FLOAT

James Naismith's Founding Rules of Basketball

Maker
James Naismith
Year
1891
Rank
18 of 100

James Naismith's Founding Rules of Basketball

James Naismith's Founding Rules of Basketball by James Naismith (1891) is ranked 18 in the FLOAT 100 for Memorabilia. It sold for $4,338,500 on 10 December 2010. The founding document of basketball; donated by buyer David Booth to the University of Kansas.

What is it, and why is it in the FLOAT 100?

The founding document of basketball; donated by buyer David Booth to the University of Kansas.

Original two-page typed '13 rules of Basket Ball'

What is the best-sourced number for it?

Figure
$4,338,500
Kind
Realized at auction
Date
10 December 2010

Sotheby's New York. $4.34M.

This is a realized sale. Somebody paid it. Source.

How this is made

The figure
One reference price, taken from a named public source and shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
Realized or not
A realized price is a completed sale. A market asking price and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
Why no grade ladder
Most FLOAT 100 entries are individual objects. There is one of this, so there is no population and no spread across grades to show.
Archive
2026-08-08