The case against building a basketball factory

By Marc Isenberg

Sports agent Arn Tellem wrote an excellent article on the why the NBA and NCAA should not support a national basketball academy, modeled after the IMG Academies in Florida.

I agree 100% with his comments, especially in concept. Unfortunately, reality appears to be leading us down a different path. Sports have become so overdone at virtually every level that we lose sight of what's really important, which is educating the masses, not catering to a select few.

Arn's article reminded me of a series the LA Times ran on youth sports in 2000.

The three articles conveyed the passion that pushes parents to spend these huge sums to make their precious children bigger, faster, stronger. And the pain they -- and their children -- endure when their investment of time, energy, emotion, and cash produces results opposite from those intended.

Some lowlights from the 2000 L.A. Times series:

•    Many parents spend over $100,000 per child on special coaching, fitness training, sports psychologists, fees to private leagues and teams, transportation, and other expenses, largely to attract college coaches and scouts. Often the child does not win—or keep—an athletic scholarship, and that money is no longer available to pay college tuition.
•    Even some of the coaches, league administrators, and others who benefit from this spending question its excessive nature. Michael Severson, administrator of Bobby Sox Fastpitch Softball on the West Coast, says “People are losing sight of what’s important in life. . . . It’s not fun anymore.”
•    The struggle for the edge, with its increase in the frequency and intensity of practices and games, has caused an upsurge in youth sports injuries.

This "keeping sports in its proper perspective" sounds nice, but it hardly jibes with the unfortunate reality (some would say national disaster) that USA Basketball is declining. (Even if our country's basketball "decline" can be better explained by the fact that the rest of the world is improving.)

The prospect of not winning the Olympics along with giving up coveted NBA roster spots to Europeans probably means that the warnings of Arn and even NCAA president Myles Brand will go unheeded.

If youngsters in other countries are being plucked out of school at young ages to focus exclusively on basketball, should the United States say, well, we'd like to compete, but education must come before first? There's a greater force at play than ensuring our kids get a proper education. As an old Nike ad said, "You don't win silver, you lose gold." Let the games ground breaking begin.

Thoughts?

Comments

[Jeff Fellenzer]

I agree with you and Mr. Tellem. I don't like the idea of these European-like sports academies surfacing in our country. They are too elitist and send the wrong message about the value of a balanced life. They take kids out of their natural environments and normal development--athletically, academically and socially--at a young age, based on the fact that they are different and extra special as athletes.

[andy fine]

What are you going to do, ban these things? If there is demand, and a market for these factories, they will exist, as they have in tennis for decades. They already exist anyway with schools like Mt Zion, Maine Central Institute, and Oak Hill. Right?