The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) has been a breeding ground for young talent over the years. With over 700,000 members and 150,000 volunteers in 55 U.S. Districts, AAU lives up to its motto of “Sports For All, Forever”. But has this motto eventually led to the decline of quality as quantity takes over? At least, ex-NBA star Matt Barnes believes this to be true.

Appearing on a podcast episode of ‘Sloane Knows’, the 2017 NBA champion faced the question of how AAU has changed from his time to now when his two sons are playing in it. “The game, now there’s others very, very watered down. I think back when I was growing up, AAU was for the best kids and if you weren’t one of those top-tier kids, you would just kind of play in your local league,” Barnes replied.

He further stated how the situation has now come down to dads building new teams if their kids do not like what’s going on at AAU. He expressed that with different levels like bronze, platinum, gold, silver, AAU is now more about making money. However, the ex-NBA star states that he still loves the AAU and loves coaching his boys in it.

Notably, there has been an argument that AAU lacks strong, consistent, and full-time leadership. It has been a business organization run by volunteers. The treasurer, Ray Weakley, previously pointed out the flaw in the organization. “If we (the AAU) are going to survive, we’re going to need strong leadership,” said Weakley. And it’s not as if Matt Barnes is the first NBA star to point out the decline in the quality of AAU.

What do others have to say about the Amateur Athletic Union?

The ex-LA Lakers legend, Kobe Bryant, was a part of AAU once. In fact, a part of one of the strongest AAU teams. He believed that there is a reason behind European basketball players now being more skillful than American players; the difference, for him, could be blamed on the greed and coaching at the AAU level.

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“Horrible, terrible AAU basketball. It’s stupid. It doesn’t teach our kids how to play the game at all so you wind up having players that are big and they bring it up and they do all this fancy crap and they don’t know how to post. They don’t know the fundamentals of the game…” Kobe had stated, as per ESPN.

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Appearing on ‘BigBoyTV’, ex-LA Clippers star Baron Davis had also expressed his opinion on how the increasing number of teams in AAU have affected the quality over the years. “If there’s a thousand AAU teams in LA, how many teams are good? How good is the ecosystem of basketball being built in and around AAU basketball? And then you’re not teaching kids the discipline, the loyalty of ‘hey, you’re not good enough,'” he stated.

What is your opinion on the entire issue? Do you think that the AAU quality has declined over the years?

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