76ers Losing Games, Franchise Value

Pity poor Doug Collins, the 76ers coach who seems to have wrung every last drop of talent out of his team in recent years, only to end up stuck with this year’s undermanned and underperforming roster—which, unsurprisingly, is failing to win as many games as it loses. The results aren’t only showing up in the standings, though. The latest Forbes ranking of NBA franchise values suggests Philadelphia has slipped a bit in the last year.

Forbes ranks the value of the Sixers at No. 22 out of the 30 NBA teams. Forbes saysthe team is worth $314 million, down 5 percent from last season but still more than the reported $280 million they sold for, and has an operating loss of $10 million. Investment banker Josh Harris led a group that bought the team in 2011 from Comcast-Spectacor.

That’s better than last-place Milwaukee, but still kind of embarrassing for a Top 10 market that sure feels like a basketball town when the stars align. As Simon and Garfunkel might’ve said: “Dr. J has left and gone away, hey hey hey.” Andrew Bynum’s hairstyles, it seems, aren’t drawing ticket-buyers as long as the team itself actually sucks. [Philadelphia Business Journal]