Virtue Ethics in Youth Basketball by Darroll Lawson

Kobe Bryant recently issued a scathing unfavorable review on the current landscape of AAU youth basketball in the United States.  He said that "(AAU) doesn't teach our kids how to play the game at all, so you wind up having players that are big and they bring it up and they do all this fancy crap and they don't know how to post".  He went on to say that European youth basketball players are better trained in the fundamentals.

This belief isn't new and is shared by many in the elite coaching, training and player ranks.  Before Kobe's comment, Rick Pitino said  "The AAU coaches are putting together groups with talent to try and win tournaments.  I don't blame them.  They can't spend all that time (on fundamentals).  They don't have that time."  San Antonio Spurs head coach, Gregg Popovich famously gave the brutal assessment that foreign players are "fundamentally harder working than most American kids".  When you look at his roster, it should be no surprise that it reflects his considerable respect of the talents of European and other foreign born players.  Eight players on their 11-man 2014 Championship roster were foreign born players.

While I agree to some extent with the larger point being made by them and many others about the quality of team basketball, I think an important distinction has to be made between fundamental individual skill development and fundamental team basketball.  The former deals with the individual's orientation to the ball, the defender and the "bucket".   The latter deals with the individual's orientation to his team (players, coaches, and staff).  For example, I think Kobe or Pop (Popovich) would be hard pressed to assert that Kevin Durant, an AAU poster child, isn't a fundamentally sound individual basketball player.  Sure, his game is largely played outside of the paint and doesn't include the strong post play traditionally expected of a 7-footer; however, his ball handling, footwork, shooting, and body control are off the charts amazing for any player let alone one of his height.  He's arguably the most fundamentally sound 7-foot ball handler and shooter the game has ever seen.  I'll take him in 1-1 verse Kareem, Ewing, Wilt and many other old school legendary big man from yesteryear.


Kyrie Irving is another US/AAU product whose ball handling skills and footwork are absolutely dazzling.  Even Isaiah Thomas (whom I consider one of the top five best point guards all-time) said he thought in his prime, he wasn't as good a ball handler as Kyrie Irving.  But, here's the distinction.  While these players represent a brood of former AAU players that are talented young NBA and rising NBA stars with mind-blowing individual skills, they aren't the players driving their teams to NBA championships.  Rather, it's the Tony Parkers, the Tim Duncans, the Manu Ginobilis, the Dwayne Wades, the LeBron James', the Dirk Nowitzkis, the Chauncy Billups', Rip Hamiltons, etc.  It's players who understand how to play team ball.  These are players who understand what it means to play for each other opposed to playing with each other.  These are players who give up isolation and one-on-five play in favor of ball movement.  These are players who give up good shots for better shots.  They understand that the most fundamental aspect of basketball is that it's a team sport.  In fact, without exception, team play is the most significant driver behind winning championships in the NBA.  Head Coach Mike Budenholzer of the Atlanta Hawks is a glowing example of how teaching team "we-first" basketball can transform players, a team and an organization in a me-first "There's no 'I' in team but there's an 'I' in win" generation.

This brings me to the philosophy of sports.  Over centuries, philosophers have debated the utility of sport.  Many prominent philosophers like Johan Huizinga and Homo Ludens consider sport the intersection of play and cultural ethics (values).  These ethics can be divided into three categories: Consequentialism, deontology, and virtue theory.  Consequentialists says actions are purely to be judged by their consequences.  Here, the ends justify the means.  For example, regardless of whether teammates are alienated and disjointed if a player takes 38 shots in a game (Kobe Bryant), if the team wins, then this behavior is justified.  The deontologist disagrees.  For them, the justification for taking 70% of your team's shots cannot merely be assessed by whether or not the team wins.

Our third category is virtue theory.  It emphasizes character.  The central concepts of this theory are virtue and living the good life (playing the good game) by living (playing) the right way.  The emphasis is about developing character traits.  Philosophically, sports should mirror the values and character traits we uphold in society.  Things like courage, empathy, family, sharing, support, loyalty. Standing up and enduring obstacles for the betterment of the group.  All of these things are fundamental to developing good citizens, good teammates, and winning basketball.  As youth coaches, its our charge to use sport to drive home the values that improve civilization.  We are to utilize sports to teach these young boys and girls how to grow up to be less entitled and to work for their "keep" (in basketball terms, "earn your burn").  We want to use sport to teach them how to be better husbands, wives, employees, owners, neighbors and citizens.  We are to use sport to reorient ourselves to (and to transform) the permutations, the ups and downs and downright sometimes cruel and harsh nature of the world  (game) we live in.  These are the fundamentals that are missing in basketball.  Going for the win at all costs neglects the holistic development of the player (most of whom will never set foot on a college, let alone, pro basketball court as a player).  Team play is a virtue that resonates with all of us.  Individual isolation plays and skill has its moments, but team play   (screens, making the extra pass to an open teammate, making your teammate better, dribble drive, movement, playing defense and providing help defense for your teammate, etc.) is playing the right way.  In the end the lone wolf dies.  It's the wolves that run in packs that maximize their survival outcomes.