Rick Pitino believes ‘too involved’ parents are problem for young American basketball players

Rick Pitino has his own thoughts on what the biggest detriment to American basketball players’ development is, and AAU isn’t at the top of his list. 

The St. John’s coach is looking at you, mom and dad. 

Pitino told Fox Sports Radio’s Colin Cowherd that he would “rather blame parents than AAU” when it comes to the discrepancy in development here in the United States and with international players. 

Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino reacts to a call during the second half of St. John’s 65-60 win over Seton Hall at the Garden earlier in the season. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post

“The easiest thing to do is blame the AAU system, and I’m not one of those people that do that,” Pitino told the radio host. “I would rather blame parents than AAU. I think parents today, are way too involved in their children’s careers as far as growing up. The parents need to just sit in the stands, enjoy the game and let the kids develop. And develop a love for the game. 20 years ago, I never dealt with parents.

“I’m very lucky, I’ve got parents that are disciplinarians, they get after their kids,” Pitino noted. “But the ones that aren’t, hurt much more than AAU. They want, ‘Okay, let’s go to a different school next year because you can get $300,000 more.’ No, let’s grind it out where you’re at and play for Tom Izzo and play for this person … because he’s gonna make you a terrific basketball player with discipline and character.”

The debate over the European style of developing players and how things are done in the United States has been at the forefront recently. 

Comments by Kevin Durant in February added another layer to the debate, with the NBA star pointing to a racial component. 

Rick Pitino reacts on the baseline during the second half of St. John’s win over Seton Hall at the Garden earlier in the season. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post

ESPN commentator and ex-NBAer Jay Williams did not agree with the racial aspect of Durant’s point, but did suggest that players had been saying for a long time that the way players in Europe are taught is quite different from how it is in the United States. 

“The thing that really bothered me ultimately about the comment is that we’ve heard American players talk about this for the longest time,” Williams said on ESPN. “Michael Jordan, Larry Bird. In 2015, Kobe Bryant literally said ‘European players are taught how to play the game the right way … in the U.S., we teach athleticism first. Over there, they teach skill and IQ first.’

“To me, Kobe never framed this as a racial or predominantly black thing, he never said European players were better, he was just saying the way they developed was different.”