The Jiří Zídek Trophy is the award for the Kooperativa NBL, the Czech top basketball league, commissioned by CZ Basketball. I designed it to sit between two ways of making — a CNC-machined steel base and 3D-printed steel with gold-infused detail. Old and new fabrication in one object.
Jiří Zídek Trophy
Basketball Trophy as a Fusion of Tradition and Cutting-Edge Craftsmanship
Symbolism in Design, Essence in Details
Three motifs meet in the trophy: the ball, the hoop and the circle — the game, the win and the team. The ball carries 24-karat gold: using a resin-casting technique, fine gold fragments are suspended through the depth of the material rather than sitting on the surface. Hidden inside it is an object from the estate of Jiří Zídek, the most famous Czech basketball player of the 20th century.
Celebrating Champions: The Legacy of the Jiří Zídek Trophy
The net is modelled on the moment a ball drops through the hoop — the geometry caught mid-fall, stretched and weightless. The circular base carries the trophy’s name and ten plaques, filled in year by year with each season’s champion.
The Excellence of the Fabrication
The trophy was made together with the Technical University of Liberec and PrusaLab. The base is CNC-machined stainless steel; the net’s fine structure is 3D-printed in stainless steel by Selective Laser Melting; the ball is resin-cast around its gold. It stands 63 cm and weighs 15 kg.
