Dr. James Naismith’s “Founding Rules of Basketball,” will be up for auction today.
Naismith’s grandson, Ian, who owns the two pages, is selling the rules to benefit the Naismith Foundation for children. The rules are expected to bring in at least $2 million.
“This is the birth certificate. It started here,” Selby Kiffer, Sotheby’s vice president for manuscripts and books department, told CNN.
After Dr. Naismith’s death in 1939, the family held onto the 13 rules of the game in a safe deposit box at various locations.
CNN invited Sotheby’s to bring the rules to New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Former Kansas University coach Larry Brown, now with the Charlotte Bobcats, said “it’s a game that’s been awfully good to me and a lot of other people. So the rules are special.”
The money raised at the auction will go to the Naismith charities, including a children’s foundation. The humanitarian foundation promotes Naismith’s legacy of encouraging good sportsmanship, positive role-modeling, higher education and providing services for underprivileged children.
