NBA Playoffs: Blame the Kiddies

Jason Whitlock lays the bad play of Phoenix and Orlando on the feet of Amar'e Stoudemire and Dwight Howard, respectively:

These guys are clueless. They’re the most talented and important players on their teams and they have the maturity level of 13-year-olds. They set a terrible tone for their teams.

Howard just wants to have fun. Stoudemire just wants to score points. Neither is interested in giving a playoff-level defensive effort.

You don’t learn how to play great defense in summer/AAU basketball. You don’t learn how to compete at a championship level in AAU basketball.

Before summer basketball replaced high school hoops as the most important training ground for a teenage baller, kids used to be taught how to compete, how to accept coaching and that important games pitting equally talented players are most often decided at the defensive end.

Howard and Stoudemire are full-blooded AAU Babies. They were raised in the era where the penalty for a high school phenom ignoring the teachings of his coach was a spot in the draft lottery and a shoe contract with Nike or Adidas.

They didn’t join Michael Jordan’s NBA. They joined Allen Iverson’s league. There’s a major difference.


A good read.

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