Stephen Curry's impact continues to show in mind-boggling Warriors rise

In a continuing sign of Stephen Curry's enormous impact, the Golden State Warriors remain the NBA's most valuable team according to a recent report from Forbes.

The report states that the Warriors enjoyed a 14% valuation increase in the last 12 months, leaving them worth a mind-boggling $8.8 billion as they rank first ahead of the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers.

The Warriors valuation increase since 2010 is staggering

Golden State owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber brought the team initially in 2010 for $450 million. They've since seen the franchise rise in value by an astonishing amount, and they can have Curry to largely thank for that as the key piece to the Warriors success over the past decade.

When Lacob and Guber bought the team 14 years ago, Golden State had made the playoffs in just one of the previous 16 NBA seasons. It was a notable one given the "We Believe" Warriors took out the one-seed Dallas Mavericks in the first-round of the 2007 postseason, but otherwise the franchise had been completely bereft of success.

Lacob and Guber had an idea of being able to turn the franchise around, yet even they couldn't have envisaged the success that was to follow so shortly after. Golden State returned to the playoffs in 2013 and 2014, before breaking a 40-year championship drought when they beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2015.

That was the start of a five-year run to the NBA Finals that included two more titles in 2017 and 2018 after the acquisition of superstar forward Kevin Durant. Even after Durant departed for the Brooklyn Nets in 2019, and the Warriors faced a couple of turbulent seasons with Klay Thompson out injured, they managed to respond by winning another championship in 2022 when Curry led a famous 4-2 series victory over the Boston Celtics.

The Celtics and L.A Clippers round out the top five most valuable NBA teams according to Forbes, while the Chicago Bulls are the only other team to be worth at least $5 billion. Golden State enjoys a $142 million operating income, nearly $100 million more than the Memphis Grizzlies ($44 million) who are the league's least valuable team worth $3 billion.

The Warriors turnaround since Lacob and Guber took over has been nothing short of remarkable, but the real test will come when the 36-year-old Curry eventually retires and leaves a void that will be impossible to fill.