Kobe calls out the state of amateur basketball

Kobe isn't happy with the state of play:

Trip home stirs Bryant’s nostalgia
Adrian Wojnarowski
Yahoo! Sports
December 16, 2010

On the Los Angeles Lakers’ preseason trip to Barcelona, Kobe Bryant(notes) watched the young kids with a basketball and marveled over the differences in the development of too many players in the States.

“Every single one, it seemed – the 8-year-old, the 9-year-olds – go left and they go right,” Bryant told Yahoo! Sports recently. “The older ones shoot the jump hook with the left, and they shoot the jump hook with the right. You’ve got bigger kids who can shoot from the outside, who can handle the ball and play. A lot of young players that look like [Pau] Gasol, who are just so skilled.

“And now, you’ve got kids here in the States, 20 years old, who can’t do those things. Damn, you’ve got max players who can’t do that...”

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