Roger Brown's Hall of Fame jacket back home for $2,018

Former Indiana Pacer Roger Brown's Hall of Fame jacket -- a symbol of a bittersweet basketball journey that was up for auction to the highest bidder -- has been sold for $2,018.

The buyer of that jacket isn't one person, nor is it a stranger, as some of Brown's family had feared.

The buyer is a consortium of Brown's ABA teammates and coach, the Indiana Pacers front office, board members of Dropping Dimes (a non-profit that helps former ABA players) and Brown's family members.

The group banded together this week to get the jacket back in honor of Brown, a man some have called the "greatest Pacer of them all."

That jacket will soon be returned to Gayle Brown-Mayes, daughter of the late Brown, and likely put on display, even if temporarily, in Bankers Life Fieldhouse, a tribute to a man who fought his way to basketball greatness after being banned from the NBA.

For Brown's daughter Brown-Mayes, heartbroken that her father's coveted jacket was being sold in an auction by Worthridge Auctions this week, the sale is a triumph.

"I'm relieved that it's back safe and I'm extremely forever grateful," she said.

Grateful to Dropping Dimes board members Scott Tarter, Ted Green and John Abrams, as well as to the Pacers, who all offered financial support to make sure that jacket ended up where it belonged, she said. Abrams was the man bidding on the jacket Saturday night and secured it for $2,018.

"We got really lucky," said Tarter, founder of Dropping Dimes. "It's really fortunate. And isn't it exciting?"

The jacket was among a collection of items from Brown's career that were auctioned this week by Worthridge, after being given to the auction house by another of Brown's daughters, Stacey Hicks.

Brown-Mayes accepted that jacket for her father at his Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame induction in 2013. So did her half brother, Roger Jr. So, Brown-Mayes gave that jacket to him. He gave it to Hicks.

"In no way do I condone it. I'm pretty much heartbroken about it," said Brown-Mayes when she learned the jacket was being sold at an auction. "That's not the way I wanted my dad's legacy to be remembered."

Hicks says she has been unfairly portrayed for handing over the jacket.

"I'm not trying to tarnish his memory," she said Saturday. "I don't want to remember him by his stuff or by his things. I have my memories of him. He was a great dad to me."

Hicks said she has plenty of items still in her possession of her father's which she will be giving to other siblings. Brown had eight children. She is also giving some of those items to a museum that will be created in the home her father lived in as a young man.

As for people criticizing her over the idea that Brown's Hall of Fame jacket might have gone to a complete stranger?

"Believe me, my father would rather have a stranger have it than us fighting over it," Hicks said.

There will be no controversy now. The jacket will be given to Brown-Mayes and Brown's ex-wife Jeannie Brown, said Tarter.

They will work with the Pacers to get the jacket on display at Bankers Life.

"It worked out great," said Tarter. "Pretty amazing, really."

Follow Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow.