Basketball Urns

Basketball requires very little to become a part of a life: just a ball, a hoop, and a person. Because of this simplicity, a driveway or a quiet park court can end up holding years of a person's history. This collection is for the players who showed up to every pickup game, the coaches whose words stayed with their players for decades, and the fans who never missed a single game.

For those who played, the game stays in the hands long after the final whistle. A particular shot or a specific way of moving can be recognized by anyone who ever shared a gym with them. You might still see that rhythm in your mind when you think of them. This collection honors those who lived through those movements, whether they were playing in a high school gym or teaching a child how to shoot in the driveway.

The artwork is engraved directly into the cast aluminum, with choices between a basketball or a basketball hoop. Each piece is available in a range of painted colors or in a hand-applied enamel finish that includes hand-detailed silver bands. These textures are meant to provide a steady, tactile way to hold onto the memory of someone who was always in motion.

A hoop over a garage can become its own institution. It is a place where a parent taught a child to shoot, where arguments were settled, and where the light often stayed on later than it should have. If that hoop was where they belonged, these pieces serve as a tribute to those long evenings and the lessons learned under the rim.

To allow for different ways of remembering, we offer these designs in full-size, sharing, and keepsake sizes. For those who wish to make the piece more personal, we can engrave a name and dates into the surface as a two-tone design. This lets a family carry forward a personal detail, much like the person's influence remained part of the lives they touched.

Basketball was invented on purpose, in two weeks, to solve a problem. James Naismith needed an indoor game for a restless class through a New England winter and wrote thirteen rules at the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, in December of 1891.

The first baskets were peach baskets fixed to the gallery railing, and the first game was played nine a side. A public demonstration followed on March 12, 1892, where the students beat the faculty five to one in front of two hundred spectators.

For a family, the design on the urn is the hoop the person put up and the hours that happened underneath it.

Source: Wikipedia, James Naismith

If they were defined by a particular shot or a specific way of moving, then these designs will recall them to those who shared the court. A teammate or a grandchild might recognize that rhythm in the simple lines of the engraving. The decision to choose this design belongs to your own memory of who they were.

The family pictures them in the glow of the driveway light, shooting one last basket as the evening settles.

Our guide to selecting the right size urn