First, let me say I have nothing against playing AAU basketball. I think it serves its purpose but only starting at certainn ages. We were in Memphis TN. for the AAU 13U Nationals. This is when I found out the 8u were also having their nationals. C'mon! 8 and 9 year old kids playing! But wait a minute! My youngest son stated playing at 9 years old. Yep, we all can get caught up in the hype. But I like to think my intentions were different than most parents. My kid was shy and I wanted him to get out of his shyness and I knew playing ball outside of his surroundings would helpp him, plus I wanted to see just how good he was with kids his age. Okay! Okay! I got caught up in all th AAU hype. I saw the skill level was low but I told myself I wanted my son to get out of his shyness. man, I enjoyed coming back to the town I live in and people asking me about AAU ball. After 3 years, it's a lot of hype. A lot of these kids need to be playing at the local YMCA and learning the game. Or even better, playing a lot of 3v3 or 2v2; oh hell, even 1v1.

Now don't get me wrong, I saw some ballers in those three years, but they are far and in between. Plus, I saw too many so-called coaches who didn't know how to coach. I'm a believer that the 9th grade is improtant to play summer ball, not AAU, which to me is different. But more on that later.