{"product_id":"coffee-table-book-of-basketball-paperback","title":"Coffee Table Book of: Basketball (Paperback)","description":"\u003cp\u003eCoffee 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen 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 shoes, kit and practice: white canvas plimsolls on a bench, a plain mesh shirt, a skipping rope beside a ball, cones on a gym floor and an open locker.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShort 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePrinted in full colour on heavy 150gsm coated paper at 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 inches), as a paperback.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cedar Pine Editions","offers":[{"title":"Perfect Bound","offer_id":68148725481776,"sku":"9671456004624","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0262\/2357\/5085\/files\/9671456004624.jpg?v=1792633288","url":"https:\/\/www.thegreatbritishbookshop.co.uk\/products\/coffee-table-book-of-basketball-paperback","provider":"The Great British Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}