Pickup Artists: Street Basketball in America

Basketball was inaugurated in 1891 and soon developed into a game of teams rather than individuals, featuring dribbling, passing and carefully structured plays. New rules introduced in the 1930s facilitated a style of play that developed on street courts in major cities, especially New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles, where playground athletes, many from working-class families, altered the basic nature of the game and laid the groundwork for the sport as it is played today. This significant contribution to the history of the game by a current (Anderson) and a former (Millman) writer for Sports Illustrated details the ways in which this evolution caused by the ""city game"" took place, emphasizing fast breaks and slam dunks and what the authors characterize as the ""testosterone-charged, showtime style."" Many of the greatest pickup artists are profiled, not a few of them derailed by drugs, and there is also mention of the top women players who lost out. The authors see the game now as primarily under the control of the largest sneaker manufacturers, with local tourneys so common that a potential talent even as young as seven may be spotted and assisted in his career. (July)