Chris Paul and the Playoffs Saved George Shinn's Wallet in New Orleans

Forbes has its annual "Business of Basketball" package out for consumption tonight. As usual, it includes a good overall synopsis of the league's financial health and peeks behind the curtain into the revenues of the individual teams. Since the data is all from 2007-08 -- pre-financial crisis -- the outlook is rosy in most towns ... including New Orleans.

A year ago, New Orleans had a great little basketball team and an empty gym. The team's owner, George Shinn, was angling to cinch up the rights for Oklahoma City in an effort to slip in under Clay Bennett's Sonics and ditch post-Katrina Louisiana for good. (Shinn failed.) But then, something nuts happened: the fans in N.O. recognized a good product, the franchise's sales team got innovative, and the gym started selling out -- including 13 straight home games to end the season. And the team stayed great, wiping out Dallas in five games in the first round of the playoffs and taking San Antonio to seven in the conference semis.

That marvelous run, some say, saved basketball in New Orleans. History will judge that idea. But Forbes reports the run did save Shinn a lot of money.

The playoff success helped the team go from a projected $20 million loss at the start of the season to a slight profit.

Winning matters. (In fact, New Orleans is the only team in the bottom 10 in terms of team value which had a losing record last season.)