What You Need To Know About The Haute Warriors Championship Rings

Photo Credit: Instagram/Warriors

The NBA champion Golden State Warriors received their dazzling rings and unveiled their banner at a memorable ceremony on Oct. 27 prior to their 2015-16 season opener, which, by the way, they won in fitting fashion, beating the New Orleans Pelicans 111-95 at Oracle Arena. We were on hand for the event and must say we were quite impressed with these eye-catching jewels, made by Jason of Beverly Hills—the same company responsible for the Los Angeles Lakers’ back-to-back championship rings in 2009 and 2010, and made the journey to the Bay Area on an XOJet. Here’s an up close look at the Warriors championship rings:

Photo Credit: Facebook.com/Warriors

It was only fitting that owner Joe Lacob, whom we’re proud to feature on the cover of our inaugural philanthropy issue in November/December 2015, was the first to be handed his ring by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. Next up was co-owner Peter Guber, the Hollywood mogul who makes attending Oracle Arena a whole lot of fun. Well, really it’s the players who provide the most entertainment. NBA MVP Stephen Curry gave an eloquent speech after all of the top executives, including The Logo himself, Jerry West, coaches and players received their rings. The three-point master thanked the fans and acknowledged his former teammates who were on the championship roster—David Lee, Justin Holiday and Ognjen Kuzmic.

“This is an unbelievable night for all of us players, for everybody in the organization, coaching staff,  front office—Joe, Peter—but also for Dub Nation,” Curry told the sold-out crowd. “You guys support us every single night, every single year. We would not have been able to do what we did last year without you guys’ support every single night—39-2 at home; 67 wins for the regular season—and to cap it off with that trophy right there is a huge accomplishment—so thank you.”

What a coincidence, or not, that former Warriors coach Alvin Gentry, now the head coach of the Pelicans, was on hand to personally receive his ring. But the coach who received a standing ovation and perhaps the most applause of the evening was Steve Kerr, whose back problems are keeping from coaching the team for the time being.

When it came to designing the rings, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, Jason of Beverly Hills received input from Lacob, Guber, Curry and his teammates Draymond Green and MVP Andre Iguodala, among others. As Bruce Jenkins of the Chronicle writes, it takes some knowledge of Warriors history to fully grasp the ring’s prominent features, which include:

• More than 6 carats of diamonds and sapphires, and more than 90 grams of 14-karat gold.
• The top of the ring, representing the team’s Bay Bridge logo, is made of 67 percent gold (roughly 16 carats), to reflect the number of last season’s regular-season wins.
• A depiction of Oracle Arena’s architecture, as viewed at roof level.
• The numbers 1975 and 2015, representing the team’s NBA championship years in the Bay Area.
• A total of 240 stones set in the ring, reflecting the 240 Warriors victories since the Lacob-Guber ownership group took over.
• The individual player’s last name and uniform number.
• Sixteen princess stones on the top of the ring to represent the 16 victories during last year’s postseason.
• Diameter of the players’ rings: roughly 35 millimeters, each cut to a specific ring size. The company took no chances, flying representatives to Oakland to measure each player’s ring finger individually.
• A special touch for the sake of authentication (as opposed to any copies that may appear): Each player’s ring has four fluorescent diamonds, visible only under black light and thus requiring a certain device for illumination. That number symbolizes the four championships the Warriors have won in their history, including the 1946-47 and 1955-56 seasons in Philadelphia.
• Each player is being given a box in which the ring can spin slowly on a motorized turntable, illuminated by built-in lights.

“A lot of my clients are Hollywood heavyweights,” Jason Arasheben of Jason of Beverly Hills, was quoted as saying. Arasheben, a thirtyish man of Iranian-Norwegian descent built his company from scratch as a UCLA student selling hand drawings out of an apartment. “Peter had heard of me because a lot of actors, actresses and agents know about our rings, bracelets and necklaces. We also have more than 250 NBA players as personal clients for all kinds of jewelry. We build things around their personal tastes and let them get involved with the design.

“We’ve also done rings for Chelsea, in the English Premier League, and we did the World Series of Poker bracelets. We’re not a super-giant luxury outfit like Tiffany’s (a $2 billion company that only recently dealt with sports teams, including the Giants). But there were seven companies vying for the Warriors’ rings, including two that have virtually monopolized the sports-ring market over the last 50 years: Jostens and Balfour. So this feels like a huge accomplishment.”

Photo Credit: Facebook.com/Warriors