nba

Gameplan Launches Diamond NBA Jewelry

Just in time for this weekend's NBA All-Star game, basketball gets a major bling-up. JCK reports that Gameplan Concepts, a division of Lamont Jewelry brands, has created a diamond-studded line of basketball-themed jewelry.

Geary's in Beverly Hills is selling the line which features team logos in white gold set with black and white diamonds. The prices vary depending on the elaborateness of the team logo. The Lakers piece shown at right runs a cool $16,800 but fans of the Pistons will only pay $7,800 to represent for their team with a diamond logo.

Tags: basketball, black diamonds, jewelry, nba

Lakers Receive Latest Championship Rings

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry, Sports

The Los Angeles Lakers celebrated their 16th championship this week, receiving their rings at a ceremony at the Staples Center. Fanhouse reports on the ceremony in which each player introduced the next one in line and celebrity attendees including David Beckham and Jack Nicholson celebrated with the team (video highlights after the jump). Lakers coach Phil Jackson even let pop phenom Justin Bieber try his ring on for size.

The rings were created by Jason of Beverly Hills. The rings have some significant details including a small piece of leather from the Game 7 ball set into the underside of each of the rings. Each ring also has the player's three-dimensional likeness sculpted into the side of the ring. The ring's face has two trophies signifying back to back victories made from a custom batch of 16 karat gold (last year's rings were made of 15 karat gold) and 16 oversized round brilliant white diamonds to indicate the 16 Lakers' championships. The rings were designed with Lakers owner Jerry Buss. "We wanted to create history with this year's ring and I think we've done that!" says Jason Arasheben, CEO of Jason of Beverly Hills. "More than any other year, this year's ring allows the owner to relive and own a piece of Lakers' history with the leather from the Game 7 ball."

UPDATE: As a commenter noted below, one player, Ron Artest, has announced that he is auctioning his ring off and plans to use the proceeds to fund mental health services for youths who can't afford counseling. Artest, who thanked his psychiatrist after last year's win, has said he will try not to wear the ring (his first NBA championship ring) so the winner will be the first person to wear it.

Tags: jason of beverly hills, los angeles lakers, nba, staples center

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Sentient Jets Partners With The Boston Celtics

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Spirits, Wings

The Boston Celtics and private jet company Sentient Jet have announced a new partnership today. Sentient is now the Official Private Jet Partner of the Boston Celtics.

"We are proud to partner with Sentient Jet to provide our fans with unique and convenient access to best in class private aviation services," Boston Celtics Team President Rich Gotham said. "Their support of the Shamrock Foundation through this partnership will help the Celtics to better serve children in need throughout New England."

As part of the partnership, Sentient Jet will team with the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting children's causes across the Boston area. Sentient Jet will also sponsor the Concierge Desk within the Boston Celtics Courtside Club, allowing VIP guests to book a private jet flight while enjoying a game at the Boston Garden.

Sentient is a Boston-based company which offers the Sentient Jet Membership Plus Card. Clients can choose from the Hawker 400XP, Citation Excel or Citation X or from four size categories for each trip. Through the 25-Hour Jet Card, individuals may purchase 25 hours of flight time on their choice of jet size and category at significant savings.

Sentient's CEO Marty Guinoo said. "We always appreciate the opportunity to be a part of a winning team and as a Boston-based company, without question this partnership has special meaning because it allows us to support the local community and fans. Go Celtics!"

Sentient has a variety of partners including Saks Fifth Avenue, the Breeder's Cup, the Leading Hotels of the World, the PGA Tour and American Express.

[via the Boston Globe]

Tags: boston celtics, nba, private jet, private jets, Sentient, sentient jets, SentientJets

Basketball Auction Planned For Hall of Fame Induction Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Sports

The latest inductions into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts are set for August 13. Inductees include Jerry Buss, Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen and the 1992 USA Basketball "Dream Team. As part of the event, Grey Flannel Auctions is holding its Fifth Annual Basketball Hall of Fame Induction Auction. This year's auction features 244 lots of vintage basketball-related memorabilia.

Items up for bid span basketball history. Some are mementos from team glory days like the Chicago Bulls 1991-1992 NBA Championship banner that hung in Chicago Stadium. Others celebrate a player like Wilt Chamberlain's 1965-66 Philadelphia 76ers game-used home jersey. Exhibiting a style used for only one season, the red and white jersey is emblazoned with the all-time single game point-scoring king's number "13″ and the word "Phila." it had a minimum bid of $10,000 but is already trending close to $20,000 in online bidding.

Tags: Basketball Hall of Fame, basketball memorabilia, boston celtics, dennis johnson, nba, sports memorabilia, wilt chamberlain

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Billionaires Vie For Golden State Warriors

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Sports

The Golden State Warriors basketball team is up for sale and the billionaires are lining up. Who is in the running? There are four main suitors. One group is led by Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison with others who already own a minor share of the team. He has been the front-runner for a long time and many hope that his billions and billionaire acumen will bring the team new glory.

Another contender is led by 24-Hour Fitness founder Mark Mastrov whose group includes Magic Johnson. Mandalay Entertainment chair Peter Guber is also in the running. His Mandalay Baseball Properties owns a bunch of minor league baseball teams and was reportedly once interested in buying the Oakland Athletics. Bay Area News Group says the fourth contestant is David Bonderman. Bonderman, a founding partner of TPG Capital, is a Texas billionaire perhaps most known in the media for having one of the most expensive birthday parties ever. For his 60th birthday he hired the Rolling Stones, John Mellencamp and Robin Williams to perform, spending around $7 million. He has a fortune of around $1.7 billion.

All four groups have had a tour of the Warriors' facilities and will be preparing their bids. Warriors owner Chris Cohan is rumored to be hoping for at least $400 million and if possible, breaking the $401 million record set when Robert Sarver bought the Phoenix Suns. Cohan bought the team for $120 million in 1995. It is hoped that the deal will be wrapped up this summer, giving the new owners time to set a direction for next season. Die-hard Warriors fans are hoping that the new owners will bring plenty of enthusiasm and cash to revive the floundering franchise.

Tags: basketball, chris cohan, david bonderman, golden state warriors, larry ellison, magic johnson, nba

Basketball Inspired NBA Mix Master DJ Headphones

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Gadgets, Sports

If you love both music and basketball then you'll probably want to get your hands on a pair of these NBA Mix Master DJ Headphones, which are coming out close on the heels of Dr Dre's Red Sox Beats. Created by Mix Master Mike and claiming to be the 'greatest professional DJ headphones ever' there are 6 designs representing the Celtics, Lakers, Cavaliers, Heat, Knicks, and Bulls (see them each below) each in a numbered limited edition of only 100 each -- so no two are identical. The headphones have many features including supreme sound, cue control, a fold-able design for easy portability, and several patent-pending technologies to make them truly cutting edge. Get yours online via skullcandy.com or in select Apple stores (each design available only in its represented city) for $299.

Via ChipChick

Gallery: NBA Mix Master DJ Headphones

Tags: basketball, headphones, music, NBA

Billionaire Larry Ellison Wants to Buy the Warriors

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Celebrity Shopping, Sports

The Golden State Warriors are for sale and billionaire Larry Ellison wants to buy, so what's the problem? It seems current team owner Chris Cohan is asking for too much money. He wants $400 million for the team today when he paid only $120 million when he bought it back in 1995. I'm no expert in valuing sports teams but that does seem like quite a jump, especially when the team has hardly been doing amazing things over the last 15 years.

Ellison seems determined, however, having been in talks with Cohan since last summer. He also seems a little frustrated, though, saying "I'm trying, I'm trying," and "Unfortunately you can't have a hostile takeover of a basketball team."

If Ellison does become owner of the Warriors his net worth of $22 billion will make him the richest NBA team owner in history.

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Tags: basketball, billionaire, billionaires, golden state warriors, GoldenStateWarriors, larry ellison, LarryEllison, nba, warriors

Lakers Receive Championship Bling

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry, Sports

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.

Gallery: Lakers Rings

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Tags: basketball, championship ring, ChampionshipRing, derek fisher, DerekFisher, kobe bryant, KobeBryant, los angeles lakers, LosAngelesLakers, nba

The Sad Saga of Antoine Walker

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Sports

The latest sports star to hit hard times is NBA player Antoine Walker. The former Celtics star forward has had a rough year. Now various sources says that Walker has lost most of the over $110 million that he earned while playing in the NBA is being chased by creditors. Over the summer Walker was arrested in a Lake Tahoe casino for writing bad checks to satisfy over $1 million in casino markers in Las Vegas. Walker is a known gambler who reportedly once played $15,000 hands with another known gambler, basketball great Michael Jordan.

The Boston Globe found that Walker has been pursued by multiple financial institutions for unpaid debts totaling more than $4 million and has been named as a defendant in three recent debt-related civil cases in Florida and Illinois. Walker is from Illinois and also played for the Miami Heat. Earlier this year J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, Wachovia Bank, and American Express Centurion Bank all won decisions against Walker for failing to pay off promissory notes. He had $53,321.71 in overdue credit card charges with American Express and much of the debt appears to have been created by other people that he authorized to use his card.

Currently Walker, who is 33, is without a team or a contract as the NBA season begins and may be considering playing in an international league for money. It's a far cry from a decade ago when Boston signed him to a six-year, $71 million deal. At just 22 years old he was instantly insanely wealthy. During the Boston Celtics season Walker stayed at the Bishops Forest condominium complex in Waltham and was known to have a variety of luxury cars including customized Bentleys, Mercedes and more. He also had a taste for expensive watches by Rolex and Cartier and enjoyed wearing custom-tailored suits.

And then there's the real estate. Walker created both a Walker Ventures LLC and a real estate company, AW Realty LLC. The company is listed as the owner of several Chicago-area properties, including his mother's home which was once valued at $6 million. In 2007 Walker was robbed at gunpoint in his Chicago home. He bought the home for $4.1 million but put it on the market for $3.9 million after the robbery. It appears to have been sold but is now on the market again by the new owner for just $2.995 million. In 2007 he also sold a townhouse in the same neighborhood for $1.39 million. He had bought the home for $1.3 million in 2004. In the Globe article Walker's mother Diane said that she still has her home and Antoine Walker has his and so there is no problem.

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Tags: antoine walker, antoine walker debt, AntoineWalker, AntoineWalkerDebt, nba, sports stars in trouble, SportsStarsInTrouble

Russia's Richest Man May Build NBA Stadium

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Sports, Wealth

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.

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Tags: basketball, mikhail prokhorov, MikhailProkhorov, nba, new jersey nets, NewJerseyNets

Antonio Davis In Roswell, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Sports

Former NBA basketball player Antonio Davis and his wife Kendra have put their Roswell, Georgia home up for sale. The pair bought the over 16,000 square foot home a couple of years ago. According to an Atlanta Journal Constitution article, Kendra, an interior decorator did the decorating herself. The six-bedroom home is a mix of formal and informal spaces. The "grand salon" has French doors which open to the outside. The kitchen is integrated into the family area and features a leopard print chaise, the sort sometimes seen at the foot of a bed, posed in front of the granite-topped kitchen counter. As you might expect the home is full of sports memorabilia and has a basketball court. Like some other basketball players' homes I have seen this one has a mural or two including basketball-themed murals in two of the children's rooms and in the arcade worthy game room. This home is listed at $4.2 million with Elite Real Estate. Check out the virtual tour here.

Experience more lush living in luxury homes and mansions or see the stars living large with celebrity homes galleries at AOL Real Estate.

Gallery: Antonio Davis In Roswell

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Tags: antonio davis, AntonioDavis, estate of the day, EstateOfTheDay, georgia, kendra davis, KendraDavis, nba, roswell

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Watch the All Star Game in 3D

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Sports

Want to make points with your basketball loving sweetheart this Valentine's Day? Select movie theaters around the country are offering a LIVE 3D HD presentation of NBA All-Star Saturday Night on February 14, starting at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT. Turner Sports, which has televised the NBA All-Star Game for six consecutive years on TNT, is collaborating with the NBA and Cinedigm to bring this 3D HD presentation exclusively to select theaters throughout the country. Theaters will also offer contests and prizes, opportunities to text and to vote on the winner of the Sprite Slam Dunk contest while taking in the super crisp, every-bead-of-sweat-falling digital coverage. The first sporting event to be broadcast publicly in this digital cinema format was the BCS College Football Championship on Jan 8, 2009 and the All Star game is the second event. You can find the theater near you on the Cinedigm website.

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Tags: 3d, cinedigm, nba, sports

How Much Good Do NBA Player Charities Really Do?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Charity, Sports

A couple of days ago I wrote about the troubles for Le Bron James's charity foundation. It made me wonder about other NBA player foundations. The Salt Lake Tribune has a fascinating piece on NBA charities. They did an analysis of 89 stand-alone NBA player charities and found that while all together they reported revenue of at least $31 million between 2005 and 2007, only about 44 cents of every dollar raised (around $14 million of that $31 million) went to needy causes. Furthermore, the average NBA player foundation put just 51 cents of each dollar it spent toward charitable programs which is below the 65 cents most philanthropic watchdog groups view as acceptable. Some charities are well-financed and well run but many suffer from poor planning and inflated administrative costs. Part of the problem is that players put family members and friends on their boards and some hold fundraising galas that make a big splash but not a lot of money. About a third of NBA player charities analyzed instead remain funded by the athletes' own wealth. Player charities also fold because of lack of support or because athletes move on.

There are NBA charities that work. Former Houston Rockets center Dikembe Mutombo was praised by President Bush in his 2007 State of the Union address for helping to build the first new hospital in the Republic of Congo, Mutombo's homeland, in 40 years. Some of these charities have budgets of over $1 million. Many however end up wasting money and finding themselves unsure of how to take the leap into making their charities publicly supported enterprises. Without hiring people who have experience in fundraising and nonprofit work, charities often find themselves floundering. The NBA and the NBA Players Association have begun to make education on starting foundations part of the league's annual rookie orientation.

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Tags: charity, dikembe mutombo, DikembeMutombo, nba, philanthropy

The Economy Of Sports

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Sports

So far most of the news I've heard about sports teams in this economy has been pretty positive. New stadiums are still being built and luxury suites are being filled. But Gary West writing in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has a piece that points out that sports are going through their own cost-cutting measures. Attendance is down at professional baseball games. The NCAA is curbing spending on postseason travel and the Grand Prix du Canada, the only Formula One race in North America is struggling to find funding. And layoffs have even come to the NBA which is cutting their work force by 9%.

More than ever professional sports depend on revenue from advertising, sponsorships and naming rights but with many corporations in trouble those opportunities are drying up. As the Dallas Morning News reports the Cowboys have a new $1.1 billion stadium expected to be completed by next June and they are looking for a naming-rights deal that could be worth hundreds of millions. There are less and less companies now that would be interested in a deal of this magnitude.

And Nascar, which has risen to be one of the most popular sports in the U.S. is really feeling the pinch. General Motors, Chrysler, Sears Holdings and Chevron will cut or drop sponsorships next season. Perhaps more than any other sport this economy has a dramatic effect because it takes so much money to compete. Dario Franchitti, the 2007 Indianapolis 500 winner, was forced out of the series by a lack of sponsors and teams from names like Petty, Waltrip and Earnhardt may enter 2009 with unfunded cars. Nascar may even have trouble filling up their 43-car fields because so many teams have had trouble finding sponsors.

Certainly professional sports aren't going anywhere. Watching sports has always offered distraction and succor in tough times. Cheering for our teams lets us experience both joy and defeat in a way that doesn't impact our daily living. But in a time when companies are forced to cut back, sports teams, which are businesses too, will be forced to readjust. Some franchises may have to close. Teams that have relied on lucrative corporate suites deals may have to focus more on getting regular customers into seats.

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Tags: nascar, nba, nfl, sports

You Can Still Spend $1,000 On Kevin Garnett's Kicks

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Shoes, Sports

The last NBA season is but a memory even for Celtics fans but Kevin Garnett's 2008 NBA Finals $1,000+ limited edition sneakers are still up for sale. Adidas made 56 pairs last year and still has 13 pairs available for $1,017. Boston Sportz points out the Celtics have a big banner on their online store counting down the leftover sneakers but probably won't be dropping the price anytime soon.

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Tags: celtics, kevin garnett, nba, sneakers