Fixing Youth Basketball

The current state of youth basketball is not exactly ideal. In modern youth leagues, the focus has turned from developing the skills of players to being focused on competition and profit. Major AAU programs have been exploiting talented players and leaving them unprepared for when they move on to College and the NBA. There doesn't seem to be a clear solution on the horizon, but there are several simple things that can be done to improve the situation.

To start, basketball camps have to be looked at as a legitimate alternative to competitive leagues. Major camps have disappeared recently due to the rise of AAU teams playing in the summers. While, playing for an AAU team can expose talented players to scouts and coaches that could recruit them , they don't necessarily provide an improvement in the player themselves. In the 1980's and 1990's, basketball camps were the first option for young players. Players such as Christian Laettner, John Stockton, and Jim Jackson are all former NBA players that attribute their skill development to spending their summers at skill camps. The problem for young players now is that there is a distinct lack of skill camps, which forces them to turn to exhausting competition based leagues. This is something that would have to change for the benefit of the sport.

Another major issue that youth basketball faces is the NBA draft. The current age minimum for the draft is 19, which means that a player would only have to take one year in between their high school and NBA careers. This creates a culture in which premier prospects are rushed through their high school and college careers. When youth programs and high school teams realize a prospects talent, they rush to recruit that player. The question becomes does a private high school really want a top ten prospect in their program to develop them, or do they want them to simply promote themselves and win?