CHICAGO, May 22 (UPI) -- The 1996, 1997 and 1998 Chicago Bulls championship rings awarded to Randy Brown fetched $53,833 in a court-ordered online auction, officials say.
The auction was a public sale on behalf of a bankruptcy court after Brown, who was fired as a Sacramento Kings assistant coach in April, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in August 2008, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Friday.
West Auctions, which handled the sale, said bidding was performed anonymously and the winner was identified only as "RingKing." However, the identity of the winning bidder will eventually be released as part of the public record due to the involvement of the bankruptcy court.
"RingKing" beat two other anonymous bidders and a fourth identified as Estee Portnoy, longtime publicist for Brown's former teammate Michael Jordan. Portnoy, whose top bid was $40,000, would not say whether she was bidding on Jordan's behalf or whether her intention was to return the rings to Brown.
"I didn't have any special motivation," she said. "I'm just disappointed I didn't win."
Brown told the Sacramento Bee before the auction that the rings have a high sentimental value for him.
"People figure that here's this guy ... he's played in the NBA, he just got fired (as a coach), he's broke, and here he is giving up his championship rings," he told the paper. "That hurt me because those (rings) mean a lot to me."
