The Los Angeles Lakers’ agreement to sell for $12.5 billion has thrown a fresh spotlight on the Knicks, and the number attached to New York suddenly looks outdated.
The deal, which still needs approval from the NBA’s board of governors, comes only ten months after Mark Walter bought control at a $10 billion valuation. Josh Kushner and Bob Iger are now paying 25 percent more, and that kind of jump changes the conversation around every elite franchise in the league.
For the Knicks, the obvious question is now impossible to ignore: what would someone pay for them today?
Forbes pegged the Knicks at $9.75 billion in October 2025, before Jalen Brunson lifted the trophy and before another buyer pushed the NBA record up by $2.5 billion. That figure may have made sense then. It feels a lot less sturdy now.
James Dolan is not selling, at least not publicly. But the Lakers’ price is enough to make Knicks fans look twice at the franchise’s value and wonder how much higher the ceiling really is.
The Knicks bring together pieces that are hard to model cleanly. Forbes said the team generated $532 million in annual revenue and $193 million in gate receipts in its latest estimate. Add Madison Square Garden, the league’s largest market and a championship roster, and you get a brand with serious weight.
Winning matters too, even if franchise values have never moved in perfect lockstep with results on the court. Any buyer would be stepping into a team with a global fan base, a renovated arena in Manhattan and a lead guard signed through his prime.
The Lakers still have their own advantages. They own 17 titles, a worldwide profile and decades of star power. New York does not automatically leap to $12.5 billion just because another famous franchise found an aggressive buyer.
But the new deal does make the old Knicks estimate look stale. If the Lakers were able to gain $2.5 billion in ten months, then New York’s first championship in 53 years almost certainly did not leave the franchise value standing still.
There is no indication Dolan wants to put the team on the market. MSG Sports has previously discussed the possibility of selling a minority stake, which is a very different thing from a full sale.
And the Lakers deal is still just an agreement. NBA approval can take weeks, and the final ownership structure still matters.
Even so, the number reshapes the way the top of the market gets discussed. Knicks fans already saw what one title did to ticket prices. The ownership price may have moved even faster.
If Dolan ever decides to listen, $10 billion no longer sounds like a serious opening number. The Lakers made sure of that.
In Other News...
Jalen Brunson Just Set The Tone For Knicks Title Defense
Jalen Brunson is already sounding like a player who understands the next job on the calendar. After helping deliver an NBA championship, the Knicks guard talked about the need to know when celebration ends and preparation begins, saying the team has to flip the switch and get ready for what comes next. He made it clear he is not treating this as a finish line, either, with no thoughts of walking away from the game and plenty of interest in keeping the title in New York.
The bigger takeaway is how quickly the conversation around a championship can turn from champagne to accountability. Brunson said the timing of moving on from the celebration was part of the mindset shift, and for a Knicks team trying to defend what it just won, that tone matters. The title is in the books, but the harder part is keeping everyone locked in on the grind that follows, and Brunson has already started framing that message for the roster. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks May Revisit A Familiar Answer To Their Center Problem
The Knicks are still sorting through the center picture after missing out on Moussa Cisse, and the search has already turned toward a name that feels familiar. New York wants a third big to give the frontcourt more stability, and Jericho Sims has emerged as a possible fit because of the Knicks familiarity with him and the Bucks willingness to consider moving pieces while they work through a deeper roster and a rebuilding phase.
Sims availability gives New York a potential short-term answer at a position that remains unsettled, but the path to getting him is not especially complicated. A deal centered on Pacme Dadiet has been floated as the most realistic framework, which would make this less about a splash and more about whether the Knicks want to sacrifice a young asset for a stopgap center who already knows the organization. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks Title Defense Just Ran Into The NBAs Newest Problem
The Knicks championship banner is still fresh, but the first real complication of a title defense arrived before the season even starts. After winning the 2026 NBA championship, New York spent the offseason navigating the leagues hard financial realities, and longtime center Mitchell Robinson was one of the casualties of those second-apron constraints. It left the front office trying to patch a familiar spot in the rotation while keeping the rest of the roster intact.
Andre Drummond is now in the mix to help absorb those minutes, but the expectation is clear enough: he is there to steady things, not to duplicate what Robinson brought. And the same CBA pressures that shaped New Yorks offseason were part of the larger conversation around Russell Westbrooks retirement, a reminder that the leagues new rules are changing more than just payroll spreadsheets. For the Knicks, the challenge is no longer just celebrating a title, but figuring out how to defend it with less margin for error than before. [Read more 🡒]