As the General Manager of a professional basketball team. Think of EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) as a way to measure your team's core performance, focusing only on basketball operations and not on external factors.

Earnings: This is like the total points your team scores over the season. In business, it's the revenue from selling products or services before any costs or expenses.

Before Interest and Taxes: This part is like ignoring the external factors that don't directly relate to how your team plays on the court. In business, interest and taxes can vary greatly and don't directly reflect the operational success of a company.

Depreciation and Amortization: These are accounting methods to spread out the cost of big purchases over time. In your team's case, it's like spreading out the cost of the stadium or training facilities over the years they are used. These costs are part of running the team but don't directly reflect the team's performance in the current season.

So, EBITDA gives you a clear picture of how well your basketball team (or a company) is doing based solely on its core activities (like playing games and selling tickets and merchandise). It's like evaluating the team's performance without getting distracted by the cost of the stadium or how the team’s financing is structured. This can be especially useful for comparing teams (or companies) in the same league (or industry) because it focuses on operational effectiveness without the noise of financial and accounting decisions.