Basketball's Original Rules Sold for $4.3 Million at Auction

The two-page document that started it all fetched an astronomical price when it went up for auction. James Naismith's original 13 rules of basketball, typed and signed by the inventor himself in 1891, sold for $4.3 million in December 2010. The buyer was David Booth, a Kansas University alumnus and investment banker, who purchased the document along with his wife Suzanne. The rules were passed down through Naismith's family for generations before being put up for sale. The document established fundamental principles still used today, including prohibiting walking or running with the ball and limiting physical contact. The auction lasted only a few intense minutes before the record-breaking bid was placed.