
The WNBA is the premier league for women's basketball in the United States, comprising 12 teams split into Eastern and Western conferences. The honor of highest paid player in the league in 2021 was shared among five players, four of whom played for Phoenix Mercury. One of these players was Skylar Diggins-Smith, who has twice won the Nancy Lieberman Award for the best point guard in the country, and took home 221,450 U.S. dollars for her season's work in 2021.
