DUBAI (United Arab Emirates) - Lebanese trophy maker Vincent Chammassian has accomplished lots of difficult projects in the past.

But the FIBA West Asia Super League (WASL) trophy is one of those that he's most proud of, as he produced it despite the challenges.

"For me, it's an achievement," he said. "Although I've made many other difficult trophies, I had time for them. They give me three months, four months, or sometimes even five months. I work on them more easily."

"But when I do such a thing within a small period, for me this is success," he added. "I'm very, very happy that I did this in such a short time."

Chammassian and his family own Silver Light, a company founded by his father 60 years ago that specializes in silverware and goldsmithing in Lebanon.

Being in business for that long speaks volumes as to how they are as a company and he himself takes immense pride in it.

The soft-spoken goldsmith specializes in creating trophies for special occasions, and one of his biggest projects was producing hardware for the Qatar Grand Prix.

It was arguably his toughest, too. "It was some kind of mission impossible," he quipped, "to make four big trophies in pure silver because the work will be different from brass; and other five smaller ones to give away in Qatar."

"But I like the challenge," he added. "I went into that challenge. We needed to finish it in ten days, because they wanted -- before five days to the Formula One race- -- to make it to press conferences and promotions and all that stuff."

That's why accomplishing the FIBA WASL trophy in almost the same conditions was manageable for Chammassian and his staff. According to him, the trophy, which contains 24K gold and silver, was finished in 20 days.

"Usually, such kind of trophies, I need to have around two months to work on it softly," he said. "We didn't have much time to do this, so I worked with all my staff in my factory almost 18 hours a day on it because the trophy also needs molds.

"So, it took around 20 days to make it, which is something like a record," he added. "But our factory is used to doing such things."

The WASL trophy was finally unveiled to the world in 08 July 2023 in front of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, with FIBA Executive Director - Asia Mr. Hagop Khajirian leading the unveiling also graced by the captains of the teams competing in the Final 8.

Chammassian couldn't be any prouder to have been involved with WASL by producing the new pan-regional league's biggest prize.

"I'm happy that I took part in this beautiful tournament," he expressed. "I like challenges. Although I'm a cool person, in work sometimes, you lose that. But at the end of the day, the important thing is you make something beautiful."

FIBA