The Kobe Bryant retirement tour is piling up losses for the Los Angeles Lakers, but neither the team nor the fans of the NBA seem to care. The Lakers are 2-8 in their last 10 games, are in last place in the Western Conference with a 4-22 record overall, but are near the top of the secondary ticket market with the likes of the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers.
The market for Lakers tickets on the secondary market is a true sign of strength for Bryant’s image, as he’s filling up arenas on the regular as he passes through cities for the final time. This weekend the Lakers have another likely loss coming up against Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder, but as expected the ticket prices are near the top of the NBA.
Tickets to see the Thunder against the Lakers on Saturday, December 19th have an average price of $239.95 with a get-in price of $76 according to TotallyTickets.com, which is the third most expensive NBA game this weekend. The only two games more expensive is a Friday night game between the Warriors and Milwaukee Bucks at Oracle Arena and the New York Knicks hosting the Chicago Bulls on Saturday night.
Luckily for fans, the tickets came back down to Earth after nearly doubling in the past three weeks. On November 27th the average ticket price was $275.75 and reached $515.99 by December 4th. After reaching a peak average ticket price of $544.49 by December 7th, the tickets came tumbling down to the current average ticket price recorded Friday, December 18th.
The term likely loss was used earlier due to the Thunder being one of the premier teams in the Western Conference. At 17-9, the Thunder are 7-3 in their last 10 games and were riding a six-game winning streak until it came to an end Thursday, December 17th at Cleveland. The Thunder have no trouble playing at home with a 12-3 record, but haven’t been as good on the road indicated b y their 5-6 record away from Chesapeake Energy Arena.