Teaching basketball to kids in the US is getting a little confusing and the NBA is looking for solutions

Victor Wembanyama’s warm-up on court before games, when he played in France, would last about an hour. It consisted of a lot of stretching, a lot of passing and dribbling, then a little shooting.

The basic. The skills. Just it.

“It’s what you learn to bring to the game,” he said at the time, a year or so before the San Antonio Spurs made the French star their No. 1 pick last year. NBA Draft.

Taught in some places maybe. Taught everywhere, not so much. There are many in the NBA – from Commissioner Adam Silver onwards – sounding a bit alarmed about how the development of young players in the US differs from the process in other parts of the world, and how the model that seems to focus more on playing than practicing perhaps is not the best method.

This year’s project will once again reflect the changing tide.

French stars Alex Sarr and Zaccharie Risacher won’t have to wait long to hear their names called during the NBA draft that begins Wednesday night, and they could even be the top two picks overall. Of course, they played a lot of games. But they’re in this position because most scouts consider them the most NBA-ready of the class, with extremely well-rounded games — a product of how footwork, passing, shooting, dribbling, the fundamentals have been prioritized over the highlights. moments.

“These guys start playing very young, and most importantly, they don’t just play when they’re young — they’re taught when they’re young,” Denver coach Michael Malone said last season when asked why Balkan players – like Nuggets star Nikola Jokic – just seems more adept at skills like passing. “There is a big difference. In the United States, AAU basketball, guys play a lot of basketball, but are they being taught how to play?”

It’s the question everyone is asking. USA Basketball is trying to find an answer, along with the NBA. And it’s nothing new either: Longtime coach and now television analyst Stan Van Gundy says the problem stems, in part, from how winning is overemphasized at youth level.

“Frankly, if you look around, we are failing badly in this country as a whole when it comes to teaching people basketball skills,” Van Gundy said. “You all realize this if you watch the NBA, because there is a big difference just in the skill level of the players coming from Europe and what we have here in terms of passing and shooting ability. We can’t even produce enough people who can do these things here that we have to go around and try to find people who can do them. We’re not developing skills here.”

By the way, Van Gundy didn’t say those words this week, or last week, or last month. He said them when he was coaching the Miami Heat – two decades ago.

“You’re kind of scratching at something that’s a conversation a lot of people in the NBA are having right now,” said Orlando Magic president Jeff Weltman. “I think everyone is looking at youth basketball right now. There are very different models you can follow. … It’s something we need to continue to analyze and measure as we move forward. Is the league changing and how can we recalibrate that toward youth programs?”

Some coaches at youth levels say the answer is simple: it’s up to them to do better.

Antoine Thompson is the boys coach at Stony Point High School in Round Rock, Texas, and his program reached the Class 6A state final last spring. At Stony Point, fundamentals are key and that is evident in the win-loss record – 38-2 last season.

His solution: more practices, fewer games.

“We have moved away from the old way of teaching the game, starting with the fundamentals and then practicing the game with a team concept. That went out the window,” Thompson said. “And it’s getting bad because now it’s starting at the grassroots level and it used to be where the game was taught. We are ignoring it now.”

Thompson points to Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic as an example. Doncic has been a professional since he was 14, part of the Real Madrid system before reaching the NBA. But how he got there is key, Thompson said.

“He was playing at a club where the club was structured to teach basketball before playing basketball and we reversed that here,” Thompson said. “Now we play basketball — but we don’t teach the game of basketball anymore.”

Maybe that will change. The NBA is thinking so.

The league and USA Basketball are working together — former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski is also involved — to see what can be done. Some countries require all youth coaches to be licensed and pass a type of aptitude test; This may not necessarily be realistic in a country as large as the US, but there is always a better way.

“We think there are definitely ways to improve the system,” Silver said.

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