Irony is Recession-Proof

For the fourth consecutive year, Forbes magazine has rated the Knicks as the most valuable franchise in the National Basketball Association. 

With an estimated worth of $613 million, the Cablevision-owned Knicks, who won all of 23 games last season, finished just ahead of the Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers and their scant $584 million, according to the magazine. 

Even in the darkest days under Isiah Thomas, when the team lost 66 percent of its game and spent $424 million on players over four years, the Knicks still managed to generate a league-leading $208 million in revenue last year, $12 million more than the team earned the previous season. What's more, the team's operating income jumped to $29.6 million, up from a loss of $42 million in 2006-2007. 

Kurt Badenhausen, an associate editor at Forbes, makes some sense of this ridiculousness.  

In spite of the Knicks' terrible play on the court in recent years, the franchise is the NBA's most valuable thanks to the pricey luxury suites and ticket packages that fans and companies continue to snap up at Madison Square Garden.

So it is our fault. Still, there's not much we can do about it. Knicks owner Charles Dolan, who also owns Cablevision, Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, the Rangers, the New York Liberty and a bunch of other stuff, profits regardless of where the Knicks finish in the standings. This pretty much puts a kibosh on any hopes that he and his son James would ever sell the team. I mean, why would they? Father and son are practically printing their own money over at Madison Square Garden. Let's just hope they remember to open up their wallets in 2010 so Donnie Walsh can finish what he started.