In an interview with Sports Illustrated Kobe Bryant
in which he credited growing up playing basketball overseas, where developing
fundamentals at the younger ages was the focal point and NOT athleticism.
“I was lucky to grow up in Italy at a time when
basketball in America was getting f***** up with AAU shuffling players through
on strength and athleticism. I missed all that, and instead I was taught
extreme fundamentals: footwork, footwork, footwork, how to create space, how to
handle the ball, how to protect the ball, how to shoot the ball. I wasn’t the
strongest kid at that camp. I wasn’t the fastest. I wasn’t the most athletic. I
was probably the most skillful, but that didn’t matter. It was all about the
360 windmill dunks.”
In his recent interview with ESPN LA's Arash Markazi, Kobe - who seemed in envious of the European methods - acknowledged
their style is different than their American counterparts, "They are just
taught the game the right way at an early age. ... They're more skillful. It's
something we really have to fix. We really have to address that. We have to
teach our kids to play the right way."
Bryant was quick to point the finger for the decline
of skilled players in the United States.
"AAU basketball," Bryant said.
"Horrible, terrible AAU basketball. It's stupid. It doesn't teach our kids
how to play the game at all so you wind up having players that are big and they
bring it up and they do all this fancy crap and they don't know how to post.
They don't know the fundamentals of the game. It's stupid."
During Lebron James’ Bleacher Report interview the
three time MVP touched upon his time in the NBA, the development of his game
and the future of his career and the NBA.
Towards the end of the interview “King James” has seen a change within
the landscape of basketball. When asked by Ethan Skolnick, “ Is there
something that between 30 and 35, or 40, by the time you're done, that you'd
like to see changed in the league?” At which point, Lebron responses “Fundamentals.
Fundamentals and the thinking game. That's what I would like to change. There's
not many guys that think the game. And the fundamentals are not where they used
to be… I don't know if it's the little league coaches or AAU ball. I just don't
think the game is being taught the right way. I'm not saying every coach.
Because I know my little league coaches were great, and they taught the
fundamentals, and we played for team. It has something to do with something.
There's a shortage somewhere going on.”
Robert Horry
“These kids aren’t getting good coaching. They’re playing too many games and not working on their game enough.”
“Coaches exploit kids to get payoff”
“Many coaches are in it for themselves”
Charles
Barkley
“AAU is the worst thing to happen to college
basketball ever. I hate AAU more than anything in the world. These kids aren’t
getting good coaching. They’re playing too many games and not working on their
game enough."
Steve Kerr
In the NBA Champion's "Manifesto" the
Golden State Warriors Head Coach, wrote on many topics, however mentioned the AAU
culture. "Even if today’s players
are incredibly gifted, they grow up in a basketball environment that can only
be called counterproductive. AAU basketball has replaced high school ball as
the dominant form of development in the teen years. I coached my son’s AAU team
for three years; it’s a genuinely weird subculture. Like everywhere else, you
have good coaches and bad coaches, or strong programs and weak ones, but what
troubled me was how much winning is devalued in the AAU structure. Teams play
game after game after game, sometimes winning or losing four times in one day.
Very rarely do teams ever hold a practice. Some programs fly in top players
from out of state for a single weekend to join their team. Certain players play
for one team in the morning and another one in the afternoon. If mom and dad
aren’t happy with their son’s playing time, they switch club teams and stick
him on a different one the following week. The process of growing as a team
basketball player — learning how to become part of a whole, how to fit into
something bigger than oneself — becomes completely lost within the AAU
fabric."
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