Inside the Cage: A Season at West 4th Street's Legendary Tournament

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. Agent, Sterling Lord. (June)