Despite a league low payroll, the Nets lost $44.3 million last year, according to confidential league documents obtained by ESPN’s Zach Lowe. That’s the league’s second biggest loss, behind only the Pistons who lost $45.1 million.
The Pistons losses were actually much greater. The Nets did not receive revenue-sharing money from the league and their profits from Barclays Center are not included in the analysis. The Pistons, on the other hand, lost $63.2 million before collecting revenue sharing last season, “the largest loss by a wide margin,” Lowe notes. Detroit doesn’t own its own arena, unlike the Nets.