Zen Jeweler: When Basketball Was Really Played With a Basket

Published

17 years ago

July 2, 2008

INSTORE Staff

Parables by Jeff McCandlessThere’s no basket in basketball … but there once was.

In 1892, when James Naismith nailed a peach basket to the wall of a gym, basketball was born.

It took the game’s first proponents a year however to figure out the game would be a whole lot more fun if they didn’t have to use a ladder to recover the ball every time a basket was made. So they replaced it with one that had a hinged bottom.

But the real story is that it took another 10 years until they realized it would be OK to remove that hinged bottom, so the ball would just go through the basket every time. That was a total of 11 years and two innovations to get to the point where it was easy to retrieve the ball in a basketball game.

More than 100 years later, we can’t imagine having a basketball hoop with a bottom, and we can’t imagine it took 11 years to come up with those two simple changes. Seems like a no-brainer, right?

THE TAKEAWAY: Listen to the innovators on your staff. They are holding a net in their hands right now.

Closing With Confidence: How Bailey's Fine Jewelry Achieved Outstanding Results With Wilkerson

When Trey Bailey, President and CEO of Bailey's Fine Jewelry, decided to close the Crabtree location in Raleigh, North Carolina after 15 years, he knew the decision needed to be handled with intention and professionalism. The goal was clear: exit the location while maintaining financial strength and honoring the store's legacy. Having worked with Wilkerson successfully in the past, Bailey understood the value of their comprehensive approach. "They understood both the emotional and financial sides of the store closing sale," Trey explains. "Their reputation for professionalism, results and care made it a very easy decision." The results exceeded expectations. Wilkerson helped Bailey's sell through significant inventory while maintaining the dignity of the closing process. "They don't just run a sale, they help close a chapter in the best way possible," Bailey says, strongly recommending Wilkerson to any jeweler facing a similar transition.