Basketball development in the United States is hopefully coming full circle

It wasn’t until 1988, after being in the college coaching ranks for over 15 years, that I saw a travel team basketball game. The reason? Because there wasn’t such a thing. Recruiting and evaluating high school players consisted of attending the players’ in season high school games and nothing much more than that.

However, during the mid 1980’s the major apparel companies began turning their marketing efforts toward our youth through the development of grassroots basketball teams. As the apparel companies put together elite teams with many of the countries top high school players, so started the travel team basketball concept that has taken over the youth basketball world.

In 1988 I finally witnessed this spectacle for the first time when recruiting Kenny Anderson, one of the most prolific high school basketball players of all-time. After watching travel team basketball throughout that summer, I knew this new basketball mentality focused solely on game-play meant trouble was on the horizon. Through the early 1990’s the effects of year-round game-play wasn’t really seen, but during the late 1990’s and into the 21st century the quality of basketball has declined; a direct effect of the ever popular travel team basketball mentality.

Now after nearly 20 years of controlling the travel team basketball world, be it AAU tournaments or summer elite basketball camps, the major apparel companies have decided to scale back on this business. Adidas announced that it will no longer run its Superstar Camp and Nike has put an end to its elite summer basketball camp as well.

So what does this all mean for basketball development in the United States? Hopefully, it’s the beginning stages of getting basketball back to the way it was prior to the travel team revolution. Don’t get me wrong. We still have a long way to go as youth basketball in this country is still too much about games and not enough about skill development.

Check out our website at www.ssasports.com