Kobe Bryant’s 2000 NBA championship ring has now set multiple records.
The ring is now the most expensive NBA title ring sold at auction, going for $927,200 during the March Elite Auction held by Goldin Auctions. Bidding closed on Saturday night. The buyer has not been revealed.
It is also the most expensive ring gifted by a player. The ring was a gift from Kobe to his father Joe Bryant and was a second copy of the ring Kobe received for winning the championship.
Goldin Auction’s consignor was the prior 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 gifted by a player to someone else. The bid breaking that record came on March 26 when a $151,000 offer was made, which became $184,220 after Goldin’s 22% buyer premium.
Ken Goldin, CEO and founder of Goldin Auctions, believed this Bryant ring eventually would “smash that record.” He was right.
There were 19 bids made on the final day of the auction, with the winning bid being $760,000, before the buyer premium. The ring has become the most expensive Bryant award that has been publicly sold, Goldin said.
The prior record for the most expensive basketball ring belonged to 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. His 1927 title ring 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 item that has 40 diamonds. Other Bryant items in the auction include a game-worn Bryant jersey from the 2009-10 season, which was the second of back-to-back championships for the Lakers.
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.
