Not so long ago, Randy Brown was a part of the most dominant force in basketball.

Brown, recently dismissed as an assistant coach of the Sacramento Kings, played guard for the ’96, ’97 and ’98 Chicago Bulls.

Those Bulls teams won consecutive championships, due largely to a legendary starting lineup that included Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman.

Brown was a supporting player, coming off the bench for the Bulls, but his contributions still helped the club achieve a best-ever record of 72 wins and 10 losses in ’96 and Brown received a championship ring each year, the same ring awarded to Jordan, Pippen and coach Phil Jackson.

But not even champions are immune to difficult financial conditions.

Brown filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy last year, and his championship rings were recently put up for auction.

“It’s a tough situation,” says Dennis West, of West Auctions, the company responsible for the sale.

“Randy seems like a really good guy, and he was a great player. However, these are tough times for a lot of people from a variety of backgrounds. People are making difficult financial decisions, and for some, that means bankruptcy.”

On May 19, the auction began, with the bidding beginning at $19,000.

As a coach, Brown was known for getting the most out of his players and he worked hard throughout the Kings’ recent struggles.

Sacramento in the past five years is about as far from Chicago in the mid-nineties as a basketball player can be, but the assistant coach was well liked by players and fans in both cities.

When the bidding ended, the three rings sold for $58,833.

The winner is currently anonymous, using the online identity of “RingKing.”

Unlike a traditional auction, RingKing will not get to keep his secret—the identity of the winning bidder will be disclosed as part of the public record because the sale took place as part of a bankruptcy filing.

RingKing beat out several other motivated bidders.

One of the finalists was Estee Portnoy, who has served as Michael Jordan’s publicist for many years.

Portnoy’s top bid was $40,000, and she would not confirm that she was bidding on the rings in order to return them to Brown.

“I didn’t have any special motivation,” she said. “I’m just disappointed I didn’t win.”

Brown talked about the impending sale of his rings in an interview with the Sacramento Bee. He admitted that the loss of the rings was harder on him than most people suspected.

“People figure that here’s this guy…he’s played in the NBA, he just got fired, he’s broke, and here he is giving up his championship rings. That hurt me, because those [rings] meant a lot to me.”

The championship rings did not qualify as “essential personal belongings” in Brown’s bankruptcy liquidation, but most individuals going through the process do not have similarly valuable “unprotected” assets.

In any case, the message is clear: bankruptcy offers debtors protection, but often requires them to make difficult choices along the way.

Sources: Chicago Sun-Times, United Press International

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Tags: bankruptcy, Chapter 7, chapter 7 bankruptcy, Randy Brown