RARE FIRST EDITION OF BOBBY KNIGHT'S FIRST PRIVATELY PRINTED BOOKLETS OF BASKETBALL TECHNIQUES: LET'S PLAY DEFENSE, 1968

KNIGHT, Bobby. Let's Play Defense. Walden, New York: Robert M. Knight, 1968. Slim quarto, staple-bound as issued, original pictorial blue paper wrappers; pp. 36. $1750.

First edition of Bobby Knight's first book, a primer on playing defense in basketball by one of America's most famous coaches, in original pictorial wrappers.

"A thorough guide for aspiring basketball coaches" (Inquirer). A favorite of many other NCAA coaches including Herb "Shot Doctor" Magee, Bobby Knight's Let's Play Defense was "the first basketball book St. John's coach Mike Jarvis bought… At $1.50, Jarvis says, it was the best basketball investment he has made, still informing his strategy more than 30 years later" (New York Times). "While Knight had issues—with his temper, with his language, with four-legged plastic projectiles—selfishness with his concepts was not one of them. He was the most sought-after clinic speaker of that era, and in conjunction with his lectures, he sold pamphlets entitled Let's Play Defense, with an illustration of a devil… in a defensive stance on the cover. The 37-page booklet diagrammed Knight's man-to-man D, as well as the drills necessary to implement it" (Sports Illustrated). This copy is in the variant blue paper wrappers (the non-variant wrappers are beige). Trace of early price to top corner of front wrapper.

A few spots of faint soiling to interior, slight soiling and mildest toning to extremities of wrappers. A near-fine copy. Scarce.