"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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