Taking the Los Angeles Lakers to the cleaners certainly ups your image, and during the past couple of years the Philadelphia 76ers the City of Brotherly Love’s NBA basketball franchise has been doing a consistent job of polishing their profile, and their net worth.

The Sixers were the sports version of a distressed asset at the beginning of this decade. The club lost money annually, struggled with empty seats and had nary a playoff series win since 2003, writes Kurt Badenhausen for forbes.com.

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Apollo Global Management co-founder Joshua Harris was intrigued with the struggling franchise and saw an opportunity. He got a team of his own together and they paid $287 million for the Sixers in October 2011.

The NBA was in a lockout of its players, and no one knew when games would resume or what the labor deal would look like, when the lockout ended.

“I wouldn’t call the 76ers distressed,” Harris said when announcing the deal. “That has a negative connotation.”

Forbes‘ latest NBA franchise valuations estimating the team’s worth at $1.65 billion, 12th-highest in the league.

To read the complete story click here. 

Fun fact:  Founded in 1946 and originally known as the Syracuse Nationals, they are one of the oldest franchises in the NBA, and one of only eight (out of 23) to survive the league’s first decade, according to their wikipedia page. 

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