You may remember this story from last month when we informed you that "The Doctor" Julius Erving was selling the large majority of his basketball playing mementos during a three-week live auction.
With the bidding now closed, reports are out that Erving is walking away with a total of $3.5 million dollars.
The most profitable of all 144 the items sold, Doc's 1974 ABA Championship ring (pictured right) snatched just under half-a-mil.
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While we're not sure what exactly they were able to nab in the bidding, Sixers CEO Adam Aron is tweeting that the team successfully "purchased 18 items in 10 lots...for display to [the] great #Sixers fans."
With a complete breakdown of the auction, Yahoo's The PostGame:
His 1974 ABA New York Nets championship ring fetched $460,741, the highest total ever for a sports ring. Five more of Erving's rings each exceeded $195,000. Three MVP trophies each exceeded $165,000.
What SCP Auctions had described as "the largest and most significant player basketball collection ever sold" indeed set a record for the most money brought in for one man's basketball memorabilia.
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"It was mindboggling," SCP president David Kohler said. "Normally rings go for $25,000 or so. Before the sale I didn't think they'd bring $50,000. We were blown away. I spoke to Julius and he's ecstatic."
All in all, the auction is believed to have raised well over $6 million. Erving had said prior to the event that there would be a portion donated to charity, though it remains unclear if that's coming from his share or the other $3 million for which we have no current accounting.
Either way, the money should be plenty enough to stave off the $200,000 lawsuit lobbed in his direction last month, stemming from his involvement in a bankrupted golf club just outside of Atlanta, Georgia.
While Erving has claimed that this auction was never about any current financial troubles—but, rather, his desire to share his career with his fans—his motivations seem somewhat irrelevant now.
Though, it should be noted that the Atlanta Constitution Journal was reporting last Spring that former-Sixer's golf club related debt was actually substantially higher than just the most recent suit over the outstanding 200k. In that case, it was reported that the Doc may have been, at one time, out a full $5 million on an $11 million loan.
Whatever his current financials truly are, we hope this is the last we hear about Julius Erving and any issues involving his particular cash flow.