Basics training

European invasion has prep stars focusing on fundamentals

NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. -- A few years ago, a high school phenom like LaMarcus Aldridge, a 6-foot-11 center/forward from Dallas, might have wreaked havoc on the basketball camp scene, dunking over anybody who dared step in his path. Not this summer. Instead, Aldridge is working on his ball handling skills, adding range to his deft jumper, mirroring his game after -- get this, streetballers -- Dirk Nowitzki.

Aldridge and top players like burly 6-9 Al Jefferson, an Arkansas commit from Prentiss, Miss., are broadening their game here at the Nike Peach Jam, which brings together the country’s elite AAU travel teams. At a rival Adidas ABCD Camp last week in New Jersey, officials borrowed a page from the European book and drilled hotshot invitees on the basics for more than two hours every morning.

Basics? What in the name of Darryl Dawkins is happening? Well, after an embarrassing run on foreign talent in recent NBA drafts, the message that fundamentals honed by repetitive training count for something is finally hitting home.

It used to be that folks worried about a run on teenagers bypassing college for the NBA, following the path of Tracy McGrady and Kobe Bryant. But in the pro basketball drafts since 2000, more than four times as many foreigners have been selected as American high school players -- 49 to 11. And in a lot of cases we’re talking two groups that are about the same age.

“This is a sign that we have to work hard like they work hard overseas," says Aldridge, who has committed to Texas. “Overseas, they work on their weaknesses. Over here, all we do is work on our strengths. That’s changed me, because I am not one-dimensional anymore. I show you I can dribble and I can shoot. I’m not just big man who is under the goal.

“There’s no big man anymore. They can dribble. They can shoot. Dirk can play the two-position [big guard] and the three [small forward]. So I got to think like that, so I can improve my game."

Where a lot of this development comes is under the auspices of the shoe giants -- Nike and Adidas. The elite kids commit to one or the other’s camp and play for one of their sponsored summer travel teams.

In the hoops culture, a top player may be earmarked a Nike or Adidas kid by his early teens, certainly by his senior year of high school. It’s worth noting, however, that LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony came up through the Adidas ranks, only to recently sign multimillion-dollar deals with rival Nike.

Jefferson, who already projects as an NBA player someday, is so strongly committed to Nike that he turned down a chance to play this summer for USA Basketball’s junior national team. He could have been in Thessaloniki, Greece, playing in the under-20 world championships. Instead, Jefferson came here with the rest of the Jackson Tigers.

“I gave my word to Nike," said Jefferson, admitting it was a tough decision. “Once I give my word, I’m the type of person who tries to hold onto it."

Then again, the shoe company-sponsored events are the places to be during the summer, not floating around the Greek Islands. The players don’t build their resumes beating Bolivia in some far-off place. Here, they play two games a day in front of Tubby Smith, Roy Williams and most every name college coach in America. Reputations are enhanced. Scholarships are won.

And, in some cases, the foreign competition is brought to them.

At Adidas’ camp last week, nine foreign exchange students participated. Camp founder Sonny Vaccaro plans to invite at least 20 players from Europe and overseas next summer. Vaccaro instituted morning skill stations at this year’s camp and found 19 NBA assistants eager to run them.

“This is what the European kids do every day," says Vaccaro, the dean of summer camps. “They don’t just go scrimmage up and down the court, playing AAU ball. They train and workout. And they do drills and do them and do them.

“We used to say, ‘Well, European kids are programmed. They do everything by sequence.’ But it is not the worst thing in the world to know what you are doing out there."

As the foreign players keep coming, in greater numbers every draft it seems, the lessons are slowly being learned. But the message apparently bears repeating, especially, as in last month’s NBA draft, when 20 of the 58 players selected came from overseas.

“These kids in Europe are for real," Vaccaro says. “Just because you can’t pronounce their names don’t think they can’t play basketball. And I think what’s happening [in the draft] is a great motivating tool for these kids. They are ignorant. And then they make fun of these guys on draft night. But they don’t know how good they are."

Still, they seem to be learning.

Mike Fish is a senior writer for SI.com.

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