The Boston Celtics celebrated winning the 2024 NBA title in style, cruising through the streets of Boston in the city’s iconic duck boats. Not hours after the team’s championship parade had ended, however, All-Star forward Jaylen brown realized he had a problem.
Like the rest of the Celtics players, Brown spent the parade in the back of a duck boat as thousands of fans cheered along the route. At some point during the commotion, however, Brown lost something important. A ring he was wearing had slipped off of one of his fingers, a bronze colored band with his 7uice brand’s logo adorned in stones on the head. A special piece of jewelry, this was something Brown couldn’t stand to lose for good. So he took to social media to ask the public for help, and from there, the entire city hopped to attention.
Quickly enough, everyone was looking for the ring, with an assist from Celtics Twitter, the local news, and many other platforms in between. Boston was determined to find Brown’s ring, and Celtics Wire ended up right in the mix of things.
This is the story of how one couple found the 7uice ring amid the confetti, how they returned the ring to its rightful owner, and how Brown made sure to say thank you.
Brown used his Instagram page to post about his missing ring, offering a reward. I re-routed the photos to Twitter, sharing a screenshot on my personal account just to help get the word out. People flocked to the story, and many others posted about Brown’s problem as well. It was on the local news in a couple of hours, as well as many national sports outlets.
Soon, dozens of people messaged me on Twitter. They saw the tweet and had theories about where the ring might have been lost, with photo evidence to corroborate their ideas. Some had slow-motion video clips of Brown still wearing the ring earlier in the parade. A number of people claimed to have the ring, too. All of it was intriguing, but these leads didn’t amount to much.
The consensus seemed to be that a street sweeper had picked it up. Boston was littered with confetti, beer cans, and other trash after the parade, and the city quickly worked to clean everything up. Brown was dealing with the urban equivalent of a needle in a haystack.
On the Monday following the parade, a particularly anonymous Twitter user messaged me. The account had no profile picture, and had only been started in June 2024. I was suspicious, replying to the claim that the ring had been found with an incredulous “Wait, actually??”.
True to their word, the mysterious account had indeed found the ring. They shared photos and videos to prove it. They explained that they weren’t regular social media users, but had seen the story about Brown’s ring on the news. From there, they found my initial tweet, and decided to reach out.
Meet Luke and Adi, the heroes of this saga, and the couple who found the missing 7uice ring. Luke and Adi did what they could to make sure it found its way home.
“We wanted to reach out as soon as we found out it was Jaylen’s ring,” Luke and Adi told Celtics Wire. “We were expecting it to be difficult to get a hold of him, naturally! We were also very cautious about reaching out to the right people to let them know we have the ring. We understood what we were safekeeping was very valuable and wanted to make sure it (and we) stayed safe as we worked on setting up the return!”
Luke was present for the parade itself, while Adi made her way over to Boylston street in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood right after work.
“We found the ring on the day of the parade, about an hour after it had ended,” Luke said. “We had no idea that it was Jaylen’s missing ring until we saw it first break on the news a couple of days later.”
“While we obviously recognized the 7uice brand,” Adi added. “We actually thought it was a piece of fan-owned jewelry someone had dropped during the parade. There was no one around to return it to and at that point, the streets were being cleaned so it was going to get swept along with the rest of the debris.”
“Luke jokingly gave it to me and said, ‘Here, wedding vow renewal,’ and we both laughed because we never thought what we found was this important. That realization a few days later was pretty crazy.”
Brown’s 7uice Brand is an essential part of his life off the court. It’s the flagship for Brown’s many fashion pursuits, while the 7uice Foundation is the bedrock of his many philanthropic and educational efforts. Celtics Wire has worked with 7uice on previous stories, and I texted 7uice creative director Malcolm Durr about the ring.
Brown and the 7uice team were in Paris for a collaboration with the fashion brand Namesake, so a response came a few days later. Durr was as surprised as I was that the ring had actually been found. After Brown confirmed the photos were authentic, and I connected Luke and Adi with Brown’s agent and the 7uice team.
Luke and Adi arranged to meet Durr, his brother Donte, and a few others to exchange the ring. From the jump, Brown’s mention of a reward never seemed to be their primary concern, and they told Celtics Wire they just wanted to see the ring returned safely.
“We were excited and a bit jittery,” Luke and Adi said. “Everybody involved was exceptionally warm and friendly, though, and they really helped us feel a lot less nervous about the meet up. Big shout-outs to them for being so cool. We expected to just hand it over without any fanfare and go grab some dinner.”
Brown came along for the exchange, and surprised the couple with an arm full of gifts like Santa Claus. The moment capture in video was a special one, and Brown more than made good on his promise of a reward. Luke and Adi were stunned. Rapper A$AP Ferg even tagged along for good measure.
“That moment was incredible,” Luke and Adi said. “We had no idea Jaylen was going to be there!”
“We’re huge fans of his and the Celtics,” Luke explained. “So seeing him roll out of the car with a big grin was absolutely priceless. We’ll never forget it! The funny thing is, we had been coordinating the meetup all week and had no idea we were actually working with his schedule.”
Brown didn’t just gift the couple a jersey and a basketball. He invited Luke and Adi to attend Boston’s home opener next season. The Celtics will receive their championship rings for winning the 2024 NBA Finals, and Brown is making sure Luke and Adi are seated courtside for the ceremony.
“For us, that’s the most special reward,” Adi said. “But we also love the autographed goodies! The jersey and game ball we are going to frame and keep for our son as keepsakes and a cool story for when he grows up. The ball says ‘Thank you!!! An act of kindness is contagious.’ I love that so much.”
Luke and Adi may be Celtics fans, but returning the ring was never about getting closer to the team or cashing in on Brown’s desire to see it returned. This was a sincere case of good Samaritans doing the right thing.
In the days that followed, the story once again emerged on social media, with Brown posting about Luke and Adi on his Instagram page. At the time of this writing, they’re getting ready to do a sit down interview with a local news channel in Boston. They’re still not on social media, and they have been floored by the positive response to the story.
Still, having an intimate moment with Brown was the biggest reward of all.
“We weren’t surprised at all to see that he was as cool as he seems, both on and off the court,” the couple said. “How warm, friendly, and accommodating he and his people are is very humbling, and we couldn’t be happier he got his ring back!”
Listen to the “Celtics Lab” podcast on:
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi
YouTube: https://bit.ly/3F9DvjQ
