Excerpt from The City Game By Pete Axthelm

"The game is simple one, an act of one man challenging another, twisting, feinting, then perhaps breaking free to leap upward, directing the ball toward a target [. . .] . But its simple motions swirl into intricate patterns, its variations become almost endless [. . .] . To the uninitiated, the patterns may seem fleeting, elusive, even confusing; but on a city playground, a classic play is frozen in the minds of those who see it--a moment of order and achievement in a turbulent, frustrating existence. And a one-on-one challenge takes on wider meaning, defining identity and manhood in an urban society that breeds invisibility."

- From Pete Axthelm's The City Game: Basketball in New York from the World Champion Knicks to the World of the Playgrounds (1970)