Chauncey Billups is old -- 33, which by NBA standards borders on being a grandpa.
And like any old guy, he knows in his bones the current generation just doesn’t get it, how to play basketball the right way (like he does). Nobody is teaching these kids right. He told Mike and Scott on 104.3 the Fan in Denver as much.
The game is evolving somewhat, but that’s healthy. And it’s not really the fault of And 1, which is really just a logical extension of playground basketball and the parade of dunk highlights on SportsCenter nightly in an evolving media and entertainment landscape. It’s also not a shock that the youth want to do the fun thing and not practice the fundamentals, John Wooden fought the same fight (just ask Bill Walton), so did the man who taught Wooden the game. Naismith’s kids probably practiced trick shots first.
And yet, every generation, fundamentally sound players emerge in the NBA. They are plenty in the league now, although many of the younger ones come from Europe. But American born players evolve into those fundamental players that Billups loves. Kobe Bryant was a brash, gunning dunker, now he is as fundamentally solid as anyone in the league. And that is the pattern, guys learn. And the ones that learn best get rings.
Like Mr. Billups.