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> Being in the gym over these last few months in national games- watching, listening, talking to, hearing.. There is alot wrong with AAU. BUT the PARENTS are near the top of the list. It’s sickening. The delusion that exist is crazy. If we’re always making excuse’s for our children’s behavior where it has to be someone else’s fault, and we’re not teaching them accountability, we’re setting them up to fail. If we’re always criticizing a coach or program who is given their own time to benefit YOUR child’s development and well being, and that’s not enough, you should coach them to give them all you want them to have. As parents we have to be better. Looking back when I played AAU, the thing I take the most pride in, is my mom or dad NEVER complained to one coach I ever played for from 8 years old on. They said “you want all the things you say you want, figure it out and go get better looking back, I wear that with pride..
32 comments
Yeap aau is the worst I remember the post a month ago when we were sharing ref stories about how crazy the parents are.
is that an aau thing or all kids sports
The problem: people! We gotta get all these damn people outta AAU basketball! I’ve never seen a hoop, ball, or court play the game anything but the right way!
I don’t doubt some parents are plenty to blame. I’ve seen it with my own eyes, but some of the parental behavior can probably be traced back to recruitment and false promises. I can only imagine how many of these AAU coaches or team mangers flat-out lie to these parents and tell’em that if their kid joins the team, division 1 or nba is guaranteed to be in their future. And when the parents realize it isn’t and never was a realistic pathway, they lash out one way or another.
Honestly, the biggest problem we’re facing here is that we ruined youth sports by turning it into big business, which is always the American way.
Accountability is so important for improvement. In anything
yall seen Lebron being an attention whore running onto the court and standing in the coaches huddles at Bronny’s games. then he tells the media to stop putting Bronny under a microscope lol
When my nephew was still doing AAU, listening to parents cuss out kids for missed shots or whatever was just insane. People out here really thinking their kid is the next biggest thing in basketball when a huge chunk of these kids won’t even get the attention of a D1 school.
When Jamal Crawford plays basketball, I watch.
When Jamal Crawford speaks facts, I listen.
AAU is some of the worst, but this is absolutely an issue with ALL youth sports, not solely basketball. There is something seriously wrong with the culture of this country.
Matt Barnes did not like this post.
Jamal’s kid played on my kids team about 8 years ago. Just at the local ymca. Nothing too competitive but his son was a couple years younger and had some skills. But Jamal and his wife were super down to earth and nice to everyone. Even treated us all to a Clippers game and got us on the court to shoot free throws after. Good guy.
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but kids’ sports should be for kids to have fun.
AAU is so bad for mens game and its getting worse for womens game. mens game not only is it just crunching games in but now the AAU seson strts asd early as march now
There’s so much damn money involved in AAU. That’s part of the problem.
Great summary. Coaching youth basketball is wild. Parents coaching from the stands is an epidemic
[evergreen](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/15/19/75/15197598b54eba723b711ee180731d4f.jpg)
It’s not just AAU. When I was 15/16 in high school the varsity players had to ref/coach the 7th/8th spring league. I’m a sophomore in high school reffing middle school games for the first time reffing in my life and got parents screaming at me every play. Absolutely wild.
And we wonder why today’s players are so soft and entitled. It starts with AAU. And in many ways, it’s what the NBA has turned into. Winning is no longer a priority as much as showcasing your individual skill and promoting your brand.
My daughter plays travel softball and basketball. I agree with Jamal, parents are the problem. I’ve seen SOOO many crazy outburst from parents it’s ridiculous. There was almost a brawl at 1 10u softball tournament….10 YO girls softball! My daughter is pretty good at both, but she’s not even in high school. No WAY, I’m going to push her to do anything other than work hard, be respectful, and have fun. It’s up to HER if she wants to continue playing, not me or her mother.
AAU is like r/nba in IRL.
We are the angry parents who always complains about the refs, the coachs and how out child (favorite players are being mistreated: lack of fouls)
Hey you could say I was a problem parent cause I coached my kid from the stands. Primarily because she started playing late, in 7th grade and the coaches expected everyone to know how to play. That first year she would face the wrong way on defense. She ended up only playing 7-9th plus 2 aau seasons and was hurt 10-12. Then took a year off and walked on to a Juco this year and started the whole year. But I could tell she would play low level college in 8th grade so that’s why I coached from stands. She didn’t have coaches telling her what to do in game so I did. Never once did I complain to refs or coaches. But the amount of delusional and jealous parents is absurd and they definitely ruin shit
You could apply that to a lot of things in life. Those parents pull that shit in school, always someone else’s fault.
He was on such trash Knick teams that I always thought he was a bum. But seeing him talk eloquently and passionately about the game has greatly changed my view
Let em know
I remember that one basketball doc where the AAU dad tried to literally physically stretch his son to make him taller.
If he thinks it is bad in youth basketball he cant begin to imagine what it is like generally in just regular school.
I worked for a company that operated livestreams at AAU tournaments for about 5 or 6 years, so I have probably spent hundreds of hours around these parents. They are legitimately CRAZY.
I saw a brawl at half court during a 6th grade girls game. During another girls tournament there was a team from Los Angeles that was running the table on everyone, and there were legitimately grown adults heckling these teenage girls because they had the audacity to be better at basketball than their daughters. One of the girls went down with a knee injury and parents from the opposing team actually cheered and heckled her as she limped off.
On the boys side we had one tournament where a super stacked team from Chicago came in and was blowing out everybody. We are talking final scores of 100-8 in some cases. They were 6th grade boys but they had a kid probably getting close to 7 foot on their roster. Windmill dunks, lobs, the whole 9 yards. The kids were forced to leave the game early and police were called because parents were making fucking death threats against these kids.
I don’t know if these parents think there are NBA scouts in the crowd or something, but they are legitimately delusional. If your kids cant cut it at this level they aren’t getting anywhere, and you being a cunt to everyone around you isn’t going to change that.
Hope Matt Barnes sees this post
It’s become American culture, in general. Not just AAU. Ask any teacher in the country about the parents of the kids they teach. There’s so much entitlement, so much delusion. Such a lack of accountability and discipline and such a heightened belief that their children can do no wrong.
On the flip side some coaches just don’t know how to coach. Every time during practice when we played the starters I was a point guard with the bench and we won almost all the time. But since I was one of the tallest on the team, coach would play me as a big man. I was terrible as a big man so I would always get benched during games. It was so frustrating but he was an old guy that always stuck to his ways. We were all kids so he wouldn’t listen but I hoped my parents would say something but they never did. This is just a rant though lol, I know parents are usually at fault in aau.
NBA players love getting on their soapbox about regular people acting out. I’ll bet you anything the “PARENTS” he’s referring to conveniently excludes Matt Barnes
You know what? Than AAU is the problem.
When a child and a parent comes into a relationship with a premier hooping program it needs to lay out guidelines for conduct.
Parents are nuts. Why? Because of their kid can hit the big time their lives are financially set. They don’t give two damns about basketball. They care and want results.
AAU needs to understand this and put it into actual agreements with the parents. They need to create a system that balances chasing athletes and creating prestige for the program.
There needs to be a parent code of conduct and AAU needs regulations.
The system is a Wild West system and is broken. Crawford is right but AAU has the power.,