Analysis: AAU basketball isn’t as bad as LaVar Ball is making it look

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Sunday, July 30, 2017 | 2 a.m.

The notion of AAU basketball as the devil seems to pop up every year around the end of July, when the summer grassroots circuit culminates in a massive, city-wide youth hoops exhibition that takes over Las Vegas for the better part of a week.

The refrains are usually the same: The kids aren’t learning basketball fundamentals, there’s no team play, the whole thing is just a seedy meat market for college coaches, etc. And there may even be some truth to those sentiments.

This year, however, the moralizing seems a little louder because LaVar Ball is involved, and everything is louder when it comes to him.

Ball’s act has drawn increased scrutiny to the world of AAU basketball in the last couple weeks, and not in a good way. His Big Baller Brand team — a program which he founded and coaches, and which his son LaMelo serves as the star and sole reason for existence — has been embroiled in a number of controversies, and most of them make it easy to portray grassroots hoops in a negative light.

First, he ordered his team off the floor and forfeited a game at a tournament last week because he disagreed with an official’s calls. Then he pulled a similar stunt at the Adidas Summer Championships at the Cashman Center on Friday, threatening to yank his team until Adidas spinelessly agreed to replace a female ref — in the middle of the game.

All of that stuff is embarrassing, but it would be lazy to paint all AAU coaches with a similar brush. The problem is, LaVar is already a hundred times more famous than anyone else coaching an AAU team, so he’s become the unofficial flag bearer.

And that’s not great for the sport, as Ball exaggerates the worst stereotypes about the AAU experience. He doesn’t seem to be coaching in any tangible, X’s and O’s kind of way. His team employs an ugly non-system that features LaMelo jacking up deep 3-pointers at the expense of ball movement. And the constant arguing with referees sets a childish example for the young men he’s supposedly leading.

Is AAU basketball perfect? No, of course not. But Ball seems to bring out the absolute worst in things. Like on the first night of the Adidas tournament, when his team squared off against SC Supreme and elite 2018 recruit Zion Williamson. It was one of the most anticipated summer games in years, drawing almost a million viewers on Facebook Live and packing in so many people courtside that the game was almost postponed due to crowd control issues.

And what did viewers get after all the hype? A sloppily played game by two teams that had no interest in anything other than catering to their star players. Another black eye for summer ball.

For people who want to stake out the moral high ground and complain about AAU, there are plenty of valid criticisms. But at its heart, the system does what it’s supposed to do.

It's not a competitive atmosphere, but that's beside the point. Most games don’t even require a scoreboard, that’s how little emphasis is placed on actually winning these tournaments. And the kids are more worried about padding their own stats than setting a good screen. But that’s what summer ball is — a chance to showcase your skills in front of college coaches who are looking for talent.

When high school season rolls around, the vast majority of these kids will toe the line and put winning first. But summer ball is about improving (and showing off) your individual skills, and the players love it. The elite squads play in a different city every week, and even though the kids are dead tired by the time Vegas rolls around to signal the end of the season, they still talk about how much they love the experience.

AAU ball serves its purpose. LaVar Ball just happens to make it easy to hate.

Obviously, Ball has problems with women. He has problems with coaches. He has problems with NBA stars. He has problems with his sons’ teammates. Follow the common thread, and you can pretty easily figure out where the real problem lies.

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.