Owning a piece of history is priceless, unless it's a few panels of hardwood from Kobe Bryant's final game.
After scoring 60 points in a memorable finale, Bryant walked back onto the court with his family, took pictures and autographed special implanted pieces of hardwood that featured in his final game. The two special add-ons stood out due to the color not matching the remainder of the Lakers' court, and each panel was decorated with the numbers Bryant wore during his NBA career: no. 8 and no. 24.
After a month-long online auction, the final price to own the panels with the no. 8 sold for $179,100 to a lucky, wealthy fan.
Before going mad over the slightly ridiculous final selling price, one should keep in mind that proceeds from the auction will go to benefit the Lakers Youth Foundation. Also, Bryant's league-topping $25 million salary for the 2015-16 season meant that the now-retired superstar earned $378,378 per game played in his final year as a basketball player.
In other words, Bryant earned more than double the winning bid for the historic piece of hardwood per game played.
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The second panel will be displayed at the Lakers' new practice facility, and frankly, it's the better piece. On the no. 24, Bryant wrote "Laker for Life" and then autographed the piece of hardwood. Likely, future free agents will seek out the piece of memorabilia, just as they do the Lakers' plethora of championship trophies.
While that first piece has a rather ridiculous price tag on it, the second piece should forever remain priceless.
