Champion.

I hope of you had the chance to catch my Lakers grabbing their championship hardware. I got lucky and found pictures of the ring up close and personal and man is this thing stunning. Hi-Res pictures courtesy of @DimeMag DOT com.

First of all, its gargantuan. You could probably wear this thing on 3 fingers. It’s made of 16K Gold & sports 16 oversized diamonds, signifying ever championship won to date, ONTOP of the fact that it has diamonds filling every other crack and crevasse.

Second of all, as if it was a big enough slap in the face that they won, it also has the # of games they won in each series, and the final score of the championship game.

Third of all, for the first time in history (I believe I read) the ring sports a piece of the game 7 ball. How absolutely gangster is that. When people refer to things as being “G”… no no… THAT, is G. Paul Pierce had an interview the other night discussing his disgust of losing that game and how it will always haunt him. Well Pauly, I’m sure it’ll haunt you more down the road, when you and Kobe are both retired, and are sitting down for a beer and he says “Hey remember that basketball we both touched, in the very last game possible of the furthest series possible, of a rubber match dating back 2 years, in the championship game? Ya its in my ring”. Boom.

 

The 4th and probably craziest thing, mind you quite a piece of overkill, is the fact that each player has their faced etched in 3D on the ring. I mean, they thought of EVERYTHING for this championship ring. Kareem was quoted as saying this ring by itself, is worth more than the 5 rings he won together.

But one of the greatest stories that I read about, was the fact that Ron Artest purchased his ring 3 sizes too small. Why? He’s decided to auction of his ONLY championship ring, that he’s basically overcome all odds to get to, in order to raise money for mental health funding in public schools. At the same time, he’s set a goal for himself to win his second ring to get it back. Lee Jenkins of SI.com said it best when he wrote “Ron Artest gave up his championship ring to leave him yearning for another one, this season”. We talk about the drive, the hustle, the mental focus, but I don’t know of something that could act as more of driving factor than giving away the one thing you’ve fought so hard to get your entire life for a great cause.

Sidenote: He’s said to already been offered $50,000-$100,000 for it and he’s turned it out.

Crazy.

-J

~ by flavrsavr on October 27, 2010.