The fact that our U.S. basketball team was schooled in every facet of the game by Puerto Rico is not shocking.
What’s shocking is that here in America, these overpaid players are regarded as the best basketball players in the world. Fans pay more now to see a game than they did in the late ’80s and early ’90s and the product on the floor is playground at best. That is shocking.
The fact of the matter is this: The NBA has the best athletes in the world, but the concept of team basketball is foreign to them. Fundamental basketball is lost on today’s player.
The deterioration starts at the earliest stages, with high school coaches who choose athleticism over fundamentals.
LeBron James is a great young player, and he may be the exception here, but do you think he was truly coached in high school?
What about the other high school kids jumping straight to the NBA? It seems the NBA is willing to sacrifice good, solid basketball for pure athletes, and that’s one of the reasons the rest of the world has caught up with us.
Crossover dribbling and slam dunks may put fans in the seats, but they don’t work too well on the international stage.
Hopefully this will open the eyes of David Stern and the NBA Players Association: It’s time to set a minimum age limit in the NBA. The game is passing us by.
