Morning Report: Which is the best sports town?

Forbes Magazine, the financial and business publication, recently named the 10 worst cities in which to be a pro sports fan.

Relax Philly - you're not on the list.

Forbes used a formula that balances the cost of tickets against the winning percentage of the teams in the four major sports in the last sports year. No credit was given for winning in the recent past.

By that standard, Miami was the worst city in which to be a sports fan, Forbes said, because it ranked seventh-highest in ticket prices among the 29 cities which have major league franchises, and Miami's teams won only 40 percent of their games.

Plus, no Miami team made the playoffs in the last sports year.

Cities ranked next worst after Miami, Forbes said, are San Diego (high prices and average teams), Indianapolis (a lower-income market with middle-of-the-road ticket prices) and New York (the second-highest prices in the country for teams that lose just over half their games, the Super Bowl champion Giants not withstanding).

Boston, which has the highest ticket prices also has one of the highest per-capita incomes, plus Boston teams win. So Beantowners get their money's worth.

The best cities for sports fans are Detroit, Houston and the Bay Area, Forbes said.

By the magazine's figures, Detroit is only No. 17 in costs for a .612 winning percentage for its four teams, including the Stanley Cup champion Red Wings; Houston has the third-cheapest prices for a .565 winning percentage; and the Bay Area (so-so teams, but a high-income market with the ninth-lowest costs.

By now you're saying, "Where's Philly?" Well we can't give you an exact number because Forbes.com only listed the worst 10 and the best three cities.

But it has to be a comfort of some sort that there at least 10 cities worse off than this one.

Hoops glory. Morning Report extends belated congratulations to the U.S. Olympic basketball team and a special nod to Lower Merion's Kobe Bryant.

The reigning NBA most valuable player also proved a true national spokesman by saying all the right things for two weeks, then punctuating his leadership by nailing the key three-pointer in the closing minutes of the game.

Now that the U.S. is back in the sport Americans invented (baseball is derived from an English schoolgirls' game called Rounders) USA Basketball needs to work at staying on top.

The key for the Americans has always been getting the best players to go. The second is getting a coach who plays those top players, not banish them to the bench the way Larry Brown sat Lebron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmello Anthony in 2004.

Happily, Chris Paul has already said he'll be in London in 2012 if asked. So did Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh and Carlos Boozer.

"We're going to talk about the future going forward," USA basketball general manager Gerry Colangelo told the Associated Press. "But the good news is this . . . unsolicited, five or six of these guys have already said they want to be part of what we do going forward."

The USA roster also includes 20 players beyond those who went to Beijing, including Kevin Durant and Greg Oden, so the U.S. seems set for the future.

Hopefully, USA Basketball won't let it get away.

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