The West Fourth Street Courts, also known as "The Cage", are a notable public athletic venue for amateur basketball in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

. courtsoftheworld.com "The Cage" has become one of the most important tournament sites for the citywide "

Streetball Streetball (or street basketball) is a variation of basketball, typically played on outdoor courts and featuring significantly less formal structure and enforcement of the game's rules. As such, its format is more conducive to allowing players ...

" amateur basketball tournament, and is noted for its non-regulation size.

About

Because it is so small, more emphasis is given to "banging inside," or tough physical play. Usually the sidelines are simply ignored during play. Due to the large number of players who come to play here, competition for playing time is stiff, and losing players rarely get to play twice. The courts are located over the

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...

West Fourth Street–Washington Square station The West Fourth Street–Washington Square station is an express station and transfer stop on the IND Sixth Avenue and IND Eighth Avenue Lines of the New York City Subway, located at the intersection of West Fourth Street and Sixth Avenue (Av ...

(), whose entrance is adjacent to the courts.

Media

Numerous national commercials have been shot at The Cage. Former NBA players Anthony Mason and

Smush Parker William Henry "Smush" Parker (born June 1, 1981) is an American former professional basketball player. He played in the National Basketball Association (NBA), the NBA D-League and several leagues overseas. Parker played shooting guard in college ...

are some of the nationally recognized players to learn their tough style of play from The Cage. The court is depicted in ''

NBA Street V3 ''NBA Street V3'' is a basketball video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports BIG label. It is the third installment in the ''NBA Street'' series, Originally released in February 2005 for the GameCube, ...

'' and is a playable court in the game.

References

External links

* Profile in ''

Washington Square News ''Washington Square News (WSN)'' is the weekly student newspaper of New York University (NYU). It has a circulation of 10,000 and an estimated 55,000 online readers. It is published in print on Monday, in addition to online publication Tuesday thr ...

''

* Profile in ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

''

Sports venues in Manhattan Greenwich Village Basketball venues in New York City Streetball {{NYC-sport-stub