At Tuesday’s season opener, the Golden State Warriors received their rings commemorating the 2018 NBA championship. As far as we know, it doesn’t decode anything, but it is reversible: You can twist off the top (revealing a hidden message) and flip it over to display an alternative design. Details: • The top of the ring has the player’s number and a depiction of the east span of the Bay Bridge on a field of 74 diamonds (representing the 74 wins in the season and postseason), flanked by two trophies, for the back-to-back championships. • The tricky part of the ring: The top can be removed and flipped over, displaying the same design but with 74 sapphires. • Twisting off the top reveals the message “Strength in Numbers” inscribed on the base. • The “player side” of the ring has the player’s last name, number and the “Just Us” motto. It has 58 stones, for the regular-season wins. • The “team side” has the oak tree logo labeled “The Town”; 58-24, the regular-season record; and the phrases “World Champions” and “Back 2 Back.” It has 56 stones, for the number of years the team has been in the Bay Area. • Both sides have a bristle texture, indicating the final series sweep. The ring was created by the jeweler Jason of Beverly Hills; a video showing its features is posted at NBA.com.<doc-sep>Stephen Curry #30 and the Golden State Warriors celebrate after receiving their 2017-2018 Championship rings prior to their game against the Oklahoma City Thunder at ORACLE Arena on October 16, 2018 in Oakland, California. OAKLAND, California — Who has the most NBA rings since 2009? LeBron James? No. Stephen Curry? No. Actually, it’s Jason Arasheben, also known as Jason of Beverly Hills. The veteran jeweler has more than 200 NBA player clients and has made jewelry for Kim Kardashian, Michael Jackson, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Jennifer Lopez, Chelsea FC, the Los Angeles Dodgers, Matthew McConaughey and Princess Latifa Al Saud of Saudi Arabia. His company made the Warriors’ championship rings for the third time in four years, including the ones the team received on Tuesday night as they celebrated their 2018 NBA title. “Some players wanted a blue face; some players wanted a white face,” Arasheben said. “We wanted to make everyone happy, so what we did with this year’s ring was make the top turn around. You can change it blue to white and turn it back between blue sapphires and white diamonds. “No one has ever done this before. Every year you’ve got to come up with something.” Arasheben was born in Tehran, Iran, and moved to Los Angeles when he was 3 years old. A big NBA fan growing up, he went to pre-law school at the University of California at Los Angeles. His father had dreams of his son being a lawyer one day. He also had a unique hobby of drawing jewelry in college and quietly had aspirations of making jewelry one day. In 2002, while hanging out in a club in Los Angeles one night, he met NBA player Anthony Mason (who died in 2015) and showed him some pictures of his drawings. “One day I went to Anthony Mason and said, ‘Look at this design. This is going to be amazing.’ He was like, ‘Are you a jeweler? Can you make that?’ I wasn’t, but I said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘I can do it.’ He said, ‘OK, come to my hotel room tomorrow and let me know the price,’ ” Arasheben said. “I was like, ‘Oh, man, I just threw myself in the jewelry business.’ I called someone and they told me they could make the ring for $50,000, and I figured I can tell him I can get it made for $60,000 and make a profit. “So I went back the next day with Anthony Mason and he gave me the money. I had my little jeweler make it. I made a profit and he started introducing me to people.” Arasheben dropped out of UCLA and put all of his energy into the jewelry business in 2003. To say his father was not happy is an understatement. “My father didn’t talk to me for two years because he was so upset,” Arasheben said. “He said, ‘You were a good student. I worked my whole life for you to go be an attorney or a doctor. This is stupid. You are throwing your life away.’ ” But this is what Arasheben loved to do, and he continued to get more business through satisfied NBA customers. He set up shop at the NBA pre-draft camp in Chicago and the NBA draft in New York, where he would meet players as they entered the league. Warriors All-Star forwards Kevin Durant and Draymond Green said they both met Arasheben before they played in the NBA. Arasheben also said he met Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James before he entered the league in 2003. “When you’re doing business with somebody and you make transactions with that much money, you want to deal with great people,” said Durant. “He’s one of those guys in that industry who takes care of his clients.” Arasheben also built a friendship with Jesse Buss, the son of Lakers owner Jerry Buss, in the late 2000s. Jesse Buss persuaded his father to hire Arasheben to make the Lakers’ championship rings in 2009. It was the first major sports championship ring that Arasheben made. The Lakers’ 15th championship ring was 15 karats with 14 diamonds surrounding the top of the ring. Per the request of then-Lakers guards Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher, there was a player image on the side of the rings. The Los Angeles skyline was on the two-tone ring as well. “I almost screwed it up the first year,” Arasheben said. “I didn’t have the manufacturing capacity to do all the rings. They needed 300 rings in five weeks. I didn’t think I could do it. I literally had sleeping bags in my factory where people were working all night all the way.” Arasheben said he was on the ceremony stage when the Lakers won the 2010 NBA championship and also made those title rings. He also made the 2012 UEFA Champions League rings for Chelsea Football Club and the 2017 National League Champions rings for the Los Angeles Dodgers. After losing out on making the NBA title rings for four years, Arasheben called everyone he could to get the job when the Warriors won the title in 2015. He said he called the six player clients he had on the team, Lakers president Jeannie Buss, ex-Warriors Baron Davis and Jermaine O’Neal and other players to reach out to Warriors co-owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber to land the gig. “It got to the point that they were so annoyed by me that they had so many guys calling that they gave me a meeting. I was that persistent,” Arasheben said. Then the Warriors gave Arasheben the gig in 2017 and 2018. Curry said he played a role in the design of the rings in 2015 and 2017. This year, Arasheben said, he reached out to Durant, Green and Curry to get insight on how to make the 2018 NBA championship ring special. The 2018 NBA title ring has 74 sapphires and 74 diamonds, two trophies that include gold and diamonds and the Bay Bridge, “The Town” logo representing Oakland and the Warriors’ motto “Strength In Numbers” in it. The best feature actually confused Green when he first heard it has a twist-off top that allows the ring bearer to either have a blue or white top. After the game, Curry took the Arasheben-invented ring out of the box and showed it off to his friends. He accidentally dropped the top of it on the ground. Durant said he bought eight 2017 NBA championship rings for friends and family members last year. He plans to do the same this time around too. Arasheben also said the Warriors have ordered about 500 rings for their employees. Now that he has his own factory, Arasheben has no problem getting the big orders done. He also now has stores in Beverly Hills, California; Las Vegas; Miami; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Tokyo. Next up for Arasheben will be dropping off rings to the 2018 World Cup-winning French national team next week. Arasheben said several of the French soccer stars are big NBA fans and loved the rings he made for the Warriors. So Paul Pogba and Antoine Griezmann met with him in Los Angeles to solidify that deal after the World Cup win. Not bad for a college dropout who went from taking a risk in the ring business to standing on the Oracle Arena floor on Tuesday night admiring the Warriors wearing the newest ring he designed for the champs.<doc-sep>OAKLAND, Calif. -- For the third time in the last four years, the NBA season began with the Golden State Warriors receiving their championship rings and raising a championship banner. While it may not be the last time they receive their rings on opening night, the presentation had a bittersweet tone because this is, in fact, the last time the Warriors will raise a championship banner at Oakland's Oracle Arena. Next season the Warriors will move to Chase Center in San Francisco, and on Tuesday before Golden State's game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Oracle crowd showed its appreciation one last time for the dynasty they've been treated to over the past several seasons. Here's an up-close look at this year's hardware. Commissioner Adam Silver took center court and addressed the crowd, then presented rings to owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber. Then the players were introduced with Stephen Curry, as always, receiving the largest ovation. However, some analysts noticed that it was Kevin Durant, not Curry, who was announced last. Curry is normally introduced last during pregame introductions, and some felt allowing Durant to be the final name called during the ring ceremony might be a recruiting tool to keep Durant in Golden State next season. Hey, what would opening night be without some NBA conspiracy theories? Curry then took the microphone and showed his appreciation for the fans, his teammates and the organization. A special moment came when Curry called up director of team operations Eric Housen, who was welcomed by the team. But still, it was a little strange that, even if the Warriors win the title this season, as they're tremendously favored to do, the banner will be raised in a different arena next season. "We know that the new arena is going to be amazing and we are looking forward to it, but we are going to miss Oracle and we are going to miss Oakland," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said before the game. "There's not an easy way to slice it. It's a great move for the organization -- we know that -- but this place is special. So we want to make sure this is a special season."<doc-sep>
The Golden State Warriors opened up the season with a ring ceremony to commemorate their 2017-18 title run, and the new rings feature something we’ve never seen before. 👀First look! Dubs 2018 NBA Championship Rings by Jason of Beverly Hills!!! 🏆💍#DubNation pic.twitter.com/jTObw4mVcT — Golden State Warriors (@warriors) October 17, 2018 Some of the details of the ring are insane, this is from the team website: The top of the players’ championship ring is reversible, a first-of-its-kind feature for a championship ring. The 74 sapphires on the ‘blue’ side signify the total number of regular season and playoff wins by the Dubs in the 2017-18 season. Likewise, 74 diamonds on the white side signify the 2017-18 win total. There are two trophies on top of the ring, signifying the team’s back-to-back championships in 2017 and 2018. The 2017 tropy is 17kt gold and has a .17cts white diamond, and the 2018 trophy is 18kt gold and has a .18cts white diamond. Twisting off the top of the ring reveals the slogan ‘Strength in Numbers’ mantra. Each of the Warriors’ four 2018 postseason series victories are featured on the sides of the ring (4-1, 4-1, 4-3, 4-0). The bristle texture featured on both sides of the ring represents the Dubs’ four-game sweep of the Cavs in the 2018 NBA Finals. One side of the ring is adorned with the player’s name and number, Bay Bridge and “Just Us” slogan. This ‘player’s side’ has 58 stones that represent the team’s regular season wins. On the other side of the ring – the team side – the Town jersey logo, “Back 2 Back” and regular season record (58-24) are featured. This team side of the ring has 56 stones representing the number of years the Warriors have been in the Bay Area. The highlight of the ring is clearly the reversible feature from the top of the ring. Jason of Beverley Hills really brought something new to the ring design game, and executed his vision beautifully. One of my favorite features is the “Strength In Numbers” inscribed inside the ring when it’s opened up to flip the top around. The team tweeted out a video of the ring showing off all of the details and how the reversible part of the ring works.