Basketball.org

Starting on Sunday, I am going to be heading over to the Pump Brothers AAU basketball tournament here in LA . I will cover some of the games for Basketball.org and offer some of my viewpoints from the tournament. I am excited to watch the games, check out the talent and see old friends.

I want to take this opportunity to reminiscence and talk about my experiences with AAU and AAU in general. Arguably, my AAU experience is one of the highlights of my life. What better way to spend a month, as a 17 year-old, than travelling from tournament to tournament and playing games against some of the best competition in the country, while bonding with teammates who instantly became friends. However, due to the AAU “system” plenty of kids out there don’t get to have the same experience as I once had.

I was fortunate enough to play for a great coach in Nelson Washington of the Bay Area Ballers. Nelson truly didn’t care about the AAU “hoopla” and cared only for the progression of his players. He worked to get you recruited and pressed his teams to play together to win. His belief was that the more you play as a team, the farther you go in a tournament and the more exposure you get. Our teams bought into this philosophy.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of AAU coaches who don’t give a damn about Nelson’s philosophy. Yes, they do want to win, but they don’t care about their players, getting them recruited or even improving their games. These coaches just want the exposure on themselves. They take money from shoe companies (something Nelson turned down), stack their teams with players all throughout the country and don’t even coach . I believe this is flat out wrong in an “amateur” competition and not good for basketball in general. These AAU coaches and sneaker companies are kissing the ass of a 17 year old making these kids think they are above the rest. Why wouldn’t they?

I don’t think this type of system can be stopped, but I would like to see it changed. I do think that basketball in this country is severely lacking in fundamentals and do believe it has to do in part to the current youth basketball system. As we saw with the 2004 Olympics and other international competition, we have taken strides backwards in respect to the international game. We need to make changes now. Colangelo and USA Basketball are making the appropriate changes at the top of the game, but there needs to be changes at the bottom.

Hopefully, Basketball.org is that change and we intend for it to be. We are working diligently to get to our launch in order to give youth coaches and players an online basketball resource for they can be the best that they can be. Don’t mean to sound like an Army slogan but you get my point. These tools will help create more fundamental basketball players and teams, thus enhancing the entertainment of the game.

Image Source: * AAU

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