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3/26/2015

Sweet 16 musings

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It's been awesome to watch Gabe & Parker play such important roles for Arizona this season. Heading into the Sweet 16 this weekend the Wildcats are poised to march closer to the program's first Final Four in 14 years. A lot has changed since they lost to Duke in the 2001 Championship game - the program undoubtedly hardened by so many close calls in the ensuing years.

But Sean Miller has them back on the doorstep again - and time will tell if they have the strength to kick the door in. Gabe in particular has found his stroke at the right time - establishing himself as the team's most vital offensive weapon. The surge in his production coincides with some life changes he's made - most specifically by canceling his social media accounts.

We've written recently about Gabe's burgeoning maturity, and others have been lauding his new approach as well:

http://www.foxsports.com/arizona/story/unsung-york-instrumental-in-arizona-s-success-031615

The LA Times has taken notice of York City's evolution, too:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-arizona-gabe-york-orange-lutheran-ncaa-tournament-20150323-story.html

Here's hoping Gabe stays hot!

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3/16/2015

The NBA's True Minor League

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There has been a lot written lately about the NCAA's long-term viability, the various age-restriction proposals for the NBA's next Collective Bargaining Agreement, and the status of Amateur-ism in general. Super-agent Arn Tellem took to Grantland last week to pen his own thoughts on how to overhaul the NBA's Development League to more thoroughly develop young players:

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/d-league-deconstruction-the-necessary-plan-to-fix-the-nbas-farm-system/

The average NBA fan doesn't appreciate how influential power Agents like Tellum are inside NBA circles. Their power is wielded behind closed doors so the public doesn't get a chance to see them in action, but their fingerprints are all over every major move within the broader basketball landscape. From AAU to the NCAA to the NBA - Agents dictate the terms of the sport's most important conversations. For example – the age restriction is likely to be a key issue during the upcoming CBA, and you can be sure the Agents will fight hard to repeal the “1-year removed from High School” stipulation currently in place – and adopt an “over my dead body” stance on the owner’s initiative to increase the age minimum to 20 (or 2 years removed from high school). Why do they take this position? Because Agents don’t see any big commissions on a player’s first contract – the big payday arrives on their second deal. Power agents like Tellum are already busy maneuvering to make sure their clients (and their pockets) get to that 2nd contract as fast as possible.

Tellum makes some interesting points in his article, but in my mind he doesn't go far enough. For all the people who actually understand how significant agents are within the basketball ecosystem, even fewer appreciate AAU's role in it all. Yes - not every AAU star pans out to be an NBA stud. But the truth is AAU basketball consolidates America's best talent and aggregates it all onto various commercialized stages that are invite-only. If you're not playing on the big time AAU stage, entrée to the upper echelons of basketball opportunity is extremely difficult. The 'branding' of these kids begins as early as 14 and 15 – as soon as they choose a shoe company to play for. It only gets more complicated from there. Make no mistake - Agents are all over AAU basketball. And they should be – choosing an Agent is one of the most important decisions a professional athlete will ever make – and the NCAA provides only for a laughable 2-week period for early-entrants to meet, vet & sign with an agent. This is obviously a preposterous situation – and those in-the-know understand that these player-Agent relationships are cultivated as soon as these players establish market value (usually when they’re 15 or 16 years old).

This is yet another reason why AAU basketball, as presently constituted, is the NBA's real minor league. In my mind, AAU is where professional basketball truly begins in America, and agents like Tellum have played a big part in facilitating that reality. His thoughts are a step forward, but there's a deeper conversation to be had - a conversation our film takes head on. This is one of the many reasons I wanted to make ‘At All Costs’ – and I’m hopeful the film’s content will open a lot of people’s eyes.

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3/6/2015

AAU Never Stops

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"It's a lot easier being a drug dealer than an AAU coach - you know what you're dealing with every day when you're a dealer."

-Curtis Malone

I'm thinking a lot today about Sports Illustrated's profile of Curtis Malone - D.C. Assault's infamous (and now incarcerated) founder & CEO. The quote above comes from a phone interview Malone gave SI's Pete Thamel from jail.

Malone's story is obviously a tragic one - but this quote speaks volumes about the AAU lifestyle. Traveling around the country with the Compton Magic's Etop Udo-Ema gave me a first-hand feel for how dynamically unpredictable any given day is in AAU circles. There is no such thing as an "average day". Moreover, there is no off-season. Operating an elite AAU team has become a full-time, year-round enterprise for the biggest programs. Flourishing on that level requires such a dizzying array of skill-sets - and the range of different tasks on any given day is staggering. I'm excited to share "At All Costs" with the world for so many reasons, but in particular because of the inside-look the film provides at what it takes to run a top-flight AAU program.

If you're curious or missed it when it was originally published, you can read the whole Malone article here: http://www.si.com/college-basketball/2014/08/20/curtis-malone-aau-basketball-drug-arrest

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Sweet 16 musings

The NBA's True Minor League

AAU Never Stops

Mike Nicoll

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