The NBA Championships are over, and the NBA Finals will soon crown new champions. The winning team walks away with the Larry O’Brien NBA Championship Trophy (formally the Walter A. Brown Trophy). Like most high-profile awards, this trophy represents a masterwork of precious metals.
Unlike the World Cup, the winning team gets to permanently keep the Larry O’Brien trophy. Each year, Tiffany & Co. creates a new trophy with the year and team names.
To make the trophy, Tiffany & Co. use vermeil with about 14.5 lbs. of sterling silver and around 1.5 lbs. of 24kt gold overlay. That’s about $3,500 worth of silver alone, according to recent prices. The trophy is design to look like a basketball entering the net. The basketball is actually regulation size (9-inch diameter), so even though the trophy is gold-plated, it’s a LOT of gold plating.
