LITTLE ROCK — 1891 rules fuzzy on dunking
The rules of basketball are going on sale.
On Dec. 10, the 13 rules James Naismith wrote down for a new game he devised as a way to give youths at a Springfield, Mass.
YMCA an athletic activity to keep them busy in the winter will be put up for auction in New York and are expected to bring in at least $2 million. The proceeds will go to the Naismith International Basketball Foundation, which promotes sportsmanship and provides services to underprivileged youths around the world.
Ian Naismith, the foundation’s founder and grandson of James Naismith, said it was a family decision to put the rules on the auction block and give the money to the Naismith charity.
“We need to take the money and work the money back into kids,” Ian Naismith told The Associated Press. “We call it recycling. With the economy going south the last couple of years, my stroke, my wife passing away, it was more important to me to have the game go back into the kids. It’s what Dr. Naismith wanted.”
James Naismith penned the 13rules on Dec. 21, 1891, while he was a physical education instructor at a YMCA training school in Springfield. His boss had given him two weeks to come up with a new indoor activity for his gym class, and he wrote down the rules on theeve of that deadline.
He gave the list to his secretary, who typed them up on two pages that Naismith pinned on a bulletin board outside the gym.
Ian Naismith said he has wanted to sell the rules for years but had never made a serious effort to do so. He said someone offered his father, also named James, $1 million for them in 1968 and $2 million in 1973, but they were never sold.
The rules were passed down to Ian Naismith, his brother and sister in 1980 when their father died.
Selby Kiffer, senior specialist in American history documents for Sotheby’s, said the estimated value of the rules is “$2 million plus,” but said it’s hard to estimate how much the pages will sell for because they are unique.
Join the crowd
The NBA regular season is under way, but that’s not stopping Ian Naismith from being the latest person to pile on Miami Heat forward LeBron James.
“The LeBron James spectacle, his reality show when he was signing up with a team, I thought that was in poor taste. That’s not basketball, as far as I’m concerned,” Naismith said. “It’s a different world. I live in that world, but sometimes I don’t understand it.”Quote of the day “I don’t think anybody thinks it’s fair that a 6A team ought to be playing
in a 7A conference.” Van Buren Athletic Director Randy Loyd on why the school is suing the Arkansas Activities Association
Sports, Pages 22 on 10/29/2010