Championships Are Fireproof

Panger gave this story a brief mention in the High Five yesterday, but it's a pretty slow news day, so I'm going to expand on it.

Sorry, but I don't want to talk about the Masters. Tiger didn't win, and the guy who did seems really boring, so screw it. I can't believe I watched it for nothing.

Anyway, back to Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuc.

I'm sure you all remember Longley from his years with the Bulls, and his three championship rings.

Well, he lost his $2 million home in Fremantle, Australia on Friday night.

The former Chicago Bulls player managed to get his partner, his two children and their two friends out of the family home in Montreal Street before it went up in flames about 3am (WST) today.

The converted industrial premises was well alight by the time fire crews arrived but all five occupants escaped without injury.

"I was asleep and heard a bang, an explosion, and it was already on fire and got the kids out," he told Nine News at the scene.

Crews were able to stop the fire from spreading to an adjacent garage which housed up to five of Longley's vehicles, but the home was left gutted.

Thankfully, everyone was safe, but Longley lost a lot of his memorabilia from his time with the Chicago Bulls. There was also the worry that he'd lost his three championship rings to the blaze.

He didn't.

The fire destroyed sporting memorabilia dating back to his days with the Chicago Bulls as well as an extensive art collection, including paintings by Australian artists George Haynes and Sam Abercromby.

But as he sifted through the wreckage it emerged the three championship rings he won with the Bulls in the 1990s were intact.

Despite all of this, Longley was able to keep his sense of humor.

“One disaster was averted in that I did manage to get a pair of shorts on as we left so the public was spared having to face a 7ft naked ginger,” he said.

All of this comes as bad news for Longley's former teammate Michael Jordan, who upon hearing news of the fire made a bet with Charles Oakley that only one of Longley's rings would remain.

That dude will bet on anything.