Jewelry Expert Leo Khusro Critiques NBA Jewelry
"NBA players...I notice these guys wear bigger pieces." Jewelry expert Leo Khusro reacts to the jewelry worn by today's biggest NBA stars. From LaMelo's spiky UFO chain to Jordan Clarkson's 7-inch Jesus piece, join him as he critiques the pendants and chains worn by NBA athletes.Director: Robby MillerDirector of Photography: Brad WickhamEditor: Gerard ZarraFeaturing: Leo KhusroProducer: Camille RamosLine Producer: Jen SantosAssociate Producer: Chris SechlerProduction Manager: James PipitoneProduction Coordinator: Tanía JonesCamera Operator: Anne-Marie HalovanicGaffer: David DjacoSound Recordist: Tyson DaiProduction Assistant: Ziyne AbdoPost Production Supervisor: Rachael KnightPost Production Coordinator: Ian BryantSupervising Editor: Rob LombardiAssistant Editor: Andy Morrell
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 What's up GQ?
00:01 This is Leo Coustro.
00:02 I'm your favorite athlete's favorite jeweler.
00:04 And today we're gonna be breaking down chains and pendants
00:05 worn by the biggest stars in the NBA.
00:07 [upbeat music]
00:10 Scoot Henderson.
00:15 This setup is crazy.
00:18 Black pearls are beautiful
00:19 and they're not really ever so commonly used.
00:22 I think the first person who really did this
00:24 was Travis Scott.
00:24 He has a similar chain.
00:26 I made this chain.
00:27 It was inspired from a piece
00:28 that him and Eliantte put together.
00:30 It's surrounded by colorful diamonds.
00:31 Some are sapphire, some are canary yellows.
00:33 You've got red rubies on there.
00:35 Every one of the colors on the piece
00:36 is significant to Scoot Henderson.
00:38 He's got, I think, seven brothers and siblings.
00:41 There's seven different colors on there
00:43 representing each sibling.
00:44 This isn't your regular draft day piece.
00:46 This kid was going top three.
00:48 Top three money in the NBA is different.
00:50 This set together is over $200,000
00:52 but that's just the piece with the Scoota on it.
00:56 His nickname is Scoota.
00:57 They call him Scooter.
00:58 So we threw two different Scooters on each side.
01:00 The Scooters actually have spinners on them.
01:02 I'm from Houston, Texas.
01:03 I thought it'd be a cool little flair
01:05 to throw some spinners on there.
01:06 And then he's got this H7.
01:08 It's made in emeralds right there.
01:10 That's a double layer prong set piece.
01:11 The seven obviously represents
01:13 the seven siblings that he has.
01:14 He holds his family very dear, close to him.
01:16 Something that I really respect about this guy.
01:18 Last but not least, the grills.
01:20 These grills in there have canary yellow stones,
01:22 aquamarine blue.
01:23 It's got green diamonds in there and white diamonds.
01:25 And it looks together like a whole rainbow piece
01:27 but he's actually able to pull it off really well
01:29 with this whole setup.
01:30 Anthony Edwards.
01:33 Anthony Edwards is actually wearing one of these.
01:35 You've probably seen this same chain
01:37 in the soccer world, the NBA world, the football world.
01:41 And I've probably sold it to all of them.
01:43 Anthony Edwards here is wearing two of the ones
01:44 that I made for him.
01:46 It's a color chain.
01:47 Gold comes in rose gold, white gold, yellow gold.
01:49 So you really can't go out and have as many options
01:53 when you're doing that.
01:53 But when you start looking at colored stones and sapphires,
01:56 you can play with your fits more.
01:58 Today's world has become about fashion.
02:00 When these guys walk onto the game day,
02:02 it's like they're walking into the red carpet.
02:03 Here, Anthony Edwards has this big contract statement piece.
02:06 This is his big AE, like, okay, I'm Anthony Edwards.
02:10 It's right here, you can't miss it.
02:13 As an NBA player, I notice more
02:15 that these guys wear bigger pieces.
02:16 Taller guys, so it makes sense.
02:18 You don't have to have it this big
02:19 but this is clearly a statement.
02:22 A mellow ball.
02:23 The mellow ball has got crazy jewelry.
02:27 He's got this alien UFO pendant.
02:29 Obviously with the iconic number one, he's number one.
02:32 I made a similar piece like this for Justin Jefferson.
02:34 I put stars on the infinity chain
02:36 so it looked like it was flying through space.
02:38 Here, for example, it looks like it's completely
02:41 out of space.
02:42 This chain is just full of like spikes and thorns.
02:45 And he's got the same similar chain again
02:47 but he made it yellow gold on his other side.
02:49 He chose the words rare.
02:50 That's a triple layer piece, yellow gold.
02:52 Baguettes on the top.
02:53 He threw the extra thorn chain on top.
02:56 And I think that's what really sticks this whole piece out.
02:58 You could have worn this together with one chain
02:59 but the whole double chain with the piece
03:01 just brings it out crazy.
03:03 SGA.
03:05 This is GQ's flyest man of sports every year.
03:08 He's got these bead chains on similar to a rosary
03:11 but right here, they're all fully bust down.
03:13 These pieces on the bottom are unique.
03:15 They're all enamel
03:15 but they're colors you normally wouldn't put together.
03:18 They're loud.
03:18 And when you put these together,
03:20 it gives you like endless options of outfits to wear.
03:23 And this guy has endless of options of outfits
03:25 to put on anyway.
03:26 And this is his vibe.
03:27 If you see other pictures of Chi wearing jewelry,
03:29 it's always the bead chains.
03:31 Chains can be reused for a bunch of pieces.
03:34 You can make four or five different pendants
03:35 and have eight, nine outfits
03:37 and you know, have endless of options.
03:41 LeBron James.
03:42 LeBron James has some very, very, very, very
03:44 expensive jewelry.
03:45 That chain alone in the middle,
03:47 it's the highlight of everything in this whole thing.
03:50 I call it an evil eye chain.
03:52 On a normal bracelet, on an evil eye bracelet,
03:55 you'd make the pointers around 70 pointers.
03:57 These are 90 pointers all throughout his necklace.
04:00 I've actually seen this necklace in person many times.
04:02 It's beautiful.
04:03 It weighs over 400 grams.
04:05 Very, very, very clean craftsmanship.
04:06 It's two-tone white and rose.
04:08 I think with a piece like that,
04:10 you have to make it two-tone.
04:11 And surrounding the eyes is the lids
04:13 on the top and the bottom
04:14 and those are in rose gold
04:15 and it helps make it pop.
04:17 The evil eye cost LeBron probably 300,000.
04:19 And then these pieces on the side,
04:21 he's got tennis chains.
04:22 He's stacked them, I would say 22, 24, 26 inch.
04:25 Normally you would wear the tennis chains
04:27 in the opposite order
04:28 where they're graduating from smallest to biggest.
04:31 But here he's got biggest to smallest
04:33 and don't see it that often,
04:34 but LeBron James pulls it off.
04:35 James Harden.
04:38 Shout out to James Harden.
04:41 Held it down for H-Town.
04:42 He's the owner of the Houston Dynamo.
04:44 As you can see in this photo,
04:45 they beat the Miami team
04:48 and Messi's team in the final.
04:49 And he going crazy in this photo.
04:51 But right here he's wearing two UNO chains.
04:52 Normal pieces have round diamonds that are small.
04:55 But a popular trend today is
04:58 let's make the diamonds bigger.
04:59 So let's just add bigger pointers
05:02 throughout the whole piece.
05:03 Similar to this UNO he's wearing and the chain.
05:05 This is the exact same chain he's wearing
05:07 except it's a bracelet.
05:08 These are infinity links, again with pointers.
05:10 He's got two on here.
05:11 One is rose gold, one is white gold.
05:14 The difference between both of them
05:15 is one is a high polish finish.
05:17 The rose gold is just infinities or high polish gold.
05:19 And then the white gold chain
05:21 is just diamonds all throughout.
05:22 But very big pointers.
05:23 Jordan Clarkson.
05:26 Jordan Clarkson's got the biggest piece in the NBA.
05:29 Hands down.
05:31 I gotta leave.
05:32 This thing is seven inches.
05:34 That's not normal.
05:35 That means that piece right there
05:36 has at least 52 carats or more of diamonds.
05:39 He's got the big Jesus piece on there.
05:41 A lot of guys in the NBA love the cross pieces.
05:44 This is taking the cross piece to a whole nother level.
05:46 Doesn't get louder than this when you're wearing jewelry.
05:48 I'm fascinated by the fact
05:49 that someone would wear a seven inch piece.
05:51 If you're picturing that on me,
05:52 that's probably like right here.
05:54 For people to buy a piece like this,
05:56 you gotta have NBA money.
05:58 You're not touching this playing in the MLS.
06:01 I'm sorry.
06:02 Scotty Barnes.
06:03 So Scotty Barnes and I went through a bunch of designs.
06:08 And when we came to the SB,
06:09 it was really just inspired from the Nike SB collab.
06:13 He called me one day.
06:14 I had just finished working with Nike.
06:16 They were sending me free shoes all the time.
06:17 I got this pair of these shoes that are unreleased Nikes.
06:20 I don't even know what they're called,
06:21 but there's some SBs.
06:22 And I looked at the logo
06:23 and I was talking to Scotty Barnes and I was like,
06:25 do you fuck with this?
06:27 And he was like, eh.
06:29 And I was like, all right, I gotta make this way cooler.
06:31 So we took this SB and we originally put emeralds on it.
06:34 I gave him the price of the emeralds
06:35 and he said that for a custom piece,
06:37 I just don't see myself spending money like that.
06:39 So, okay.
06:40 Have you heard of straight baguettes?
06:42 No, he hasn't.
06:43 Straight baguettes appear as if they look like emeralds,
06:46 but instead of the baguette being sideways, it's straight.
06:50 It's impression is to look like an emerald,
06:52 but it's not an emerald.
06:53 When we put the straight baguettes in it,
06:55 if you look at the piece and you really zoom into it,
06:57 in between every row, there's a row of round diamonds.
07:00 If you look at the American flag, it's like striped.
07:03 And then there's those stars in the corner.
07:05 I totally stole that idea.
07:06 I was like, how do I break these diamonds up
07:08 to where the baguettes are straight,
07:10 but then there's lines going through them.
07:12 So then I literally looked at the American flag
07:14 and the SB together and I was like, boom, this is it.
07:17 John Morant.
07:18 Right here is like a draft day fit,
07:21 but from a couple of years ago,
07:22 they weren't trying to go too crazy.
07:24 If you've noticed, today's draft day outfits
07:26 are way, way, way louder.
07:28 This is something simple.
07:30 Got a cool tennis chain, put his number on it.
07:32 This is like how people used to wear jewelry to the draft.
07:35 This is how people wear their jewelry to the draft today.
07:38 But this is obviously a photo that he took
07:41 when he was in the league.
07:41 The number 12 got bigger, the bankroll got bigger,
07:44 the 12 got bigger, the Cuban chain got bigger.
07:47 Pieces like this are cool to wear together.
07:48 It's all white gold, three different chains.
07:50 You can throw on as many as you want.
07:52 There's no issue of contrast.
07:54 It just adds to the outfit really clean.
07:56 Jairus Walker.
07:57 Jairus Walker has one of the flyest pieces in the whole draft
08:02 or actually that I've ever, ever made.
08:04 His last name is Walker.
08:06 So J-Walk.
08:07 How do we have a J-Walk piece?
08:09 Why don't we make you walking?
08:10 It just was his vibe.
08:11 He's so playful and fun.
08:13 And when he got this piece, he literally did this thing
08:16 where he picked up the chain and he was like,
08:18 "La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la."
08:20 And I love how charismatic he is
08:21 and I love how exciting he is
08:23 'cause he can do unique stuff like this.
08:24 And this is just an entry level of his ideas and uniqueness
08:28 'cause we about to go crazy.
08:29 I actually had a couple of people
08:31 work on this piece with me.
08:32 My little brother, this girl named Sara helped me out.
08:35 So what we did is we 3D scanned his face
08:38 and then uploaded it into a computer.
08:40 So his face is actually enameled.
08:41 We didn't wanna put diamonds on it
08:43 to take away from the detail.
08:44 He's wearing a whole outfit.
08:45 So outfit's obviously not one color.
08:47 You have multiple colors on it.
08:49 We threw black diamonds on the sweater.
08:50 Afterwards, he's got a logo.
08:52 So to make the logo pop, we put the logo on white diamonds.
08:55 The chrome heart jeans,
08:56 what we did is we used blue diamonds on the pants
08:58 and on the crosses, we actually put white diamonds.
09:01 The cool thing about Jairus Walker,
09:03 every single piece of diamonds that's in this piece
09:05 is GIA certified.
09:06 This represents quality.
09:07 This is how you go from a regular degular
09:10 to something that's elite.
09:12 This whole setup was 62,000.
09:13 Chet Holmgren.
09:16 Chet Holmgren, this piece is unique.
09:18 There's a guy in Houston who made this piece.
09:19 His name is Joe Frost.
09:21 I like what he did here 'cause he got a three and a four.
09:23 His number is 34.
09:25 But when you play dice, if you've ever gone to the casino,
09:27 lucky number seven.
09:28 I really fuck with it.
09:29 It's like a two layer, almost 2D kind of piece.
09:32 It almost like you hide the piece through the borders.
09:36 So when he put the borders up on the angle,
09:38 it looks like the dice come all the way from the bottom,
09:41 but they don't.
09:42 You see how on the whole piece there's round diamonds?
09:44 On the bail, he wanted the piece to stick out a little more
09:47 when it's connected to the chain.
09:48 So instead of putting round diamonds on there as well,
09:50 he put baguettes on the bail
09:51 and it goes for a really cool look.
09:53 A rocking to Richard Milley.
09:54 Hopefully he didn't buy that on draft day.
09:56 Paolo Banchero.
09:58 Paolo Banchero, this is a four layer piece.
10:00 And they're very expensive.
10:02 This is a first pick of the entire NBA draft,
10:05 which means he's got first pick money.
10:07 First pick money is different from second pick money.
10:09 And top three money is elite.
10:11 The piece right here is completely four layer paved.
10:13 Emeralds all throughout the top.
10:14 Four layer of round diamonds on the side.
10:16 If you look at the side, you can actually count the layers.
10:18 You can see from the bottom up, it's one, two, three rounds.
10:21 Then you've got that flat layer on top.
10:23 And then the emeralds.
10:25 And the Cuban chain to go together with it.
10:26 Looks like it holds the weight.
10:28 With a piece like this, you need a heavy chain.
10:30 You can't put no bead chains on this kind of piece.
10:32 You can't put no tennis chains on this kind of piece.
10:34 You need a heavy 300, 400 gram piece.
10:37 That's not gonna flip your chain when you put it on.
10:39 I would have loved to sold the set
10:40 'cause I think it would have gone for around 150 total.
10:42 Not because of the value that I wanna be attached to this,
10:45 but because of the quality of the craftsmanship.
10:47 And it's not something you're gonna get every day.
10:49 But if you have someone who's ready to spend the money,
10:52 you can create a really, really, really, really nice piece.
10:55 Kelly Oubre.
10:56 Kelly Oubre has a lot of cool jewelry,
10:58 but again, it's all white gold here.
10:59 He's got the Jesus piece in white gold
11:01 with the bead chains, the Cuban chain on top.
11:03 Starts to change up the vibe.
11:05 He's got a piece that has black diamonds on it,
11:07 but again, you see the white Cubans all throughout.
11:09 You see that he's got this skeleton piece,
11:12 but the eyes and the nose are in black diamonds.
11:14 And I really like this setup
11:15 'cause it really makes the skeleton pop.
11:17 You could have done the skeleton in white diamonds,
11:19 but then it would just look like a block of white.
11:22 Montrez Harrell.
11:23 Montrez Harrell has unlimited jewelry.
11:27 I don't even know where to start.
11:28 The number five piece on the side, the memory pendants.
11:31 I would say these are your pieces
11:32 from like 2000 to 2015 that were iconic.
11:36 The memory pendants, the number pendants.
11:38 He definitely spent probably over a million dollars
11:40 on all this jewelry,
11:42 but to see how the jewelry has evolved
11:43 over the past few years
11:45 through people like Montrez Harrell is actually really cool.
11:47 Not much else to say about it,
11:49 except for every time he steps out, he's completely flooded.
11:52 Shout out to GQ.
11:54 Thank you for having me.
11:55 Again, my name is Leo.
11:56 I just opened my shop here in Houston.
11:58 Y'all gotta come check it out, I got a lot to show you.
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