Getty Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James.
The Los Angeles Lakers will receive their Championship rings Tuesday night at Staples Center before taking cross-hall rival, Los Angeles Clippers.
Guided by head coach, Frank Vogel and assistant coaches Phil Handy, Jason Kidd, Lionel Hollins, Miles Simon, Mike Penberthy and Quinton Crawford the Lakers defeated the Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat, 4–2.
With a roster that included LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma, Rajon Rondo, Alex Caruso, Dwight Howard, Danny Green, J.R. Smith, JaVale McGee, Dion Waiters and Jared Dudley, the Lakers won their first NBA championship in ten years.
For those keeping score at home: It was the franchise’s 17th title, tying the Boston Celtics for the most in league history.
To commemorate that achievment the Lakers tasked Jason Arasheben’s Los Angeles, California-based Jason of Beverly Hills to create the Lakers’ 2020 NBA Championship.
A celebrity jeweler, Jason of Beverly Hills has worked with any and everyone from the late Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Rihanna, Lil Jon, the Saudi Royal family and Los Angeles Lakers forward, LeBron James to create custom jewelry designs.
Jason Of Beverly Hills also created all of the Golden State Warriors’ Championship rings.
While the contents of the Lakers’ 2020 NBA Championship are still a surprise, I did learn that Jason of Beverly Hills collaborated with clothing designer, Don C to design the Lakers’ Championship ring.
Formerly Kanye West’s manager and an executive at West’s G.O.O.D. music label, Don C was also West’s best man when he wed and Kim Kardashian.
In 2011, Don C, a Chicago native, founded his Just Don street-wear and sports apparel brand. Worth noting: Don C also owns a luxury clothing store chain, RSVP Gallery with Virgil Abloh. Abloh created the off-white sneaker collaboration with Nike.
“It was really important for me to work with a streetwear designer that is African American owned,” Jason Arasheben told me by phone.
“It brings a new fresh perspective and energy to ring designs that older traditional companies wouldn’t.
And he’s my friend and I’m a fan of his work.”
The Don C connection is also worth a further examination. After signing his initial deal with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018, James appeared at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, Nevada donning a pair of custom gold Don C-themed Los Angeles Lakers shorts with the traditional Lakers name scribbled across the front of the shorts.
After James wore the Don C shorts on National Television that were retailed at $500 apiece, the shorts immediately went out of stock.
Jason of Beverly Hills and Don C’s collaboration will surely turn heads during the ring ceremony on Tuesday evening. In a world where the coronavirus pandemic, culture, rights for people of color and civil unrest have been a constant topic of conversation in 2020, a collaboration celebrating one of the most iconic sports franchises in the world could be just what fans could be looking forward to. “Different culture different people,” Jason Arasheben shares.
“It’s been ten years since the Lakers won a championship. I’m very very excited.”