Owning a sports franchise is a dream that many people have. With teams worth hundreds of millions to billions, only the very wealthy can afford to splurge and buy their own sports franchise. More than 20 NBA team owners are billionaires. Over the past five years, the most successful owners, overall, have been the Brooklyn Nets' Mikhail Prokhorov and the New York Knicks' Dolan Family – a fact that may seem strange, given that both teams haven't had the best seasons on the court lately. Since 2011, no billionaire NBA owners have seen their investments grow quite as quickly as Prokhorov and Dolan.
It doesn't hurt that both the Nets and the Knicks play in New York City. Major metro area owners fare well in the NBA. The top six most successful owners are from the five largest cities in the U.S. – New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, and Dallas. Being in a major market means owners have the best chance of capitalizing on the recent boom in the value of NBA teams – even when their teams' performance on the court hasn't fared well. And, of course, being in a major city means there are more people to fill the seats in the stadium.
Owning any NBA team over the last five years has been a solid investment. The most successful owners in that time have seen their investments grow by more than 20% annually. For comparison, the growth of the S&P 500 over the same time period has been just 8.1% per year.
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The list of the 10 most successful NBA owners below features the highest annual returns for team owners who have owned their teams for at least the past five years.
Personal Net Worth: $17.1 billion
Team: Portland Trail Blazers
Team Value: $975 million
5-Year Annual Return: 22.3%
Personal Net Worth: $6.2 billion
Team: Miami Heat
Team Value: $1.3 billion
5-Year Annual Return: 25.1%
Personal Net Worth: $4.2 billion
Team: Cleveland Cavaliers
Team Value: $1.1 billion
5-Year Annual Return: 25.4%
- Herb Simon
Personal Net Worth:$2.4 billion
Team: Indiana Pacers
Team Value: $840 million
5-Year Annual Return: 25.6%
Personal Net Worth: $2.7 billion
Team: Dallas Mavericks
Team Value: $1.4 billion
5-Year Annual Return: 26.2%
Personal Net Worth: $1.2 billion
Team: Houston Rockets
Team Value: $1.5 billion
5-Year Annual Return: 27.6%
- Buss Family
Jeanie Buss Net Worth: $20 million
Team: Los Angeles Lakers
Team Value: $2.7 billion
5-Year Annual Return: 33.2%
Personal Net Worth:$350 million
Team: Chicago Bulls
Team Value: $2.3 billion
5-Year Annual Return: 35.1%
- Dolan Family
James Dolan Net Worth: $1.5 billoon
Team: New York Knicks
Team Value: $3 billion
5-Year Annual Return: 35.6%
- Mikhail Prokhorov
Personal Net Worth: $11 billion
Team: Brooklyn Nets
Team Value: $1.7 billion
5-Year Annual Return: 40.4%
