Double Pump West Coast All Star Camp and the State of the Game
July 7, 2008
By Jerome Green
Tonight, while at the Double Pump West Coast All Star Camp at Cal State Dominquez Hills. I was reminded of what a parasitic Brazilian Bot Fly looks like when it lays it’s eggs on the abdomen of a housefly, which then lands on a cow to drink it sweat. This causes the bot fly eggs to hatch, and the larvae feed on the flesh of the cow. Everywhere I looked I saw basketball larvae running down the shoes of players. And the sustained dumb play eating away at the core of the game.
One player would try to do something he was not capable of doing or shouldn’t try to do in that situation-split a double, and then three other players would try the same thing. I saw a disease of laziness with players walking back on defense, and on offense, no one running the lanes because they knew no one was going to pass it to them.
All I read these days is about the state of American youth basketball, and the lack of skill development, training and fundamentals that today’s players are lacking. I find going to these events, no matter if its top 20 in the country or the bottom 20 in the country, they all have the same flesh eating results. Players coming down the court, trying to split double-teams, with their heads down and four of their teammates open ahead of them. Or watching a player step back to take a 3, when they haven’t demonstrated that they can hit 15-footer, much less create an opportunity to score using the dribble. Some players, witnessing the number of air balls that were shot tonight haven’t realized that the 3-point line has been moved back for the 2008-2009 college season and that they were playing in a college gym.
This is not a criticism of the Pumps or their camps. Rather, it is an indictment of the state of basketball in this country. We have some of the most athletically gifted young players in the world, and alongside of that, we have some of the most skill deficient players in the world. I saw approximately 25 players tonight who could only dribble with one hand effectively. Defense? I know at these events defense doesn’t matter. Really? If I am scouting, when am I going to find out if a player can play D, much less if he understands basic defensive principles such as seeing man and ball.
On Sunday I was told that the first Double Pump camp had the least amount of talent. If that is so, why not spend more time doing real instruction and less time playing? Invite the coaches in for Monday night and Tuesday and spend Sunday and Monday actually doing instruction. Last summer at Reebok U, I interviewed Coach Kelvin Sampson, who at the time was the head coach at Indiana University. I wanted to know what he thought of the point guards in that camp, and here is what he told me:
"Most of the points here play too much in traffic. They drive into a lot of people and then complain if they don’t get the call. If they were playing in the street a car would hit them. Our young points play to much one on one and hold the ball too much. The European guards drive and kick. I would say that 70% of American young points today get to deep into traffic before they make a decision and are forced to make emergency passes."
Imagine if some of the best of the best have this problem, what the average player, who were mostly at the Double Pump camp first session must look like? They are immolating their overall development as a player trying to emulate what they think a basketball player should look like in 2008.
How do you fix this?
Everyone - parents, AAU coaches, relatives, friends and enemies, have to stop telling young players that you have to go to these events and score a lot of points. My advice is to go to these events and show:
a) you know how to play
b) you are physically ready to play at the next level
c) you will share the ball
d) you can score when needed and without having to take 20 shots to score 10 points
e) show you know how to spell defense and then play a little
f) you have a great attitude through out the entire camp
g) have humility by asking the coaches who are running the camp what you need to do to get better
h) you can have some fun
Next, people like the Pumps should have more skills camps where the development is primary and playing games comes after the skill work has been done and the players really have a better understanding on how to play. Unfortunately I am not sure parents will pay $600 for this sort of camp, but they should.