Lakers Offensive $600.357 Million Bold Trade In The First Round Of The Draft For The 2024 Season…

Eleven years after Joe “Jellybean” Bryant sold at auction a Lakers’ 2000 NBA championship ring gifted to him by his son, Kobe Bryant, the ring was sold again by the same auction house for more than five times as much: $927,200.

The winning bid was $760,000, with a buyer’s premium — the cut taken by the Goldin auction house — accounting for the rest. The identities of the buyer and seller are not disclosed by the auction house, so it isn’t known whether Bryant’s wife, Vanessa Bryant, bought the ring to return it to the family four years after the death of her husband and daughter Gianna in a helicopter crash.

The bidding began slowly but became frenzied Saturday, the last day of the auction. Bidding began at $191,000, but 16 bids were placed during the last 22 minutes of the auction.

The nearly $1-million sticker price is a record for an NBA championship ring, shattering the previous high of $705,000 paid for Hall of Fame center Bill Russell’s 1957 ring, commemorating the first of his 11 titles with the Boston Celtics.

This is the third time Bryant’s ring has been sold since it was auctioned in 2013 by his parents, Joe and Pam. It was most recently sold a year ago by SPC Auctions. The ring comes with a letter of authenticity signed by Pam Bryant, which has accompanied the ring since the first time it was auctioned.

“Chain of provenance is extremely important,” said Ken Goldin, chief executive of the Goldin auction house. “The original LOA should accompany a collectible ‘forever,’ so this ring contains the original letter, just like a Mickey Mantle item with a Mantle LOA from 1975 would still be given with a purchase of that same item in 2024.”

Bryant was dismayed in 2013 after he learned his parents were attempting to sell the ring and other treasured mementos, including a signed basketball from the 2000 Lakers team, his 1996 Pennsylvania high school championship ring, sweatsuits he wore at Lower Merion (Pa.) High and a surfboard he used as a child.

“When u give Give GIVE and they take Take TAKE at wat point do u draw a line in the sand?” Bryant tweeted, adding the hashtags “hurt beyond measure,” “gave me no warning,” and finally, “love?”

Bryant took his parents to court, saying he never granted them permission to sell the items. Pam Bryant said in a court filing that she planned to purchase a Nevada home with the $450,000 advance she received. Lawyers worked out a settlement allowing Bryant’s parents to auction six items of memorabilia totaling $500,000 — including the ring — and they issued a public apology.

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Insider Reports $215 Million All-NBA Guard as Laker Trade Target

The Los Angeles Lakers are running out of time with LeBron James. With limited assets at their behest, they can only do so much in terms of talent upgrades. However, that’s not going to stop them from trying. The Athletic’s Jovan Buha reported that they have one target in mind to surround James and Anthony Davis: Trae Young.

On Buha’s YouTube Channel, he explained that the Lakers will go after a third star, and that Young’s name has come up.

“They are going third star hunting this off-season,” Buha said. “Now who’s available? The one name I continually hear is Trae Young. He’s been to Laker playoff games before, he’s a Clutch Sports client. That’s probably the most realistic one right now.”

Buha then questioned who would go back to the Atlanta Hawks in a trade for Young.

“Now, of course, whether they get him is going to come down to whether they are willing to put all three picks, two picks in a deal. Is it Austin (Reaves) and Max (Christie)? Is it just Austin? And you got to have the matching salary of course. Is that Rui (Hachimura)? Is that (Jared Vanderbilt)? Do they send (D’Angelo Russell) there as well? There’s a lot of different ways that can play out, but my understanding is yes, they are going third-star hunting.”

Young made an All-NBA team in 2022 and is in the second year of a five-year, $215 million contract.

Trae Young Responds to Lakers Trade Rumors

Young addressed the notion of going to the Lakers. While he is unsure of his future in Atlanta, he expressed his desire to win a title with the Hawks. At the same time, he wants a title period.

“They’ve never won a championship in Atlanta,” Young said in an interview with Bleacher Report’s Taylor Rooks on Tuesday, March 5. “Like doing that, like me getting drafted [it] felt like it was a match made in heaven. This is something I want to do. Like I can defeat the odds here too.

“So for me, my whole vision was always to be here like my goal was to win championships. Bring people here with me and build this championship [culture] here, dynasty here. But who knows, like it’s your six now. And who knows? Like for me, I want that [championship].”

Since making a surprise run to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2021, the Hawks have only gone backward. They stand at 34-40, which puts them as the 10 seed in the Eastern Conference. Their struggles could lead to changes.

Laker Have Reported Interest in Trae Young

Before the NBA Trade deadline passed, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin reported that the Lakers had more interest in trading for a star like Young in the offseason.

“The Lakers have discussed internally the possibility of packaging three picks, along with players they already have on their books, to pursue a bona fide star, such as Donovan Mitchell of the Cleveland Cavaliers or Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks, team sources told ESPN,” McMenamin wrote in a January 23 story.