New Orleans Pelicans owner Tom Benson picked the right time to invest in the NBA

[QUOTE]If you could make an investment that increased in value by 24 percent over the course of a year, you'd likely scratch together whatever capital you had and dive in head-first.

According to Forbes Magazine, that's the percentage of gain made by the New Orleans Pelicans franchise over the past year.

The financial journal says the Pelicans, purchased for $338 million by Tom Benson in April 2012, are now worth $420 million.

Do the math.

If the magazine's numbers are to be believed, the owner has realized an appreciation of $82 million in less than two years.

Ah, life is good.

Forbes speculates that the Pelicans generated $116 million in revenue last year and earned, before interest, taxes depreciation and amortization, $11.2 million in profit.

Obviously not all that money was generated by ticket sales last season, a year when New Orleans ranked 29th, or second-to-last, in the NBA, averaging 13,803 fans per game.

Rather, Forbes concludes, the new collective bargaining agreement, in which the players' share of league revenues shrunk from the previous 57 percent to 50 percent, along with $120 million that was distributed from the higher-earning teams to the less-monied clubs