Summerball..

[Griffster]

Times are a changing.. I think and hope for the better. Those camps were horrible.

hoops camps stress fundamentals

Luciana Chavez, Staff Writer

Everything you know about shoe company summer basketball camps is about to change.

Gone is the "touch it, shoot it" mentality of the elite basketball camps in Teaneck, N.J. (Reebok), Atlanta (Adidas) and Indianapolis (Nike).

Replacing that is a "team first, skills first" approach to be played out most publicly in Philadelphia (Reebok), Redwood City, Calif., and Atlanta (Adidas) and Akron, Ohio, (Nike).

"Throwing balls out and having a place to play, everyone's doing that now and we [the shoe companies] should be doing a lot more to enhance the game," Nike's Elite Youth Basketball director Jeff Rogers said. "These kids don't need another place to play five-on-five. We have to give them another option."

Tournaments such as this weekend's Bob Gibbons Tournament of Champions -- the unofficial summer hoops tipoff in the Triangle -- also attract the nation's top talent.

Camps have long given players the best street cred and exposure. But two things have pushed the shoe companies to change how they run their camps.

First, most of the nation's basketball community is worried that U.S. players are falling behind their skilled, fundamentally sound European foes. Also, summer basketball godfather Sonny Vaccaro recently decided to discontinue his successful summer basketball events, opening a void.

In response, the parties independently came to the same conclusion that U.S. players need to receive more instruction to improve their skills. Each company is taking a slightly different path to get that done.

Adidas is moving furthest away from the all-star camp structure, with Adidas Nations.

Fifteen players on the class of 2008 team and 14 on the class of 2009 team met in Atlanta at the NCAA Final Four and earlier this month at the EA Sports complex in Redwood City, Calif., where former NBA coach Paul Silas drilled them on fundamentals and team play.

On June 15, Adidas Nations teams will play each other in the Rose City Showcase in Portland, Ore. From Aug. 3-7, the two teams will travel to New Orleans to play teams from Latin America, Asia and Europe.

"These kids, especially the top kids, a lot of times when they do get any instruction, they don't get enough," said Travis Gonzolez, Adidas' head of Global Basketball public relations. "Then, what they won't do is go back and implement it with their AAU teams and their high school teams. ... We felt [focusing on team play] would be much better for the game."

Nike will replace its All-American Camp with four position academies led by the Phoenix Suns' Steve Nash (for point guards), New Jersey Nets' Vince Carter (for small forwards), Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant (for shooting guards) and Phoenix Suns All-Star Amare Stoudemire (for big men).

Twenty players will attend each camp in June. That group of 80 will meet at the LeBron James Skills Academy in Akron, July 7-10.

Nike has run a small skills development camp at its home base in Beaverton, Ore., for several years. The company liked how it worked and saw this summer as a way to improve on it.

"The way I look at it, the camps were created at a time when there weren't a lot of places to play," Rogers said. "They can play in a tournament every weekend so where is the time to concentrate on your weaknesses and improve your strengths?"

Reebok isn't changing the camp structure because "we don't really think anything is broken," Reebok grassroots director Chris Rivers said.

"For the other 49 weeks of the year, these kids are playing for someone else. They rarely play in an organized fashion in front of college coaches. Part of our brand mission is to sell individuality."

Reebok has renamed and decreased the size of its all-star camp, which will be called Rbk U and take place in Philadelphia from July 6-10.

Instead of 200-plus players, 65 will be chosen by a national selection committee. Another 55 can earn their way in by playing at a Headliner Tryout camp in June.

The 10 best players will travel to Italy for games against European teams June 7-17. Reebok is also staging an underclassmen camp in June and several Proving Ground combines in July for guys who haven't yet made a dent on the national scene.

The shoe companies have done what they can to change but no one knows how it will affect the athletes. The company camps, at their height, brought in about 500 athletes. Now, for that critical NCAA evaluation period in early July, there are 300 fewer spots.

Good players won't miss out, shoe company execs say.

"There will be fewer elite spots in one place, but these kids will still have plenty of opportunity to play with their AAU teams," Rivers said.

Will these newly structured grassroots basketball operations yield savvy, skilled and still athletic U.S. basketball players? It's too early to say just yet.

"There's more to this game than the individual," Gonzolez said. "There's more to the game than bringing kids to Teaneck over the summer. This summer is a great opportunity for the sport and for a lot of kids."

Staff writer Luciana Chavez can be reached at 829-4864 or [email protected].

[Four Seventeen]

News Observer? Charlotte's paper...nice article.

[davidnark]

So which camp or camps does Tyler expect to participate in?

[Griffster]

He's in the Adidas Nations program. Paul Silas is his coach. Good stuff.

[tiger72]

Funny what comes around goes around. Back in the mid 80's all the big time coaches wanted to take the power away from the high school coaches. You had to pay money to get into gyms in Chicago and the hs coaches were benefitting monetarily back then. Now the NCAA wants to take basketball from the AAU coaches because some are taking money for players. The only constant in all of this is the college coaches are the ones paying who ever they need to pay to get players. I like summer basketball because kids get to play against the best players and IMO that makes you a better player. You can shoot on a gun in a gym all day or hit of a batting machine but until you do it against real players you dont get better. The best want to play the best and you can only get that in AAU.

[billiken_roy]

kevin lisch never played aau until after he verballed to go to slu.

imo aau is nothing more than a beauty contest. basketball education is secondary to exposure.

when kids spend 2-3 days a week just traveling instead of playing i fail to see how that missed time on the court makes one better.

sure a big time tourney once or twice a year would be neat, but this every weekend stuff and flying to games and the uniforms and pandering, sorry, it makes me sick.

[tiger72]

Lisch played AAU with a team in Illinois he last year so you would be wrong. Most of the good players and the great ones play in the summer and love it.

[Griffster]

of course the kids love it..they are catered too.. but..it's not the best thing for them. That is for sure. Even the college coach's will tell you that.

[tiger72]

What is best for him the high school coaches catering to them? So the reason college basketball is so messed up is the cheating and that is done by the college coaches. Who pays high school coaches? Who pays AAU coaches? Who gets these kids to elite camps and summer camps and bends the rules to get them to come to their respective school? I really take a college coaches opinion with a grain of salt because they will tell you what you want to hear. Griffster if you tell a college coach of a school recruiting your son that you love high school basketball and hate the summer, do you think that coach is going to tell you that your wrong? If you like jai-alai they are going to say they like jai-alai because you have something they want.

[billiken_roy]

i said he played after he verballed to slu. work on your reading comprehension.

and of course they love it. what kid wouldnt love flying all over the country, people making a fuss over them, getting neat shoes, warmups and uni's and playing the game they love to play.

what they dont like to do is practice and work on their game and learn to play as a team instead of pickup games.

[thetorch]

AAU is junk ball. Playground #####. Most of the coaches are inexperienced and the players are all out for themselves. HS ball may not be the best competition but it is more like college. In AAU there is very little structure, it doesn't teach kids how to play the game.

[tiger72]

So then why are all the great players that play in the summer, have great college careers also guess it didnt screw the up that bad. Is it the summer league coaches fault that kids dont have the core or the grades to play Division I basketball? Wouldnt that fall on the high school coach? Lisch did go to camps before he verballed also so he was a part of junk ball. I agree basketball is messed up but it is the AAU, high school coaches, and college coaches fault.

[Westy03]

What the ##### is that?

[tiger72]

Doesnt Marc Stricker and Mike Nelke coach for gateway? Didnt they both play Division I basketball and coach high school? I know the Eagles have numerous high school coaches on their staff also.

[billiken_roy]

tiger, go back and read my posts in this string. i havent said anything is messed up. i dont like aau because of the focus of games and it being more of a meat marketlike spectacle.

imo, the aau idea would be great if they all stayed local for the whole summer except for a couple of tourney's. set up a league and play one or two nights a week and practice the rest of the week. i.e. like college or high school.

you cant tell me that for example brett thompson gets a chance to practice with the warriors. they likely practice little if any. just play their weekend tourney and then off to the next one. how is that making anyone better.

as to why all the great players that play in the summer having great college careers?

well imo, first because they all do it. so no one is getting an advantage of working on their own to actually improve their game.

second, the great players are just that. great. they are so much better athletically and basketball skillwise they just excel.

as to your question about the grades, no that isnt the high school coaches fault. that is the player's fault. they all should recognize that grades have to come first not basketball.

[tiger72]

I agree with most of what you're saying there. I have no idea how many tournaments these kids play in a summer. I can tell you that they dont play during the week and that is when these kids can work on their skills and strength, and then on the weekends compete against the best. I think it is a balance and when kids dont do anything during the week and only play on weekends you have problems. I do think it is the high school coach place to make sure these kids take the right classes and do well or they dont play.

[NashvilleBilliken]

"I do think it is the high school coach place to make sure these kids take the right classes and do well or they dont play."

I disagree with this. That is the job of the parents. Too often, I see people pass blame to the AAU coaches or the high school coaches. Sure, these coaches should be looking out for the kids best interests. And frankly, if you're working with kids, this should hopefully be part of your "natural" personality. However, this is a job/career for these guys. You gotta earn a buck. In the end, all this comes to rest on the shoulders of these kids parents. Parents seem to get off way too easy these days.

[tiger72]

Sorry I just get frustrated with basketball because I love the game so much. None of the kids are fundamentally sound anymore and that is the high school coaches fault. No one plays as a team anymore unless your name is the Spurs or the Florida gators the last two years. I just wish the high school coaches and summer coaches would put the kids first instead of themselves. I wish we had more coaches like RM to teach the kids how to play the game. Just tough watching basketball these days.

[tiger72]

I can agree with that but in some cases these kids dont have parents that care. We need to educate and I think it is a teacher or a coach that needs to help the kids. Was it Steve Francis or Juan Dixon that had parents that were heroin addicts? They probably werent getting the advice from home.

[NashvilleBilliken]

Yeah, there are too many parents out there that don't care. It's just a shame because then you have kids learning life lessons from guys like Floyd Irons. I suppose there is no easy answer and there is plenty of blame to go around. Ultimately though, when kids don't perform in the classroom, I think it's unfair to blame the coaches.

[brianstl]

Is very depressing.

[tiger72]

I agree with that but if coaches would demand more and sit kids out and not play them grades would go up. Winning games is first and punishing a kid for grades is second in most cases.

[tiger72]

I think summer basketball has little structure, and the kids dont get coached that much. I also think that high school coaches have these kids every day in the month of june and 4 months during the year. Summer coaches have them on 10 weekends. You would think the kids would learn the fundamentals from the high school coach. I think there are so great high school coaches and bad coaches just like I think the summer has some great opportunities for the kids and some not so great. I think it is nice that the shoe companies are trying to change everything but I will believe it when I see it.

[brianstl]

Coaching has become a joke at that level. It is sad.

[Griffster]

That's what I don't like about it. They play way to much. Those teams with Ranked players.. yes AAU coach's pocket money for bringing in the big recruits/ranked players. That's how it works. Other teams pay big bucks just to play. I don't like that aspect of it either. I'm not sure but even HS coach's pocket money for camps and teams camps. I believe that is how the system works? So people are pocketing money off a kid playing ball while he's in high school. hmm.. What's not to like about that? Then the kid blows his knee out becuase he's playing in a game that started after midnight, and he's got another game the next day.. at 9am. Trust any game after 9pm and they have them... is a blood bath..coach's don't want to be there.. players don't want to be there..and ref's don't want to be there..so they don't blow the whistle. Him.. then you simply have a rugby game.

Have you been to Houston or to Vegas or Akron for any of these big big tourneys? Tiger72 they are the worst fundamental games ever played. Kids run and they throw the ball up and dunk it. Most of the time they miss the dunk, they miss the alley oop and etc.etc. You want bad ball go watch those summer games. No offense and very very little defense. Everyone goes one on on.. that's it. No such thing as a play. You want fundamentals and what we have created is a breeding ground of summer ball that takes away from fundamentals. Some tourney's you don't shoot free throws?? Duh.. no wonder kids can't shoot FT anymore. It's crazy.

During July.. games are played 7 days a week. TG will be gone more then he is home in July. They play Friday Sat. Sunday in April and May during the school year. So the kids are missing school. Usually a couple Fridays during the end of the school year. I don't like that.

Now as far as them telling me what I want to hear.. because I have something they want. You go ask. Please ask RM what he thinks of the whole Summer circuit Spring and Summer "AAU" season. Is it it necessary? Is it good for the kids? What would he do in place of that? Ask Bruce Weber... ask Mike Anderson, Rick Pitino, ask Matt Painter..Bill Self ask Hinson (sp)at SMS. Ask them one if they like it..and two if it is good for the kids? A quote from Hinson a while back.. he watches two things at a summer games.. the kid off the court..and his parents while he's playing. Never ever looks at the scoreboard. I have not asked RM yet. I will next time I see him... will compare his answers and see if it's different.

Yes Mark and Mike coach in the Gateway program.. They do a very good job too. That's why TG plays with Mark too.