Austin Rivers, guard for the Minnesota Timberwolves with 10 seasons of experience in the NBAwas the protagonist of the last podcast of The Ringer and left very interesting reflections on the state of things in current basketball. The message from him more shared and commented on social media was the fierce criticism of what he calls the culture of the highlights (outstanding moments), to the detriment of training basketball and the enjoyment of the game in its most complete definition.
The player, son of coach Doc Rivers, was against the proliferation of best moments videos in the lower categories of basketball, and commented on the case of parents who pay a cameraman to capture any basket of the smallest in the house. Nico Batum and other league partners agreed with their colleague’s vision.
Here is his full interesting message:
“The little things that make up basketball have been forgotten and are not appreciated.. It is a domino effect that is even seen in statistics and numbers. There are guys who don’t get paid despite the value they bring to the court, but rather what the kids think is cool. I’ll try to put it mildly, because this bothers me a lot and I talk about it all the time.”
“When I played in high school, they only made you a highlight video if you were the elite between the elite. Back then you had to work, be consistent, and build a name for yourself to get that kind of attention. It was an honor to have a highlights video. But nobody played so that they made a video, they did not enter a game to try to get on the tape. I was going to the game to win and to be myself. If they were there it was because they wanted to, not because I had asked them to.”.
“I did not pay anything to Ballislife o Hoopsmixtape, not a dollar They followed me because he was the guy to follow. They followed Bradley Beal because he was the guy to follow. That’s how things worked. The landscape has changed now. Parents pay these people to record their children. Everyone has their best moments video. People touch their heads when they dunk over another. All is highlight after highlight. Kids only see highlights, they don’t see an entire basketball game anymore, the purity of the whole game.”
“Making a hockey pass, which means making the correct pass even if they don’t give you the assist, because they are working so that someone else can make the correct play that ends in a basket. Throw yourself to the ground, defend, defend in any of its forms. Take good shots, facilitate the game, be efficient with the ball. Scoring after one or two dribbles instead of 50. I’ve mentioned like 12 things out of the 50s that are essential, and they’ve all been forgotten in today’s basketball. You can see it in some of the kids who make it to the NBA. I won’t say names, they come into the league with all the talent in the world, but they have to learn how to play basketball, because this is what we have reduced it to. basketball today is highlight after highlight. Highlight culture has killed basketball as a sport“.
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