AAU Has Destroyed the Youth Basketball Landscape
Over the last decade or so, AAU basketball has started to receive major criticism from important figures in the NBA world. As a high school basketball player that’s seen exactly what they’re talking about, I couldn’t agree more. AAU is quite possibly one of the worst things to happen in youth basketball.
For starters, one of the most troubling parts about the system is just how much winning has become devalued in the AAU structure. Teams go and play game after game, sometimes winning or losing four times in one day. By playing so many games, the results often just blow past the players’ minds as there’s always going to be another game. This structure deemphasizes winning and lowers the overall competitiveness, which isn’t getting any player better. At the same time, it’s also killing these players’ competitive nature and hunger to win. With less games, each game would mean a lot more to players, resulting in them playing harder and actually getting better as there might not always be another game to look forward to.
On top of that, AAU teams play so many games and don’t practice enough, which can be very detrimental to a young player’s fundamentals. Generally, it’s agreed that young players should be practicing at least a couple times a week and shouldn’t be playing more than two games in a day. However, the game-to-practice ratio for most AAU teams is mind-boggling and doesn’t maximize player development at all. AAU teams often practice once a week or sometimes don’t practice at all. But most teams make sure the players have games almost every weekend and most teams will play anywhere from two to eight per weekend depending on the tournament.
The whole point of practice is becoming a better player, but this gets completely lost in the fold of AAU as all anyone is focused on is making sure they get a highlight-reel worthy dunk in-game. No one is worrying about becoming a better basketball player through hard work in AAU. Not only would more practices make players better, but teams would also benefit greatly too as they could use the practice time to prepare for anything that may be thrown at them in games and build team chemistry. Once again though, this gets lost in AAU because at the end of the day it’s all about the individual. Winning just doesn’t matter. Recruitment does, plain and simple.
Even Mike Krzyzewski, legendary college basketball coach at Duke, commented that AAU basketball is only known for the ability to play games, not learning the fundamentals. When the greatest collegiate coach of our times doesn’t believe in the system, there is definitely something wrong with it and how players are being coached. In fact, Krzyzewski has experienced firsthand just how detrimental not being taught fundamentals can be. In the 2015 National Championship game, arguably his two most talented players, Jahlil Okafor and Justise Winslow were sloppy on both ends of the floor.
It was a perfect example of two players taught to use their athleticism their whole life instead of technique or even some of the basic principles of the game. At the AAU level, athletic players could get by on their God-given talent. However, when players aren’t taught the proper fundamentals, many struggle at the higher levels as everyone has those athletic gifts at that stage. AAU is the biggest contributor to this lack of fundamental play and it’s a major reason for tremendous talent being wasted.
The culture of AAU is clearly ruining the foundation of many great young basketball players. Sadly, AAU basketball is all about the person, rather than the team. It highlights individuals as most possessions are just one-on-one basketball. Players perform selfishly and forget about the result of the game as long as they impress whoever may be watching. The art of beautiful team basketball with five players working together as a cohesive unit is completely lost in this format. After playing so many games, losing no longer has the same sting and winning is devalued as all AAU games really are, are high-tempo pickup games, with a lot of money and adults involved. At the end of the day, players don’t have to be the one throwing down windmill dunks or shooting from half court. All it takes to be successful in basketball is talent that works hard and has a passion for basketball.
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