According to TMZ Sports, Hall of Fame Boston Celtics big man Bill Russell’s 1975 ring commemorating his induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is up for auction, and is expected to bring in around $200,000.
SCP Auctions currently has a bid of just under $44,000 at the time of this writing, and comes with a letter signed by Russell. It is important to note that the Celtics great originally eschewed the honor due to his feeling that fellow Boston alum Chuck Cooper deserved to be the first Black man admitted to the Hall after also having been the first Black man drafted into the NBA.
Russell would eventually accept his ring in 2019 when Cooper was finally admitted to the Hall as well.
The Boston basketball icon and civil rights champion passed away at the end of July this year, having previously donated most of his collection of hardware from his seemingly endless accolades to raise money for charity.
It is not clear if the proceeds for this auction are among those donations.
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Story originally appeared on Celtics Wire
