One of the NBA's Top Stars Attacks AAU. Also AAU Thoughts.

Written Saturday January 3rd at 11:50 PM

When looking at the season there was an powerful article with bold statements from one of the best players in the NBA.

Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant said to ESPN's Arash Markazi that European players are more skillful than those who played in the AAU system.

"AAU basketball, horrible, terrible. It's stupid. It doesn't teach our kids how to play the game at all so you wind up with having players are are big and they bring it up and do all this fancy crap and they don't know how to post. They don't know the fundamentals of the game."

Bryant adds that European players have an advantage because they know the game at an early age and that they are "more skillful" than American players. Bryant did play in Italy for a time.

He offered solutions to fix players and parents egos. "Teach players the game at an early age. Stop treating them like cash cows for everyone to profit off of. That's how you do it, you teach them the game, You got to give them instruction" Bryant mentioned.

Parents and players do play a lot of travel basketball and pay a lot of money to get their names noticed. Some will get them to play at private schools or Catholic Schools or even leave the state just to get better opportunities to look at their athletes.

In the OAA, there are two places I will mention that have AAU type of coaches and they are at Oak Park and at Lathrup.

In Knight Valley you have Athletic Director and Varsity Football coach Greg Carter who's coaching staff has some coaches who have extensive AAU backgrounds. In track they have Brandon Giles who coached at Detroit Mumford. In Girls Basketball you have Diane Jones, who coached at Detroit Renaissance, and is the assistant Athletic Director and in Boys Basketball you have Bryan Tipton who came over from Detroit Cody.

In Lathrup Village you have Michelle Jackson-Marshall who coaches an AAU team in the summer and some of her players transfer in like Antoinette Miller from Ferndale to Southfield-Lathrup to play for her Chargers. Jackson-Marshall has won a State Championship and has constantly made her Hoop Squad an OAA Power each season.

Personally I'm not a huge fan of the AAU circuit but I understand that players get mentioned and made throughout the circuit. I have experience doing games and sometimes I view it as a dangerous assets when it comes to money and AAU circuit. Kids are kids and are not made to be money making machines.