No surprise here ... the game-ball from Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal's first NBA championship win just made history at auction -- selling for an insane $500K!
TMZ Sports confirmed the amount of the winning bid -- a little over two weeks after Sotheby's placed the rare Spalding call in their Winter Sports Classic lot.
To be precise, the 2000 NBA Finals game ball sold for $508,000 -- a new record for a championship-clinching basketball.