Forgotten Kevin Durant Story on AAU & Skill Development

I love the story about KD in high school as one of the top prospects, but he did something a little different. He did not play as much AAU or travel ball, instead his mom & brothers locked him a gym to work on his guard skills. I remember a couple of interviews where KD says he does not think he would've been the same player as basically a 7-foot guard without those years of development instead of playing a ton of AAU.

His older brothers were basically his trainers, they would spend hours in the gym working on his shot & playing like a guard. They were very protective of him but also the false narrative that KD should be a post player because of his size. I love the story about his mom standing at the top of a hill yelling & motivating him as he did hill sprints on weekends instead of playing in tourneys. Now of course KD played in AAU but the point is what did he focus on the most in those development years?

What are your thoughts on this & what you all are seeing in your area? How much focus should there be on playing, travel ball, club/aau vs. training/practicing?

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