Sold!

[Gregory Odegaard <grodeg@kalama.com>]

I guess money can buy happiness. 


A piece of history 

Celtics' parquet center court sold in online auction




BOSTON (AP) -- The parquet center court, featuring the leprechaun logo that carried the Boston Celtics through 16 NBA championships, sold for $331,100 in an online auction Thursday. 

The 16 parquet panels were expected to sell for between $75,000 and $100,000, during two weeks of bidding at Sotheby's online auction site. The price surged past expectations in the final two hours of bidding, according to Matt Robbins, a spokesman for Sotheby's in New York. 

Sotheby's did not identify the winning bidder. 

But Bob Sager, who called himself a Boston-based financier, said he entered the winning bid. 

"It's a very special part of history for me," Sager said. 

Sager, who said he also owns some seats from the old Boston Garden, said he planned to lend the floor for charity events. 

"It's almost like I felt like I had to [buy it]," Sager said. "I felt compelled to be the guardian, the keeper of the flame, if you will." 

The Celtics originally built the entire floor for $11,000 during a World War II wood shortage. They were forced to use short scraps of red oak, producing the floor's trademark parquet look. 

When the team moved out of the old Boston Garden in 1996, the Celtics took the floor with them to the FleetCenter. It was replaced in December at a cost of $200,000. 

Sotheby's also put 20 other panels up for sale. FleetCenter director of marketing Jeff Mann spent eight months poring over videos and photographs matching the panels to famous basketball moments. 

Among the smaller panels sold Thursday was one dubbed "Havlicek Stole the Ball," identified as where John Havlicek stole the ball on the final play of the 1965 Eastern Conference finals, ensuring the Celtics' 110-109 victory over Philadelphia. It sold for $28,600. 

Collectively, the lots were expected to draw about $500,000, Robbins said.