Let's preface this post with an acknowledgement of a strong undertone of stereotype. Americans are selfish, greedy, conservative, success driven, etc. Foreigners are compassionate, unselfish, progressive, process driven, etc. I'm not sure whether or not these stereotypes, which I will lean on to support this argument, are true or false. I am sure that I am going to lean on them to some extent to support my argument. Just so you know, I am aware. You are now aware too.
Can American born players play the game of basketball as unselfishly as foreign born players?
This question arose after the NBA Finals in which the cosmopolitan, foreign-born Spurs undressed the American-born Heat. The Spurs put on a clinic. Actually, no clinic has ever been able to match what the Spurs did. I've never seen that before. The unselfishness wasn't human. It certainly wasn't American.
We Americans have been beaten over the head with the need for the superstar. To win in basketball you need a killer. You need MJ. Basketball has recently been viewed as a sport in which every team is only one player away; as long as that player is the man, a beast, a dude, a killer, like Mike, Magic, Bird, Lebron, Kobe, Shaq and others have been. The Spurs showed that if the basketball moves (Pop: "it moves or you die") on time and with a purpose that you don't have to constantly isolate your best player, ball screen your two best players and be up against the clock on every possession. I think our love of the superstar has created this ball-in-hand culture. The American born player has no knowledge of, or use for, the hockey assist. If it doesn't show up in a box score and lead to a scholarship or paycheck what good is it? If I control the ball, I control the box score. If what we want is superstars, then we are going to have to live with unspectacular players thinking they are spectacular.
Another American phenomenon is AAU basketball and/or sport specialization. (Full disclosure: I don't know how comparable other countries youth programs and sports specialization are to ours - if I were paid to write stuff like this I'd research, interview, etc. I'm not so I didn't) The issue with AAU basketball is that it is just more of the same basketball, a further reinforcement of selfish basketball. The bigger issue is with sport specialization. We shelter our youth from failure, from humility, from the backbone of selflessness. We eliminate the sports in which they are merely role players and focus on the sports in which they are stars. This may be our nations greatest sports error. Basketball players should play baseball (or hike, bike, paddle, swim, run) in the summer. They should play football or soccer or whatever in the fall. They should play basketball in the winter. They should practice basketball in between. We are insulating our youth from failure and in turn creating selfish wanna-be superstars that put themselves before the team because we put them before the team.
This is a first draft. I'd love to hear from anyone that reads this. Am I on to something? Eventually I will, or at least should, look further into the foreign side of this topic (scary thought - the world is a big place). I'm intrigued to know if the reason that the Spurs can play like that is because they are unselfish, well coached and talented or if it is because they are unselfish, well coached, talented and foreign.
Can America idolize the superstar and produce unselfish athletes? I hope so but I think no.
