re: So why is AAU ruining basketball?

quote:

---

This is actually a valid concern. I can't believe people are still throwing out the "it doesn't teach fundamentals and ruins the game" line.

---

The "fundamentals" concern goes hand in hand with the concerns listed above.

You have coaches who only care about winning meaningless tournaments and having their teams do nothing but run and try and get flashy dunks so that they can make a highlight reel.

There are a ton of young players with tremendous athletic ability who are coached by people with this mentality in both AAU and high school. Coaches worried more about making highlight reels for self promotion as opposed to teaching solid fundamentals and basketball discipline.

For some kids this doesn't really hurt them. However you are left with kids that have a ton of athleticism and raw talent but absolutely zero fundamentals. Thus when they step up against teams/competition that are well coached and have disciplined play they end up getting exposed.