Short answers, pulled from the story.
The trophy is named after Larry O'Brien, who served as NBA commissioner from 1975 to 1984. Before joining the NBA, O'Brien served as the United States postmaster general under President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1965 to 1968. The trophy was renamed in his honor in 1984 when he retired from the league.
The trophy was first awarded in 1977 as the World Championship Trophy, following the ABA-NBA merger. The Portland Trail Blazers were the inaugural winners, defeating the Philadelphia 76ers in six games. It was renamed the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy in 1984.
The Larry O'Brien Trophy is made of fifteen and a half pounds of sterling silver and vermeil with a twenty-four karat gold overlay. It stands two feet tall. Tiffany and Co. manufactures the trophy.
Victor Solomon designed the redesigned Larry O'Brien Trophy for the NBA's 75th anniversary season. He replaced the square base with two round discs, tilted the ball and net to the right, and ensured the top disc would display the league's first seventy-five championship teams from 1947 to 2021.
The Los Angeles Lakers have won the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy eleven times, the most of any franchise. Seventeen different teams in total have won the trophy since it was first awarded in 1977.
When Leslie Alexander sold the Houston Rockets to Tilman Fertitta in late 2017, Alexander kept the team's 1993-94 and 1994-95 trophies as personal mementos of his ownership. The team commissioned Tiffany to build replicas; the 1993-94 replica also replaced the original, which reserve center Richard Petruska had dropped and dented during the celebration. The replicas were unveiled on the 20th of September 2018.