The ring that Kobe Briant achieved in 2000 with the Los Angeles Lakers set multiple records.
It is now the most expensive NBA title ring sold at auction, with a price tag of $927,200. and carried out by the Goldin Auction House.
It is also the most expensive ring given by a player, since the NBA had given it to his father Joe Bryant and it was a second copy of the ring he received for winning the championship.
The Goldin Auction consignor was the previous owner of the ring. Joe Bryant sold it to the consignor in 2013, when Kobe was still in the league, for $173,000, which was the record price at the time for a ring given by a player to another person. The offer that broke that record occurred on March 26 when an offer was made of $151,000, which became $184,220 after Goldin’s 22% buyer’s premium.
Ken Goldin, CEO and founder of Goldin Auctions, believed this Bryant ring would eventually “break that record.” and he was right.
19 bids were made on the last day of the auction, with the winning bid being $760,000, before the buyer’s premium. The ring became the most expensive prize ever sold publicly, Goldin said.
The previous record for the most expensive basketball ring belonged to the late Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell, whose championship ring from his first NBA title in 1957 sold for $705,000 in 2021.
The most expensive ring sold for any sport belonged to New York Yankees legend Babe Ruth. Her titular ring from 1927 sold for $2.1 million at an auction held by Lelands in 2017. Actor Charlie Sheen was the previous owner of Ruth’s ring.
Forty-three bids were placed on the Bryant ring, a 14-karat gold piece that has 40 diamonds. Other Bryant items in the auction included a game-worn jersey from the 2009-10 season, which was the Lakers’ second consecutive championship.
This ring was from the first of Bryant’s five championships with the Lakers during his 20-year career with the franchise that acquired him via a draft day trade in 1996.
Bryant died along with his 13-year-old daughter Gigi and seven others in a helicopter crash in January 2020.
Source: Ambito
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