Review:
"A summer at one of basketball's celebrated blacktops, where the characters are as captivating as the game." -- Sports Illustrated
"Employing colorful anecdotes and more than a few cautionary tales, Martindale introduces the characters -- from the NBA dreamers to the drug dealer turned coach to the scraggly scorekeeper called Moneybags -- who carry the story, and a good one it is." -- SI.com
"With muscled prose and a deft touch, Wight Martindale takes us into the heart of the Cage, the West 4th Street courts where basketball dreams and reputations are won and lost one trip down the floor at a time, where stirring human dramas play out beyond the roar of the big-time. Just a wonderful, heartfelt book." -- Adrian Wojnarowski, author of the New York Times bestselling The Miracle of St. Anthony: A Season with Coach Bob Hurley and Basketball's Most Improbable Dynasty
"Inside the Cage is fascinating. It has the ring of authenticity and the stamp of authority. Anyone interested in any sports or in the sociology of the city [who reads it] will be moved and entertained. Officials of the National Basketball Association could learn a great deal [about personality management] from reading this book." -- Peter Gent, author of North Dallas Forty and former all-American basketball player at Michigan State University
"West 4th Street has been a terrific place to develop many, many youngsters. [The] true sportsmanship displayed there is terrific. Playground basketball has been the backbone of our game throughout the years. Hopefully, Inside the Cage will generate greater playground play." -- Mike Krzyzewski, Duke Basketball Head Coach and New York Times bestselling author
"The depth of reporting, along with Martindale's obvious love for the tournament, makes Inside the Cage an enjoyable read. For Kenny Graham and the players of West 4th Street, it provides some well-earned recognition. They'd keep playing without it, but it's about time someone gave them their due." -- John Matson, Dime Magazine
"Fascinating." -- Adam Zagoria, Passaic County Herald News
"A well-written tome on the very competitive basketball played at the [West 4th Street] playground." -- Lloyd Carroll, Queens Chronicle
From Publishers Weekly:
Wedged into a corner of the intersection at West 4th Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan's Greenwich Village is a tiny basketball court surrounded by a 20-foot-high fence, known as the Cage. Although ramshackle in appearance, it's one of the world's best-known courts, attracting international scouts to scope out the talent who play there each summer in the intense, emotional West 4th Street Tournament. Martindale chronicles the competition's history and its 25th season (in 2002). It's an exciting though hardly dispassionate tale, as the former Wall Street moneyman is also one of the tournament's managing directors. While the book spends a good amount of time profiling the hotshots who come to play, it's far more engaging when discussing the stalwart old-timers—like Moneybags, the homeless scorekeeper, and the instant-nickname-bestowing announcer, Dee Foreman—who run the often rambunctious games. Chief among them is the event's founder, Kenny Graham, a limo driver with an entrepreneurial streak, a pillar of the community and the book's most fascinating character. Though Martindale has a preachy attitude and a penchant for inappropriate literary references, he is a vivid portraitist, bringing readers inside the pulsing heart of this urban phenomenon.
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