In case you hadn't noticed - and it's hard not to, really - the new National Basketball Association is all about the "bling-bling." Before and after games, players look like they've stepped right out of a rap video.
We're talking chains as thick as Charles Barkley's head and diamond earrings as big as, well, basketballs.
That's only a slight exaggeration.
"It just so happens that when you make the kind of money we make, you can buy nicer jewelry," says Chicago Bulls star Jalen Rose, who notes that the gigantic earrings he sports away from the court are "just a couple" of carats.
And the NBA's jewelry of choice happens to be very high-end: platinum with large diamonds, or 18-karat white gold. Some of the league's young millionaires are sporting "ice" that, in some instances, costs as much as the league's minimum salary - which is about $317,000 for rookies. According to Mark Engel, a Chicago jeweler who runs Pro Gems, which specializes in custom-made pieces for professional athletes, some NBA players own "$500,000 to $1 million" worth of jewelry.
"Before, it was just jewelry," says the 43-year-old Engel, who has made pricey pieces for several NBA and NFL players. "Now it has become a culture."
That culture - a world filled with expensive luxury cars and decked-out to the max SUVs - has also made the players robbery targets. Two years ago, Boston Celtics forward Antoine Walker was among five people robbed at gunpoint of cash and jewelry. Among the items taken was Walker's $55,000 Cartier watch. In September, Rose escaped an attempted carjacking in Los Angeles.
Bulls forward Marcus Fizer was recently arrested for driving around with a loaded gun. Fizer's attorney said his client had the gun for protection, citing the Rose incident.
Still, young professional athletes continue to drop plenty of cash on the ice.
Engel, who has been selling jewelry in Chicago for 20 years, has seen his trade evolve from making single, personalized earrings "to guys wearing earrings two or three times that size in both ears." When you add the watches, gaudy chains and assorted trinkets to the mix, making jewelry for players has become quite a lucrative business.
It's become such big business for Engel, who says he also tries to educate his customers on what is and isn't fine jewelry, that last year he added a day spa to the private showroom across the hall from his shop, complete with professional masseuse.
"That way, we can pamper them or their wives or their girlfriends," he says. "We'll sometimes bring in a tailor or furrier. It's a one-stop shop. You become more than a jeweler when you start working with these guys."
And whatever is popular in the hip-hop world, Engel adds, tends to be popular with the athletes.
"The two go hand in hand," he says. "The athletes and the entertainers feed off each other's energy. As soon as Jay-Z sings about it, they've got to have it. Then if one player has it, another player's got to have it. That's just how it goes."
The Bulls' Eddie Robinson is a prime example of that. Of the $250,000 in jewelry he says he owns, Robinson sports a Jacob watch with a removable, diamond-encrusted faceplate. It's the same watch rappers Jay-Z, Puffy Combs and Nelly wear.
How much?
"It was just 55," Robinson says, showing off the watch before a recent Bulls game. "That would be $55,000. But I'm not trying to outdo anybody. If it's nice jewelry and I like it, I'm going to get it."
Robinson, who says he has "top" insurance coverage on his valuables, recently had a close call with the watch. During the Bulls' annual preseason bowling party, the faceplate came off. Robinson panicked, halting the festivities until somebody finally discovered it.
It's probably a good thing that NBA teams have security bags and boxes so the players can lock up their valuables before games.
That's a hassle Bulls guard Fred Hoiberg doesn't have to worry about. His watch and wedding ring, which he estimates is worth 200 - that would be $200 - are all the "bling-bling" he has.
That's more like just "bling." Maybe not even that.
"That's just not me," Hoiberg says. "My little rope chain that I had in high school was about as flashy as I'm going to get."