Kobe Bryant Auction: Duplicate 2000 Lakers Championship Ring Sold For $175K
By Mike Dyce
Remember that dispute between Kobe Bryant and his parents who were trying to auction off some of his personal items from his basketball career? I forgot too, until I saw this on ESPN.
From ESPN.com:
"A duplicate of [Bryant’s] 2000 Los Angeles Lakers championship ring, gifted to his father Joe, sold for $174,184. A version in a smaller size, made for his mother Pam, went for $108,153.Other items that commanded top dollar in the sale, conducted by New Jersey-based Goldin Auctions, included Bryant’s 2000 NBA All-Star ring ($55,597), and two of his game-used high school uniforms ($50,150 and $41,694).The ring presented to his father commanded great interest partly because it was in the exact size of Kobe’s ring (11½)."
ESPN also says that the legal battle between Kobe Bryant and his parents resulted in 90% of the times roughly 100 items being pulled from the auction. ESPN reached out to Kobe Bryant for a comment, but he declined.
The price of the ring seems low. I know the Dallas Mavericks were offering to sell rings that were replicas of the players for over or around $100K. A replica Bryant ring, owned by the Bryant family, surely should’ve been worth more than that.
But it wasn’t a strictly Kobe Bryant auction:
"Other popular items in the auction including a Jackie Robinson bat that was believed to have been used in his 1949 MVP season ($159,867), a mitt used by Yogi Berra ($61,120) and a pair of Air Jordan sneakers autographed to Mike Tyson ($9,030)."