Earlier this week the Lakers received their championship rings and this year's rings are some of the flashiest yet. Several members of the Buss family and team captains Derek Fisher and Kobe Bryant weighed in on the design for the rings. The rings are made of a special limited 15K gold to celebrate the 15th championship. Dr. Jerry Buss requested the 14 round diamonds circling the top of the ring to represent 14 championships with the small gold trophy on the top representing the 15th. The team captains requested that each player have their own face and jersey number on the side of the ring. On non-player rings the Los Angeles skyline takes the place of the face. Each ring is authenticated by a serial number and there are hidden etchings of the Lakers logo on the ring. The diamond-studded top echoes the shape of the Staples center. Each ring comes with a box that has two LED spotlights inside. The 2009 Lakers championship rings were created by Jason of Beverly Hills and are worth about $30,000.

Another sad tale of a former athlete facing financial woes has surfaced. Cindy Brown is an Olympic gold medal-winning basketball player who also played in the WNBA and around Europe. Now the former player is losing her fight to keep her Southern California home, a home she bought way back in 1989 in the town of Villa Park.

The talented player was an All-American at Long Beach State( the 60 points she scored against San Jose State in 1987 remains the NCAA record for most points scored in a single game) and a member of USA Basketball's team that won the gold in Seoul in 1988. Although she made good money as a player, as the OC Register points out, she would have made far more if she was a male player. Because there was no professional team in the United States back then she played in France, Italy, Israel, Japan and Spain, usually earning more than $100,000 a year. In 1996, Brown took a pay cut to come back to the United States and play in the American Basketball League. Later she played for the WNBA's Detroit Shock and in Utah before retiring in 2000.

Starting last year, locals began to complain to the city that Brown was not maintaining the yard on her five-bedroom home. Brown tells the OC Register that her neighbors made false assumptions about her and did not like the fact that she is African American and a lesbian. She also said that she was unable to take care of the lawn because she had lost over $1 million in a real estate scam and was on the brink of foreclosure. She has been selling everything she can and has been trying to find work but earlier this summer the Villa Park City Council declared Cindy Brown's house a public nuisance. In July, city workers took over and put drought-tolerant plants in Brown's front yard at a cost of $5,500. The city obtained a warrant to come and water the property and the total city bill for fixing Brown's lawn eventually came to $12,516.

Brown has said that the city and local authorities refused to help her and has filed a civil suit, listing 100 defendants. Earlier this week the city approved putting a lien on Brown's property. Brown says her home, which is listed with an estimate debt of more than $910,000, is scheduled to be auctioned this weekend.

Back in June I started hearing rumors that Russia's richest man Mikhail Prokhorov was interested in buying a portion of the New Jersey Nets. The six-foot-nine-inch-tall billionaire is a basketball fan and owns a share of a Russian basketball team. The latest news from Moscow is that he may help to build the team's new arena. He would provide a loan for the Nets and receive a large non-controlling stake in the team in return. Nets owner Bruce Ratner has wanted to build an arena for the team in Brooklyn and move his team there in 2011. The stadium's construction may cost around $800 million. Ratner has been to Moscow for talks but nothing has been officially confirmed yet.

It isn't a question of if Utah Jazz player Carlos Boozer will lose money on his Miami home, it's a question of how much. Boozer is currently going through a divorce with his wife Cindy "CeCe" Boozer and so, as Celebrity Big Time Listings reports, he's looking to settle up on this home. He and his wife paid $7.3 million for the Mediterranean-style home in 2007 at a time when real estate in Florida was still pretty high. Flash forward to now when the market is packed with homes like Boozer's: big, beige, lavish homes with dark wood, wrought iron and marble. This home has been staged to ultimate blandness with the luxurious anonymity of a luxury hotel suite. The home has five bedrooms, a media room, large living room and a gourmet kitchen. The property also includes a one bedroom guest house, pool, dock and a boat lift as well as a three-car garage. The home is listed at $6.9 million. Even with the waterfront location, I'd be shocked if it sells for anything over $5 million.
Experience more lush living in luxury homes and mansions or see the stars living large with celebrity homes galleries at AOL Real Estate.

Shaquille O'Neal has finally unloaded his Miami mansion for $16 million - $2 million less than he paid for the place - after nearly five years. The basketball superstar bought the Star Island spread in 2004 for $18.2 million, and first listed it for sale in 2005 for $32 million. The home was listed at $29 million when it was our estate of the day last summer, then the price dropped to $22 million before climbing back up to $25 million, then going back down to $22.5 million. Quite the real estate roller coaster. The Miami Herald reports that the new owner who reportedly coughed up $16 million in cash is said to be a European businessman who plans to renovate the estate. According to the South Beach Real Estate Blog, the buyer is none other than Vladislav Doronin, the handsome Russian billionaire who's dating supermodel Naomi Campbell. The Mediterranean-style main house has eight bedrooms, an indoor basketball court, gym, steam room and sauna. The 2.5 acre grounds include a tennis court, six-car garage, dock, two-bedroom guest house and Shaq's pool complete with Superman logo.

If you know basketball and love cigars, take a look at this new contest from CigarsDirect.com. Join the company's fantasy league on CBS Sportsline – choose your winners wisely – and you could walk away with up to $1,000 worth of cigars. Prizes are available for the top 10 participants based on points earned.

• 1st Place: 2008 Opus X Cigar Charity Box ($999.95 retail value)
• 2nd Place: Opus X Robusto Cigar Box ($839.55 retail value)
• 3rd Place: Hemingway Between the Lines Cigar Box ($799.95 retail value)
• 4th Place: Arturo Fuente Anejo #77 "Shark" Cigar Box ($575.95 retail value)
• 5th Place: Padron 1964 Anny Torpedo Natural Cigar Box ($319.95 retail value)
• 6th Place: 2006 God of Fire Robusto Tubo Cigar Box ($184.75 retail value)
• 7th Place: Hemingway Short Story Cigar Box ($139.99 retail value)
• 8th Place: 1992 Rare Estate Opus X Robusto Cigar Tin ($94.95 retail value)
• 9th Place: Padron 1926 Series Sampler Maduro ($74.95 retail value)
• 10th Place: $50 Gift Certificate good toward any purchase on CigarsDirect.com

My goal, I have to admit, would be to finish fourth, fifth or ninth.

[Photo by Steve Zak]

Today is the latest in a long series of sports star homes lingering on the market. Denver Nuggets guard Allen Iverson has been looking to sell his home in Villanova, Pennsylvania for a year now. I first heard about it last year when the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties column first reported on it. Now a year later the same column reveals that Iverson has dropped the price on the 14,000 square foot home to a desperation price of $4 million. That's $1 million less than the former Philadelphia 76er and his wife Tawanna paid for it in 2003. The six-bedroom home is on four acres that include a pool house, stream and waterfall.The chateau-style home on Chateau Lane has four levels including a great room with floor-to-ceiling Palladian windows. The master suite has his and hers marble bathrooms, a coffee bar, media area and a veranda overlooking the grounds. There are four additional en-suite bedrooms and a separate guest quarters with a bedroom, living room and kitchenette. The entertainment level has a 12-seat movie theater, billiard room, and a lounge with a custom wood carved bar accommodating 200+ wine bottles. It is now listed at $3.999 million.
Experience more lush living in luxury homes and mansions or see the stars living large with celebrity homes galleries at AOL Real Estate.

If you are planning to pick up the new Jordan jeans and the Air Jordan XX3 sneakers, then you are probably going to want to get your hands on this too. The Nike Limited Edition Jordan commemorative basketball is made of full-grain leather and has a graphic that wraps around the ball. There are 2323 of these balls made and each one is individually numbered on the box and ball. It also comes with an embroidered sport sack with shoelace drawstring and it sells for $150.

[via Uncrate]

The fabulous Real Estalker Mama led us to the listing for NBA star Cuttino Mobley's house in Beverly Hills. Mobley, who plays for the LA Clippers, has put his five-bedroom home on the market. Mobley came to the Clippers in 2005 and bought the house for $3,650,000. Also in 2005, Mobley's home was robbed of $500,000 in cash, jewelry and other items. I wasn't able to tell if this was the house that was robbed but given its private location with those hills surrounding it, it seems to be the type of location that the band of thieves which has prayed on the rich and famous in the area are prone to strike in. The home is the classic celebrity new build, faux Tuscan with large bathrooms with separate tubs and vitrine-like showers, plasma screens everywhere. The small backyard includes a modest pool and a spa surrounded with cobalt blue tile. Given the price, $3,995,000, it does not look, as our Real Estalker Mama astutely pointed out, that Mobley will be making much money on the deal. Often when a player is looking for a quick sale it means a trade is in the offing. This doesn't seem to be the case in Mobley's case but I have to wonder where Mobley is headed to.

The word "massive" really has its work cut out when it comes to describing the new house basketball player LeBron James is building himself and plans to move into next summer. In addition to absolutely "massive" living spaces like a two-story walk-in closet off the master suite, and not only a huge "great room" but an even bigger "grand room" as well, James really outdoes himself (and the rest of the neighborhood) with a casino, a bowling alley, and a barbershop included in the over 35,000 sq feet of house plans.

Throw in a Starbucks and a gas station and he can upgrade from "massive home" to "small town."

Somehow, it seems that we missed the boat on the NBA Finals Shoes. More than likely, it's because we're more interested in watching the World Cup than in watching basketball. Nevertheless, these limited edition shoes are pretty cool. Only 60 pairs were made - with 12 pairs were sold online and 48 pairs at the NBA store in New York. Each pair was individually decorated by graffiti artist Oscar Gale/Toast and sold for $175.

If NBA fans weren't so fanatical about their shoes, I'd expect to see a pair on eBay soon, but as it is, you might have to wait until after the finals season until anyone is willing to part with a pair.