Kobe stormed to the bench in these Nike Zoom VII's. Thanks to Panini, I own a piece!

[Deadshot]

I haven't done a mail thread on here in a long time, but I figured this was a fun card that deserved to be shared.

This card comes from the 2012 Panini Father’s Day set. I’ve seen this card several times in the past and didn’t think much of it. It’s just a single-color purple relic. It has a pretty plain design. There’s nothing that really sticks out about it initially.

Well, several months ago, I saw this card again and I got a chance to see the back of it. It turns out it's not just a regular jersey relic. It's a shoe card. And according to the Beckett Blog, it was the first basketball shoe relic Panini made and the first basketball shoe relic since 2004.

On top of that, the back features picture of the exact pair of shoes and the date of the game that Kobe wore them. It was a March 25, 2012 game against the Grizzlies.

I was hoping he did something crazy this game like hit a game winner or score 50 points. Well, he only scored 18. But there was some drama on this night, nonetheless.

With a little under 6 minutes left in the 4th, the Lakers trailed by 14 and Mike Brown decided to sub Kobe out. As you can see in the following clip...Kobe was none too pleased.

When reporters asked Kobe about the substitution, he responded, "if you're looking for a story, I'm not going to give it to you."

Previously, I mentioned that I hoped he scored 50 points in these. Well...Kobe did that 25 times in his career. But later in his career, how many times did Kobe get pulled like that from a game?

I went on Getty Images and found 8 pictures from the game that feature these shoes. Unless he changed into the exact same model at halftime, it seems like a pretty safe assumption that he was wearing these when he got benched.

This card checks multiple boxes for me…it’s got a Hall of Famer, it’s a unique relic, and it’s game-dated. This stuff is getting harder and harder to find and I’m very happy to own this one. Thanks for reading!