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Stewie · 08:37 AM

Naismith’s rules for basketball should draw frenzy

By J. BRADY McCOLLOUGH

The Kansas City Star

BEBETO MATTHEWS

One of two pages used by James Naismith to write the first basketball rules is shown during an auction preview at Sotheby's in New York on Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010. The two pages will be auctioned off Dec. 10 and are expected to go for millions of dollars with the proceeds to go to a charity that promotes sportsmanship. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

NEW YORK | The staff of world-famous Sotheby’s is preparing for today’s auction, and, as is the custom here on the Upper East Side, the sell is on.

Three items will be up for grabs. The expectation is that millions of dollars will change hands. With so much at stake, presentation is everything.

The first item you see when taking the escalator to the second floor, where the exhibition begins, is not the battle flag found in the pocket of a dead soldier at the Battle of Little Bighorn, which raged across the plains of Montana in 1876. And it is not one of the 20 original copies of the Emancipation Proclamation that President Abraham Lincoln signed in 1863, a document that would later be owned by U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

No, for this auction, the main attractions are the two prominently displayed yellowed sheets of paper that spell out James Naismith’s original rules of basketball, typewritten by Naismith’s secretary in 1891 to be hung in the gym of the YMCA Training College in Springfield, Mass. Now they hang in protective glass frames with a price tag estimated at a low of $2 million.

“Usually when we sell something, we set a low and a high estimate,” said Selby Kiffer, the senior vice president for special projects at Sotheby’s. “Most of our estimates are based on previous experience with similar documents. One reason we left the upper limit undefined is we really haven’t handled anything like this before.”

Kiffer has been working at Sotheby’s for 26 years. The last time he treated an item in this way?

“When we sold a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton,” Kiffer said, “which was the biggest and most complete ever found.”

T-rex’s massive bones helped explain the evolution of the entire planet, and Sotheby’s low estimate was set at $1 million. The Field Museum in Chicago bought it for $7.4 million. Naismith’s rules help to explain the simple origin of a game that has stolen countless hearts and imaginations across the globe, and there’s no telling the sum such a joyous manuscript could garner.

“We’ve had responses from all over the world,” said Ian Naismith, James Naismith’s grandson. “It’s amazing.”
Ian Naismith will be in New York today to see the rules that have been with his family for 119 years find a new home. He has the most invested in the process, which will involve bids coming in person, by phone and from the Internet. The winning bid will benefit the Naismith International Basketball Foundation, which is run by Ian Naismith and serves underprivileged children.

The foundation has fallen on tough times in line with the economy, forcing Ian Naismith to approach Sotheby’s. Ian Naismith says that in the past he was offered as much as $5 million to $10 million for his grandfather’s 13 rules, which resided in Lawrence for 41 years following James Naismith’s arrival in 1898, when he joined the KU faculty and became the Jayhawks’ first basketball coach. Naismith retired in 1937 and died in 1939.

Naismith’s rules were built around four fundamental principles: no running with the ball, no tackling or rough body contact, a horizontal goal above the heads of the players and freedom of any player to obtain the ball and score at any time.

“The genius,” Kiffer said, “is the rules were elastic enough that the game could develop around them.”

Today, it will be the job of David Redden, Sotheby’s top auctioneer, to explain Naismith’s genius and the significance of the rules to potential buyers. For a frame of reference, Redden was in London this week auctioning medieval manuscripts. Thing is, the Naismith auction should be more intriguing.

“Somebody who might find a Thomas Jefferson letter or an Einstein manuscript sort of boring can get sort of interested in this,” Kiffer said. “I think the world of bidders for something like this could be enormous.

“Really, I don’t know who it might be. Could be a player. Could be a team owner. Could be a frustrated player who wanted to be a star and never made it but made it in business. It will be fun.”

As Kiffer is saying this, a frequent buyer walks up to the Naismith display, which stands tall around a small hardwood replica of a basketball court.

“By definition, it is unique,” the buyer said.

But it is out of his price range.

“Shaq could buy it and not even think about it, right?” he joked.

A man like Shaquille O’Neal may have the funds, but there’s no way that he could want the rules as badly as Josh Swade, a 36-year-old New York resident who grew up in Overland Park and attended KU for a few years.

Swade is in the TV industry, and being a Jayhawk, he came up with an idea when he heard about the auctioning of the rules. He went to his bosses and wanted to make a documentary about basketball’s impact on the world with an eye on helping to bring the rules back to Lawrence for good in the Booth Family Hall of Athletics, which is adjacent to Allen Fieldhouse on Naismith Drive.

Swade started a website — bringtheruleshome.com — and has traveled the country for the past month interviewing former KU coaches and players, among others. After all of it, Swade believes that the group of interested parties he has assembled will be a player today.

“It’s gonna come down to crunch time,” Swade said. “Those rules belong in Lawrence, Kansas. To me, it’s a no-brainer. I think Dr. Naismith would want them to be in Lawrence. He’s buried there."

And it was there that James Naismith sat down with his son, Jimmy, over breakfast at the family’s Massachusetts Street home in 1931 and decided to authenticate the rules he’d carried with him for 40 years. Even then, they realized the rules would be worth a large chunk of cash someday.
It pains Swade to think of the rules ending up somewhere else, but especially outside the country.

“You hear of these wealthy folks in places like Italy, Russia and Lithuania,” Swade said. “I can’t begin to talk about them. They belong in the United States, on display.”

Ultimately, though, this is Ian Naismith’s decision, and he can live with whatever happens. His hope is that the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., will win the bidding. If not, he accepts that the love for the game his grandfather created is strong enough to take the rules anywhere.

“Basketball is played in over 230 countries,” Ian Naismith said. “It’s a world game. That’s how we’ve always looked at it as a family.”

Edit: A video from Sotheby's: http://www.sothebys.com/video/privat...735/index.html

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/12/09...#ixzz17iE09wow

Stewie · 12-11-2010, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikeyis4dcats.

Too bad Naismith didn't actually invent basketball.

I bet you believe Edison invented the light bulb too.

You're a moron.

**Saul Good** · 12-11-2010, 12:59 PM

Upon taking possession of the document, the Booths were shocked to see a 14th and final rule on the back of the second page.

14. No blacks

WilliamTheIrish · 12-11-2010, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saul Good

Upon taking possession of the document, the Booths were shocked to see a 14th and final rule on the back of the second page.

14. No blacks

This should send this thread into overdrive.

Pants · 12-11-2010, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikeyis4dcats.

Too bad Naismith didn't actually invent basketball.

I bet you believe Edison invented the light bulb too.

James Naismith (November 6, 1861 – November 28, 1939) was a Canadian sports coach and innovator. Naismith invented the sport of basketball in 1891 and is often credited with introducing the first football helmet. Naismith wrote the original basketball rulebook, founded the University of Kansas basketball program, and lived to see basketball adopted as an Olympic demonstration sport in 1904 and as an official event at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.

Pants · 12-11-2010, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saul Good

Upon taking possession of the document, the Booths were shocked to see a 14th and final rule on the back of the second page.

14. No blacks

lol @ this slaver

kchero · 12-11-2010, 01:17 PM

As a Mizzou fan, props to KU and the Booth alums to pull this off. When I heard of this story some time ago I was hoping that the KU alums would pull this off.
No other school has as many ties / blood lines to basketball than Kansas, also being since this is where Dr. Naismith lived, coached and now rests, it is only fitting...Its also nice to see these in the midwest instead of in some security deposit box of some Russian billionaire.

**mikeyis4dcats.** · 12-11-2010, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stewie

You're a moron.

http://boxscorenews.com/who-really-i...menu=79&mad=No

http://boxscorenews.com/basketballs-...y-p9803-68.htm

Pants · 12-11-2010, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikeyis4dcats.

http://boxscorenews.com/who-really-i...menu=79&mad=No

http://boxscorenews.com/basketballs-...y-p9803-68.htm

There's the proof, fellas - an article written by some random person online who was related to someone who claims to have invented basketball.

You guys are reaching new levels of jealousy, seriously.

Stewie · 12-11-2010, 02:48 PM

If you read the history of basketball you know that this has been discredited.

Bambi · 12-11-2010, 02:51 PM

Great move by my fellow Lawrence High grad.

This is the same guy who gave $300 million to the Univ of Chicago. I heard the largest donation ever given to a business school.

I guess this is KU's T Boone Pickens

WilliamTheIrish · 12-11-2010, 03:05 PM

Yea, $300m for the Booth School Of Business. Quite a philanthropic gift.

teedubya · 12-11-2010, 03:11 PM

I had this sick vision yesterday before the auction that some MUron booster like Laurie or something would outbid a KU booster... then burn it before a MU/KU homegame or something.

heh

12-10-2010, 06:51 AM
Stewie MVP Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: West of the Equator Casino cash: $-1620099	Naismith's Rules for Basketball should draw frenzy... Naismith’s rules for basketball should draw frenzy By J. BRADY McCOLLOUGH The Kansas City Star BEBETO MATTHEWS One of two pages used by James Naismith to write the first basketball rules is shown during an auction preview at Sotheby's in New York on Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010. The two pages will be auctioned off Dec. 10 and are expected to go for millions of dollars with the proceeds to go to a charity that promotes sportsmanship. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) NEW YORK \| The staff of world-famous Sotheby’s is preparing for today’s auction, and, as is the custom here on the Upper East Side, the sell is on. Three items will be up for grabs. The expectation is that millions of dollars will change hands. With so much at stake, presentation is everything. The first item you see when taking the escalator to the second floor, where the exhibition begins, is not the battle flag found in the pocket of a dead soldier at the Battle of Little Bighorn, which raged across the plains of Montana in 1876. And it is not one of the 20 original copies of the Emancipation Proclamation that President Abraham Lincoln signed in 1863, a document that would later be owned by U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. No, for this auction, the main attractions are the two prominently displayed yellowed sheets of paper that spell out James Naismith’s original rules of basketball, typewritten by Naismith’s secretary in 1891 to be hung in the gym of the YMCA Training College in Springfield, Mass. Now they hang in protective glass frames with a price tag estimated at a low of $2 million. “Usually when we sell something, we set a low and a high estimate,” said Selby Kiffer, the senior vice president for special projects at Sotheby’s. “Most of our estimates are based on previous experience with similar documents. One reason we left the upper limit undefined is we really haven’t handled anything like this before.” Kiffer has been working at Sotheby’s for 26 years. The last time he treated an item in this way? “When we sold a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton,” Kiffer said, “which was the biggest and most complete ever found.” T-rex’s massive bones helped explain the evolution of the entire planet, and Sotheby’s low estimate was set at $1 million. The Field Museum in Chicago bought it for $7.4 million. Naismith’s rules help to explain the simple origin of a game that has stolen countless hearts and imaginations across the globe, and there’s no telling the sum such a joyous manuscript could garner. “We’ve had responses from all over the world,” said Ian Naismith, James Naismith’s grandson. “It’s amazing.” Ian Naismith will be in New York today to see the rules that have been with his family for 119 years find a new home. He has the most invested in the process, which will involve bids coming in person, by phone and from the Internet. The winning bid will benefit the Naismith International Basketball Foundation, which is run by Ian Naismith and serves underprivileged children. The foundation has fallen on tough times in line with the economy, forcing Ian Naismith to approach Sotheby’s. Ian Naismith says that in the past he was offered as much as $5 million to $10 million for his grandfather’s 13 rules, which resided in Lawrence for 41 years following James Naismith’s arrival in 1898, when he joined the KU faculty and became the Jayhawks’ first basketball coach. Naismith retired in 1937 and died in 1939. Naismith’s rules were built around four fundamental principles: no running with the ball, no tackling or rough body contact, a horizontal goal above the heads of the players and freedom of any player to obtain the ball and score at any time. “The genius,” Kiffer said, “is the rules were elastic enough that the game could develop around them.” Today, it will be the job of David Redden, Sotheby’s top auctioneer, to explain Naismith’s genius and the significance of the rules to potential buyers. For a frame of reference, Redden was in London this week auctioning medieval manuscripts. Thing is, the Naismith auction should be more intriguing. “Somebody who might find a Thomas Jefferson letter or an Einstein manuscript sort of boring can get sort of interested in this,” Kiffer said. “I think the world of bidders for something like this could be enormous. “Really, I don’t know who it might be. Could be a player. Could be a team owner. Could be a frustrated player who wanted to be a star and never made it but made it in business. It will be fun.” As Kiffer is saying this, a frequent buyer walks up to the Naismith display, which stands tall around a small hardwood replica of a basketball court. “By definition, it is unique,” the buyer said. But it is out of his price range. “Shaq could buy it and not even think about it, right?” he joked. A man like Shaquille O’Neal may have the funds, but there’s no way that he could want the rules as badly as Josh Swade, a 36-year-old New York resident who grew up in Overland Park and attended KU for a few years. Swade is in the TV industry, and being a Jayhawk, he came up with an idea when he heard about the auctioning of the rules. He went to his bosses and wanted to make a documentary about basketball’s impact on the world with an eye on helping to bring the rules back to Lawrence for good in the Booth Family Hall of Athletics, which is adjacent to Allen Fieldhouse on Naismith Drive. Swade started a website — bringtheruleshome.com — and has traveled the country for the past month interviewing former KU coaches and players, among others. After all of it, Swade believes that the group of interested parties he has assembled will be a player today. “It’s gonna come down to crunch time,” Swade said. “Those rules belong in Lawrence, Kansas. To me, it’s a no-brainer. I think Dr. Naismith would want them to be in Lawrence. He’s buried there." And it was there that James Naismith sat down with his son, Jimmy, over breakfast at the family’s Massachusetts Street home in 1931 and decided to authenticate the rules he’d carried with him for 40 years. Even then, they realized the rules would be worth a large chunk of cash someday. It pains Swade to think of the rules ending up somewhere else, but especially outside the country. “You hear of these wealthy folks in places like Italy, Russia and Lithuania,” Swade said. “I can’t begin to talk about them. They belong in the United States, on display.” Ultimately, though, this is Ian Naismith’s decision, and he can live with whatever happens. His hope is that the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., will win the bidding. If not, he accepts that the love for the game his grandfather created is strong enough to take the rules anywhere. “Basketball is played in over 230 countries,” Ian Naismith said. “It’s a world game. That’s how we’ve always looked at it as a family.” Edit: A video from Sotheby's: http://www.sothebys.com/video/privat...735/index.html http://www.kansascity.com/2010/12/09...#ixzz17iE09wow Last edited by Stewie; 12-10-2010 at 08:37 AM..
Posts: 13,836

12-11-2010, 12:59 PM	#47
Saul Good Quit your bullshit Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Bored of winning Casino cash: $10052799	Upon taking possession of the document, the Booths were shocked to see a 14th and final rule on the back of the second page. 14. No blacks __________________ Today is not a good day to be a pussy.
Posts: 41,870

12-11-2010, 01:17 PM	#51
kchero Veteran Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Kansas City, MO Casino cash: $9978240	As a Mizzou fan, props to KU and the Booth alums to pull this off. When I heard of this story some time ago I was hoping that the KU alums would pull this off. No other school has as many ties / blood lines to basketball than Kansas, also being since this is where Dr. Naismith lived, coached and now rests, it is only fitting...Its also nice to see these in the midwest instead of in some security deposit box of some Russian billionaire.
Posts: 1,731

12-11-2010, 02:48 PM	#54
Stewie MVP Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: West of the Equator Casino cash: $-1620099	If you read the history of basketball you know that this has been discredited.
Posts: 13,836

12-11-2010, 02:51 PM	#55
Bambi Banned Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: New York City Casino cash: $10036993	Great move by my fellow Lawrence High grad. This is the same guy who gave $300 million to the Univ of Chicago. I heard the largest donation ever given to a business school. I guess this is KU's T Boone Pickens
Posts: 17,810

12-11-2010, 03:05 PM	#56
WilliamTheIrish Champion Golfer Of The Year Join Date: Aug 2001 Casino cash: $2620607	Yea, $300m for the Booth School Of Business. Quite a philanthropic gift.
Posts: 35,754

12-11-2010, 03:11 PM	#57
teedubya Most Valuable Poster Join Date: Oct 2003 Casino cash: $8993042	I had this sick vision yesterday before the auction that some MUron booster like Laurie or something would outbid a KU booster... then burn it before a MU/KU homegame or something. heh
Posts: 36,828