Luka went crazy last night, and, like clockwork, coaches in the United States began denigrating basketball in the United States, while romancing the development system in Europe. The exact differences between the USA and Europe are rarely, if ever, articulated, and instead, these diatribes usually end with something vague about fundamentals, too many games, AAU, or simply disparaging an entire generation of student-athletes for not being... something.
The first problem is Europe or European development is not one thing or universal. Every European country uses FIBA rules for the games, and the FIBA calendar for scheduling, but every country, and even each club within a country, is different. Philosophies, structures, and coaches vary, just as basketball is not the same in California, Texas, and New England. Some clubs value development; some do not. Some coaches are good; some are not. There is not one universal "European development".
The greatest consistency, of course, is the club-based system, typically with clubs operating teams from youth through adult, as opposed to a school-based system or the current combination model in the United States. Some clubs have professional teams at the top, whereas others play in lower division adult leagues, but most clubs sponsor numerous teams to cover all or most age groups. There are, of course, exceptions, and some clubs may serve only youth players and send the talented few to other adult/professional clubs when they are ready, or occasionally a club may focus on adults, signing players to a professional or semi-professional contracts when they are ready for that level of competition.
The advantage of the club system is all aspects of a player's development occur in-house: The team's head coach, skill development coach, strength & conditioning coach, physio, and more work for the club, and the club manages the schedule for the players. The various coaches work together for the good of the club and the players. Of course, the disadvantage is when one of these is subpar or plays favorites, and the player is stuck.
Development differs. Some players develop within one club from u8 through adult basketball. Other clubs recruit heavily, signing players between 14 and 18 years old for their academies. Some countries, such as Finland, use a national academy for their elite teenagers. Large professional clubs, such as Real Madrid, do extensive testing, especially to measure for future height, before signing elite players; other clubs simply sign whomever looks like a potential professional player. The flipside is true too, as players often are passed over once a club decides the player will not have a national team or professional career; they promote the next potential player, and players get lost in the system or must transfer in the summer, potentially having to move to a new city to find a new club to play youth basketball.
Players are registered to a club for a year, which restricts movement. A player who does not like his coach or is not favored by his coach is stuck, at least until the summer. This keeps teams together, but also potentially limits players when their skills or talents do not fit the coach's style of expectations. Or, for instance, we had 5 point guards last season, each of which had the potential to make the national team for their age group. How does one maximize the development of 5 point guards simultaneously?
Other major differences between Europe and the United States include the rules. These are my experiences. They are fairly consistent within FIBA, but there is some variance from country to country.
Youth teams use the same 3-point line, shot clock, and basket height as professionals from 12 years of age and up. Before players play 5v5, they play a 4-minute game and use a 24-second shot clock.
U12s play 4v4 with mandatory playing time. Players limited to 2 quarters of action, and everyone plays. Presses are allowed in second half, I believe.
U13s play 5v5, but no screens or zone defense.
U14s move to size 6 ball.
U15 boys move to the size 7 ball.
U16s allow zones in 1st half, but not 2nd half.
Teams roster only 12 players each game, but more than 12 players can be on a team. We had 15 players on our U16 team, but rarely had to make decisions on who to roster because of injuries, illnesses, school trips, vacations, and more.
Players play in multiple competitions and multiple age groups. My U16s played U16 Cup, U16 Domestic League, U16 European League, U18 Cup, and U18 Domestic League. My U18s played U18 Cup, U18 Domestic League, U20 European League, Men's domestic league (1stand/or 2ndDivision and/or pro team), and Men's national cup.
Players are limited to a certain number of games per year, although there were some exceptions, such as playoffs.
U16s: +/- 60
U18s: +/- 65
I believe we played 72 games, and I imagine every player played in a minimum of 40 games and a maximum of 65.
Games with the national team do not count, which could add another 15-20 additional games between the international breaks, holiday camps/cups, and summer qualifications, friendlies, and championships.
Non-professional teams often take off 2 full weeks at Christmas, as junior national teams often have training camps and games between Christmas and New Year's. Professional teams have international breaks within the season. Summer is for national team practices and competitions. Our U16 and U18 seasons went from mid-August to late May. Our men's league went from September through April. National team camps for U16s and U18s occurred in late December and started again with June, leading up to games in late July and early August.
Many clubs use gyms at a local high school or middle school or the community's recreation center. Few clubs have complete control of their own facilities, and these are mostly the elite professional clubs. Generally, clubs share a court with the community's volleyball, floor hockey, team handball, badminton teams, and more. Just as basketball clubs have teams of all ages, these other sports are the same. Each team and each sport fights for the gym time, which often starts around 3 PM when school ends and may extend until 10 PM or even later.
My professional team uses a high school's gym this year, and our morning workouts are subject to the school's P.E. curriculum and classes. Whenever they need/want the gym, we have to be out of the gym. One evening per week, we have a short practice because men's floor hockey has practice between youth basketball and our professional team. This idea European clubs have 24-hour access to courts is a giant misconception. One reason some European players look to USA prep schools and colleges is because they want more access to basketball courts and weight rooms. For several players I recruited, it was their first question about our college. Players who have played in the States and returned to play professionally in Europe have told me the opportunity to train more in the United States was a big attractor for them.
What are the other advantages, in terms of development?
Finances. When players leave a club for another club, or a player signs a professional contract, or a player plays for a national team, or a player joins the national academy, the home club is compensated for developing that player. As an example, last season, when a player signed with the national academy, our club received 1-2000 Euros; not a lot of money, but that's one player for one year.
In another country, when a 17- or 18-year-old signs a professional contract with another club, his youth club gets between 1 and 10,000 Euros per year that he plays, depending on the level/division of his contract. A 10-year career at the highest level could deliver the youth club 100,000 Euros! Clubs are rewarded financially for developing players, whereas in the United States, AAU, high school, or college teams and coaches are not rewarded directly for developing national team or professional players. In the United States, financial rewards are exclusively based on win-loss record. The emphasis changes when the financial rewards are based around player development in terms of national team and professional players (future-oriented) as opposed to immediate won-loss records.
Players develop with a shot clock and with longer (40-minute) games. There are more possessions per game for youth players than for high school players. With similar number of games, players receive many more game repetitions.
Games are meaningful - league, cup, playoffs - but coaches generally do not coach like the result is the only thing (future-oriented). Players generally play in every game for which they are on the roster, even when not mandated by rules. There may be a preseason tournament or friendly games, but most games directly affect winning a trophy, either through advancing in the cup or playoff seeding in the league. Of our 72 games, 5 were in a preseason tournament that was more for fun and preparation. The other 67 games directly affected winning a trophy in some form: Qualification, seeding, or avoiding elimination.
National teams. Youth clubs often are viewed as developing players for the national teams, in addition to developing future professional players for the club. Playing during Christmas break and the summer with the national teams is a major goal for many players, coaches, and clubs, especially when the clubs earn money for each player who plays. After the holiday break, the national team coaches shared their impressions of the players in the pool and the team has a hole, in addition to the things that he felt the team needed. We tried to develop or emphasize those things that the coach wanted to give our players the best possible preparation for the tryout camp. We wanted to put 8 guys on the NT team; we ended up with 6 and likely would have had 7 if he was healthy, and I still maintain #8 was our 3rd best player at the end of the season and deserved a chance to try out, but the coach had largely made up his mind.
Registration system. Each player, coach and club registers with the federation, which allows for payments and tracking players and coaches. The system tracks every game played by a player at every age group and competition. This also prevents players from playing for different clubs. A club may loan a player to another club; for instance, we added a player from another club for one stage of the European league. However, to change to a new club midseason requires the original club and the federation to agree to the change. This is mainly positive, as the federation tacks players and teams, which prevents playing too many games and also organizes the initial seeding tournament at the beginning of the season. A coach dismissed for improper behaviors cannot simply move to a new city to take a new job, as he has a license through the federation. The registration system also establishes who is due payments when a player signs. Of course, the negative is players cannot move freely if they have a problem with a coach or club. Some good players were overlooked or nearly quit because of one coaching situation. No system is perfect.
Coach pathways. When you listen to many top European coaches (Andrea Trinchieri, Dimitrios Itoudis, Ettore Messina, and others), they reached the top after coaching at various lower levels, including youth teams. Often, they started at young ages with youth teams and progressed step by step as head coaches, whereas few college or NBA coaches coached youth basketball or worked up the development ladder one step at a time. Of course, there are some, as there are thousands and thousands of past and current NBA and college coaches, but the general pathway is to be a player (or maybe a team manager), get hired as a video coordinator or director of basketball and move up at the same level from DOB to Assistant Coach to Recruiting Coordinator to Associate Head Coach to Head Coach.
Meanwhile, the future EuroLeague head coaches are currently coaching 12-year-olds, gaining head coaching experience and education, and also potentially giving the 12-year-olds a better experience. The pathway emphasizes the importance of the entire club and entire system, from youth to professional, whereas the tweets of many college and NBA coaches suggest youth and high-school coaches are beneath them, despite many having years more experience and success in an arguably much more difficult job. How would the development system change if the Head Coach of the 2031-32 Duke University or Los Angeles Lakers/Sparks was currently the head coach of a middle school team in Durham, NC or Los Angeles?
When coaches in the U.S. discuss their European ideals, I'm not sure which part of these changes they want to see. The easiest changes would be to adopt FIBA game rules, but there remains large resistance to a 24-second shot clock for varsity teams, not to mention U12s! The shot clock is only one thing; what about longer games, no live-ball timeouts, changes in ball sizes, no screens, and more?
The larger changes are systemic, and few people seem to have the stomach for large scale changes such as a true registration system with financial rewards. Ultimately, large professional clubs can pay youth coaches because they share their revenue. In the United States, NBA franchise values, NBA max contracts, and NCAA coach salaries continue to skyrocket because the NBA and NCAA TV money stays with NBA franchises and NCAA universities rather than supporting the youth programs and coaches who develop the talent that generate the massive sums of cash.
We worry about youth players being priced out of playing youth sports, while NBA franchises sell for $4-billion. The difference between the United States and Europe is not some magic drills or better coaches or coaching licenses or facilities or number of games. The differences are the rules of the game, the coaches' pathways, influence of national teams, and the financial rewards.
