Coffee Table Book of: Basketball (Hardcover)

Coffee Table Book of: Basketball is a large-format coffee table book of basketball, printed edge to edge in colour, one picture to a page and the widest carried across two: the ball, the hoop and the court, old gyms and city playgrounds, country hoops and village courts, and play seen from far off.

It opens with the ball: on an empty maple floor in the morning, old and laced on a shelf, scuffed on asphalt in the evening sun, high in the evening sky and in a puddle on a wet court at dusk. Then the hoop: a glass backboard seen from below, a chain net on a fan-shaped board at dusk, a breakaway rim on its springs, a torn net in winter and a hoop high above a valley at sunrise.

Then the court: the keyhole lane seen from above, the centre circle, a three-point arc on green and red, folding chairs along the sideline and a worn half court in the grass. Then old gyms and wooden floors: a hall with arched windows and a running track, a ball in a shaft of dawn light, folding bleachers against a brick wall, a dust mop in the evening sun and a radiator under a snowy window.

Then city playgrounds: a hoop inside a chain-link fence in the dawn fog, a rooftop court above the city at sunset, a hoop under a street lamp at night, puddles after rain and a pair of canvas shoes hung by their laces from a fence.

Then the game's beginnings: a peach basket on a balcony railing, an old stitched leather ball like a soccer ball, a closed net of brown cord, a backboard behind an old rim on a balcony and an old stopwatch.

Then play seen from far off, the players small and anonymous in plain kit: a pickup game on a rooftop seen from far above, a jump ball from directly above, a jump shot at dusk, free throws alone in a dark gym, a dribble under a street lamp, a dunk against the evening sky and a game in a snowy schoolyard.

Short notes run through the book. They are about the game, its ball, hoop, court, rules, words and history rather than about the pictures: the peach baskets nailed to the lower railing of a gym's balcony, the thirteen rules published on 15 January 1892, the first game of December 1891 played nine against nine with a soccer ball, and the rim that stands ten feet above the floor.

Printed in full colour on heavy 150gsm coated paper at 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 inches), as a hardcover with the art printed on the case.

Publisher - Cedar Pine Editions

Language - English

Case Bound - PPC

Contributors

By author

Dimitri Smith

Published Date - 2026-10-21

ISBN - 9671456004631

Dimensions - 27.9 x 21.6 x 1.3 cm

Page Count - 100