After NBA legends including Shaquille O’Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon and Penny Hardaway played in the 1995 NBA All-Star Game in Phoenix, the Suns were set to paint over the court’s bold Southwest graphics and donate the floor to a high school gym. That’s when local ticket broker Tony Beram stepped in.
Beram bought the floor and has kept the 14, 4-foot-by-8-foot hardwood tiles in dry storage ever since. Now his son, Michael, has listed the floor for sale on Facebook Marketplace.
“We were just brainstorming ideas on what maybe we could do with it. You know, maybe we could put a floor down in a shop or something like that,” Michael Beram told KJZZ. “And so, for the first time in like 30 years, it got taken out of storage. And that’s when we were finally able to photograph it, because we really didn’t have any pictures of it.”
The Berams also own Cactus Coin and Metals, a coin and jewelry dealer in downtown Phoenix. At first, they considered displaying the floor in the shop.
“We think somebody can have a better use for it,” Beram said. “You know, somebody that maybe is building a cool home gym or someone’s building a bar and wants to lay the floor down.”
Beram said listing the floor on Facebook Marketplace would help ensure it stays in the Valley — and avoid the hassle of trying to ship the heavy panels.
While Beram says he has gotten a lot of excited responses so far, no one has made a serious offer on the $125,000 asking price.
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“We've been thinking about it for a long time,” said Joe Lisiewski, ASU assistant vice president and university architect. “Now with the momentum of sports and athletics and some of the deterioration of the building, it's time to do it.”
