By Brendan Olski
Kobe Bryant is a rare example of someone who was raised with two different styles of basketball. He was born in Philadelphia in 1978, but lived in Italy from 1984-1991 because his father retired from the NBA and began to play professionally overseas. When his father retired from this league in 1991, Bryant returned to the states to play high school basketball. He would come back to the U.S. each summer to play in a basketball summer league, but from age 6-14, Bryant spent the majority of his time learning the game of basketball the way that it is taught in Italy.
Unlike the intensive, year-round AAU basketball system that has been pushed more and more in the U.S., Bryant was able to play more than one sport growing up. He credits his unbelievable fundamental abilities to the opportunity that he had to play soccer as a kid. This video does a great job breaking this down even further:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BpxEOrZDSDT/
Bryant has been very outspoken in the past about how he believes the American system is extremely flawed. This is not only due to the fact that they essentially force players to play year round if they want to make it in college and in the pros, but also because of the way the game is taught here in the U.S. These two quotes from Bryant summarize just how strong his feelings are on this issue:
"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."
"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 [play in the] post. They don't know the fundamentals of the game. It's stupid."
As someone who has played in the AAU system, it was very clear to me that the mentality is to win immediately as opposed to bringing in players that you plan on developing over the course of their four years of high school to bring wins in the long run. The head coach of my program was constantly recruiting the best players in the state to join his team. This allowed the club's brand to grow, however this made it much more difficult for the loyal players like myself that had been with the club since freshman year to gain exposure.
This issue of the U.S. not teaching fundamentals is similar to the disparity between European soccer clubs recruiting players as children and developing them vs. the U.S. playing for their schools. Clearly if the third all-time leading scorer in NBA history sees an issue with the U.S. system, something needs to be changed. Do you think that the current U.S. AAU system will be able to shift from its current flashy, showboating style to the more disciplined, fundamental style that Bryant believes is so important? What steps do you think can be taken to remind U.S. coaches of the importance of expanding the cup before filling it?
I think that the U.S. will likely not switch to this system, at least not anytime soon. However, I do think that the European system is better than the U.S. I have seen my varsity coaches in high school invest their time into very young athletes from the start, therefore making the athletes more loyal and equipped for that coache’s team. However, the U.S. has always stuck to its own way of coaching, by recruiting and only accepting the best. But I do think investing time and effort into young athletes from the start will make them much better players.
ResponderEliminar- Piper Knudson