Kobe Bryant’s 2000 NBA championship ring has broken multiple records after being sold for $927,200 during Goldin Auctions March Elite Auction. The ring is now the most expensive NBA title ring ever sold at auction and 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. Joe Bryant sold it to a consignor in 2013 for $173,000, which was the record price at the time for a ring gifted by a player to someone else. The bid that broke that record came on March 26, with a $151,000 offer that became $184,220 after Goldin’s 22% buyer premium.
Ken Goldin, CEO and founder of Goldin Auctions predicted that the Bryant ring would break the previous record. The winning bid on the final day of the auction was $760,000, before the buyer premium, making it the most expensive Bryant award ever sold publicly.
The previous record for the most expensive basketball ring belonged to Bill Russell, whose 1957 championship ring sold for $705,000 in 2021. The most expensive ring sold for any sport was Babe Ruth’s 1927 title ring, which sold for $2.1 million at an auction in 2017.
The Bryant ring, which is 14-karat gold and has 40 diamonds, received 43 bids. Other Bryant items in the auction included a game-worn 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. Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gigi, were among nine people killed in a helicopter crash in January 2020.
