Scoop B Radio Earl ‘The Pearl’ Monroe on AAU Basketball
Earl Monroe talks to Scoop B, saying about AAU Basketball: “You got everybody that is basically a forward or a guard.”
Four time NBA All Star, NBA Champion and the league’s 50 Greatest Players, Earl ‘The Pearl’ Monroe chatted with me on the Scoop B Radio Podcast this week.
During our interview we talked about the state of the Knicks and international basketball. Many of today’s players grew up watching players in the 80s and the 90s and emulate what they see.
Check Out Earl ‘The Pearl’ Monroe on Scoop B Radio
‘The Pearl’ notices: “I think that you know it bodes well for those guys in my era and before who played a game in a way that influenced the guys today,” he told me on Scoop B Radio.
“When you see the European that are coming over and play today in the league you see a lot of the things that we used to do. I think that they are more adverse in fundamentals is concerned and the guys here obviously you know we have had opportunity to see TV and we emulate more than learn but at the same time we all raise at the spectrum of what the game is right now it being a global sport and we all need to be happy about that.”
Monroe also discussed a battery of other topics on the Scoop B Radio podcast like his view on AAU basketball, which is significant. Retired NBA player, Kobe Bryant, who entered the NBA straight out of high school expressed his displeasure with AAU basketball stating: “I hate it because it doesn’t teach our players how to play the right way, how to think the game, how to play in combinations of threes.”
Monroe’s sentiments were similar:
“You know I always thought American basketball was strong. I felt as the game started here and I never really felt as though we should have pros play at the Olympics but be that as it may AAU you know takes guys and they really use the talent of the guys as opposed to teaching the guys. Its interesting that you find today that you see a team like the Knicks and [last season] Coach Fisher talks about teaching guys things at the pro level. So that leads you to believe that as guys come up from junior high or high school or what not they are not getting the same type of teaching as we got coming up and I know Kobe might be a little right in what he says but the same time the game has changed. It has gotten faster you don’t have centers the way you used to you got everybody that is basically a forward or a guard today so you know the scope of basketball is a lot different and obviously everything has to change.”
