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Kobe Bryant Wrong About AAU Being Culprit of Declining Basketball Skills In America

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Kobe Bryant #24 of the Los Angeles Lakers shoots a free throw during a game against the Sacramento Kings at Staples Center on December 9, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Jonathan Moore/Getty Images)

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Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant had an important revelation about the serious decline of basketball skills in the NBA and United States after Friday’s loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. 

“European players are way more skillful,” Bryant told reporters from ESPN and the Los Angeles Times. “They are just taught the game right away from an early age … They’re more skillful and it’s something we need to fix.”

Bryant was dead on with this assessment – skills are lacking – but then went on to criticize the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball programs for all the ills of of player development. 

Unlike what many other bloggers have written, the AAU can’t  be blamed exclusively for the decline of America’s basketball skills, even though they can do much more to address the symptoms Bryant mentioned. The main reason basketball skills in America are really declining is because of fundamental changes to the lifestyles of young players and basketball culture itself.

There are three overlying factors that have done much more damage to our skill set and ability to compete than the AAU.

One big problem is a general malaise that plagues all of North American culture. In the last 75 years, the diet of the average American has been on the decline, with health experts constantly warning us – with little avail — about obesity levels and poor nutrition.It should be noted that diet (largely) has nothing to do with wealth. Many nations in Europe have a much lower standard of living than America, but have much healthier diets. That’s because they eat vegetables, beans and legumes instead of high fat, sweet, salty and processed foods, which have become staple of the American way of life.

As Bryant knows from growing up in Italy – there is no Bob Evans in Budapest or TGI Friday’s in Turin. If you don’t have the nutrition and energy and subsist on a diet of fast food, how are you going to develop your skills? It’s not going to happen, because you won’t have the energy.

A second reason for the decline in skills is too much structure. Instead of practice time alone with the ball, today’s kids play in way too many and frequent organized games where the desire to win often supersedes the need for skill development. This is where Bryant’s criticism of the AAU and its constant tournaments and numerous games may have some merit.

Europeans are also highly successful in basketball, soccer and hockey because they take the opposite approach. They don’t rush their children into organized sports at a young age, but instead allow them to hone their skills in a non-threatening atmosphere. 

The final and biggest overall problem with the declining level of skills in American basketball is indeed the very same reason you are able to read this article — the computer age itself. The prevalence of social media, tablets and laptops everywhere we go can’t be good for your streetball game. At least the young kids coming up will have good thumb strength from all those Tweets, but what about the rest of their bodies? Jello.

The computer age is certainly one key factor that is killing the development of basketball in America and other affluent nations. Today’s players are more apt to put pop in a copy of Bryant’s NBA2K10 to practice their reverse crossover than to actually go down to the local playground and perfect the move themselves. By the way, we didn’t’ hear Bryant taking any shots at the Silicon Valley giants during his postgame manifesto.

If you were from the older generation from before Bryant, you watched guys like Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Julius Erving. There were no gamers back then — just pickup games where we emulated our heroes every trip up and down the hardwood or tarmac. And we played until our feet were sore, our bodies ached, our throats were dry and our hands were chapped and bleeding.

So, there is a solution at hand, America! Get off the couch, put down your video games, turn off your television sets, your computers or (dare I say it) this very website, and head out to the playground and practice your skills. As Bryant well knows himself, practice makes perfect.  

Peter Mallett is a blogger for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @RedCardTheRef1 like him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.

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