Kobe Bryant’s first championship ring with the Los Angeles Lakers made history after it sold at auction for a crazy amount of money.
The ring was sold at Goldin for nearly a million dollars, breaking the record for the most expensive title ring ever.
Kobe Bryant’s Championship Ring With Los Angeles Lakers
The ring in question was from the Lakers’ 2000 championship, which was Bryant’s first career title. However, it was a duplicate copy of the ring issued to the Black Mamba, who requested it so he can give it to his dad.
Contrary to other executive or staff-issued rings, the said ring bears Kobe’s name and is exactly the same as the one given to the players.
Here’s the item description from Goldin:
“… This ring is in Kobe’s ring size 11 ½ and weighs approximately 59.6 grams. This exquisite ring features a total of 40 diamonds, including five larger round diamonds on either side of the face, which display “LAKERS” filled with purple enamel. “WORLD CHAMPIONS” reads in relief lettering. The NBA league logo centers on one side, with the name “BRYANT” at the top and the number “8” at the bottom.”
The ring also comes with a letter of authenticity from Bryant’s mom, Pam Bryant.
While Lakers fans were not happy that the ring was put in auction instead of being given to the family of Kobe, there’s no denying that it’s a really unique item that every Kobe fan and Purple and Gold collector would love to have.
Auction for Kobe Bryant’s Championship Ring
Sure enough, with Kobe Bryant memorabilia selling for insane amounts of money over the past few years, the championship ring was no different.
In the end, it sold for $927,200, setting the new record for the sale of an NBA title ring. The previous record was that of Bill Russell back in 2021, which sold for $705,000. The said Russell ring was also for his first championship in 1957, according to Darren Rovell of CLLCT Media.
Considering Kobe’s popularity and massive fandom, it’s not really a surprise why his ring sold for that much.
What’s interesting, however, is that the fact the sold ring is a copy the Lakers legend gave to his dad instead of the one he kept. That definitely affected its value. so had it been his main ring, it could have probably fetch more than a million dollars.
But with that ring unlikely to be up for public auction or sale any time soon, the duplicate of the ring is certainly the next best one.
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