Fran Fraschilla, a former college basketball coach who broadcast the FIBA World Championships for ESPN, gives this terrific, simple breakdown of the difference between basketball as played in America today vs. basketball played around the world:
Hubie Brown, Dean Smith, Dr. Jack Ramsay and other American coaches imported the game world-wide and it is obvious that many of the coaches at those clinics were paying attention. That's why I laugh when I hear that we have to get used to the "international game."
The international game of smart play, unselfishness, good ball movement used to be our game. These coaches have taken what they have learned through the years and "built a better mousetrap."
In America, at all levels, coaches are less concerned about the execution of the fundamentals and more worried about baby-sitting big egos. If a college coach gets a few McDonald's All-Americans to just play hard, he is considered a great coach. If an NBA coach can keep a locker room of millionaires from each others' throats for an entire year, he has a chance to be successful.
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