“I just think European players are more talented. We teach them to play properly from a very young age.”. More than eight years ago already, Kobe Bryant had already noted the growing disparities between American and European training, the latter offering more “basics”.
The number of foreign players increases every year and the league has begun to change. As proof, no American player has won the MVP title since 2018, while “foreign” players have taken over the best five of the year with Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo in 2023, or the Finals MVP trophies with the “Greek Freak” in 2021 and Nikola Jokic in 2023.
Too many matches, not enough training
This week, it’s Doc Rivers who is stepping up to demand that the United States review its training methods, otherwise the NBA will be less and less dominated by American players!
“These young American players better watch out, because the European players are better players coming into the league. They are better prepared to enter the league, and they are already competitors. In the summer, high school students play six games a week and have only one practice. The European players have one match per week, but they have six training sessions. And the other thing is that because of all these matches, you lose your competitive spirit.”, he said on Bill Simmons’ podcast.
Four years ago, it was LeBron James who pointed out the number of compulsory matches in the AAU circuit. And he wasn’t talking about six matches per week, but rather per day!
“These tournaments are not in the best interest of children”he explained. “Once, we had to play the quarter-final from 9 a.m., then the semi-final, and the final was scheduled for 12:30 p.m. My kids were exhausted. It is not normal. They say that the children are not tired, that they are only 12 years old, and that they don’t know what it is to be exhausted: that’s bullshit! They are tired. And they don’t eat well. We don’t eat properly at 14, 15 or 16 years old. They eat McDonalds while playing five or six times a day. »
Take an example from European training
Like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, Doc Rivers had a bad experience with AAU basketball, particularly when he followed his son Austin there. The style of play advocated in these tournaments does not sufficiently train players to evolve as a team, to develop a coherent game.
“I used to go see Austin play when he was younger. It hurt him, because it had a way of driving me crazy. Sometimes at halftime, Austin hadn’t taken a single shot. And he was going to sit down. One day, I remember crossing the field, even though I’m not that type of parent, to ask him: ‘Are you still going to practice free throws, are you still going to go and warm up?’. He answered me: ‘But Dad, I still have five matches to play today, I’m still going to play at least 48 minutes!’. But the stars who come out of AAU never leave the field. You can be at +40, they will never come out. So it drove me crazy to see that.”
The technician is calling for a state of emergency on the training of young Americans, otherwise the difference will continue to widen with young players from the rest of the world. And the example to follow is obvious.
“It’s even worse today, and it needs to be fixed.” Because we have the talent, but the players no longer know how to play, they no longer know how to play basketball as a team. Everyone has their own individual coach. In Europe, they have collective coaches, they do three-on-three, that kind of thing, and we need to come back to that too. Otherwise, I tell you, American players will lose more jobs.”he concluded.
