Rick Pitino has his own thoughts on what the biggest detriment to American basketball players’ development is, and AAU isn’t at the top of his list.
The St. John’s coach is looking at you, mom and dad.
Pitino told Fox Sports Radio’s Colin Cowherd that he would “rather blame parents than AAU” when it comes to the discrepancy in development here in the United States and with international players.
“The easiest thing to do is blame the AAU system, and I’m not one of those people that do that,” Pitino told the radio host. “I would rather blame parents than AAU. I think parents today, are way too involved in their children’s careers as far as growing up. The parents need to just sit in the stands, enjoy the game and let the kids develop. And develop a love for the game. 20 years ago, I never dealt with parents.
“I’m very lucky, I’ve got parents that are disciplinarians, they get after their kids,” Pitino noted. “But the ones that aren’t, hurt much more than AAU. They want, ‘Okay, let’s go to a different school next year because you can get $300,000 more.’ No, let’s grind it out where you’re at and play for Tom Izzo and play for this person … because he’s gonna make you a terrific basketball player with discipline and character.”
