Love The Game, Play the Game!

Love the Game...

Amazing how young ball players and their parents under value seeking out greater competition at all times. We know skill training is essential, its a must but getting on the gun and doing a billion drills alone isn't going to get it done!!! You have to compete against the best talent possible. You can't duplicate that temp better than the real thing.....anticipation, pace, momentum, communication, court vision, poise on and on....then they wonder why their child or school can't compete against the upper echelon.... You don't actually PLAY enough basketball against REAL competition. What's sad is that they really feel like they are getting somewhere with that concept but yet they aren't putting out a whole lot of talent...I mean real talent!!! I think that's why it's a lot of kids who can't pass the rock very well. They are just "drilling" themselves crazy (mostly 1 on 1 offensive stuff with the ball) and that's it (do to some dude that wants to over sell himself as the only element the player needs to be successful at the game.... Let these kids play!!! A player has to be able to play in situations where in the court has exceptional talent on the floor. People can cry about all the things that they don't like about AAU, which there are probably valid reasons, but when it comes down to it, AAU is 1 of the greatest ways for a young player to play against the best talent and be comfortable in that setting.  When you hear Magic, Bird, Michael, Kobe and tons of other greats, they talk about the battles at the bball court up the street against the older brother or the taller older kids or, in Reggie Miller's case, the older better sister!!! That's what helps turn those corners and apply what is addressed in those workouts. I saw some kids in a gym shooting on the gun while I was getting ready to play with a group of adults who were about to come in. When the group came in to play, the teenaged kids who were shooting, put on their slides, took the gun down and left, though toughness, and the ability to play and compete strong were these kids very weaknesses!!!! Shout out to the coaches, teams and organizations that promote real competition and encourage players to play basketball.

Kobe Bryant, Forever Under Appreciated!

   

 I've heard all of the critics. Some alluding to Kobe not trusting his teammates, dominating the ball and being to old to keep putting up great numbers night in and night out to carry this (weak) team. They allude to everyone being the "best" everything in the league but him, you know, Lebron is the best player on planet earth (after winning 1 ring with a dream team roster), Durant, Melo and several others follow as Kobe's greatness is always followed by "but" or "although", in the media's rank. If he goes off for a big scoring night, no matter how well he shoots its, "well they can't continue to win that way" or "he won't be able to continue that all season" or"he has to get his teammates involved"or "that wasn't a great team they played". Jordan dominated the ball, shot just as much as Kobe, and didn't trust his teammates anymore than Kobe but that was ok for MJ but not Kobe....huh? Side note...Kobe and MJ have something else similar, MJ has 6 rings and Kobe 5!! Its funny because when Lebron or Durant put up big numbers, "oh my goodness, what an unbelievable performance". The circle of NBA basketball analyst look for a angle to discredit Bean!!!

    

     The truth is, in the last two games, games 77 & 78 of his 17th season, on his 34 yr old knees, Kobe Bryant, as he has done all season, showed that he is everything that an all-time great basketball player needs to be, scoring 23 of his 30pts Tuesday night in the 4rth qtr (14-27 fg and 10-11FT), over coming a deficit and going for 47pts including (9-18FG and18-18FT) from the free throw line against a young, athletic Portland team that was looking to spoil the Laker's efforts to make the playoffs! That's just this week. Kobe Bryant's numbers this year.... 27.3pts 6.0 ast and 5.6 rebounds per game, including shooting 46%FG and 84% FT. In March he avg. 7.1 ast and April 8.2 ast. Because of the lack of perimeter defense on his team, he works like a crazy man every night trying to put out Steve Nash and Blake's fire. He has had some of the most incredible performances since the All-Star break, in the entire league, literally putting the team on his back. Howard has played better as late, but struggled and was limited in many ways more than half of the year and when he gets a lots of touches, he is sent to the line where he is HORRIBLE. Nash has been out more than he has played this year with injury, though even when healthy, he can't defend my 11yr old son.  Pau is actually the second best overall player on the team as far as presenting match-up problems and overall versatility but has also been bit by the injury bug a great deal of the season and bitten by the Mike D'Antoni "I can't coach two bigs at the same time"/ "I can't coach" bug. Everybody else on the roster is less than impressive...I mean really, they're roster is pretty weak. Everything that could go wrong has went wrong for the Laker's except that one constant that has been staring down opposition for 17yrs....and is still bleeding ICE COLD BLOOD, the Mamba!

Star "Track" The Next Generation!! 2013 McDonald's All-American Game

 In today's world run by unlimited social media outlets, there are a lot of sources that build a lot of hype on young, up and coming players in the game of basketball. There is one corner stone in that field though... these are the grounds in which a basketball head can view the "next" big thing.... The McDonald's All-American Game! This has been the preview for most of all of today's college and NBA stars from Kobe, Lebron, Carmelo and the list goes on!!! 

  

                                          Jabari Parker #2 overall prospect

This year will be no slouch on the list of great games in this storied event, highlighting a super talented  class including Andrew Wiggins (uncommitted), Jabari Parker (Duke commit), the Harrison twins (Kentucky commits) and Julius Randle (Kentucky commit) among a host of other super talented names!! This classic event, laced with the next generation of studs, is being held, again, in the United Center in Chicago. College hoops coaches and fans can view what they have to look forward to and NBA fans get a  heads up on what is to come. So far, once again, it looks like coach Cal and Kentucky may be the "fortunate" again in this 2013 class. In fact people say this may be the class that almost makes you forget about the fabe fab!! (We'll see) This is a gigantic stage and one of the greatest honors for a high school player to be involved in and its often used as a proving ground and intro to the national scene!!

Catch a load of this game Wednesday April 3rd on ESPN at 9:30pm est!!