Maybe it was a case of not being around to see enough of the drill stations, or any of the campers' down time in the gym. But, once again, the Nike and ABCD adidas camps were more about up-tempo, rip-and-run games than any work on fundamentals.

It's a shame, but a trend that will likely continue throughout the summer, unless the destination is the Five Star Camp in Pennsylvania or individual workouts. Otherwise, American players will continue to do what they do best -- just play.

When was the last time we saw guards simply working on Steve Alford's shooting drills, or any player standing at a free-throw line for more than a minute or two? As for a left-handed hook, layup or being able to dribble with their left hand? Well, unless it comes during the run of play, forget about it.

	“	We only see the cream of the crop and a lot of their kids aren't as sound fundamentally. If we take the best of the American kids and send them to Europe, then they'll say our kids are more skilled than their kids. What we're seeing is the best of what they have to offer. ”
		— Leonard Hamilton, Florida State head coach

Failing to work on fundamentals continues to put American players behind foreigners who are coming to the U.S. And they aren't being stopped at the border.

A record 17 players who were born outside of the United States were chosen in the 2002 NBA draft. Six foreign players who didn't play in the U.S. were selected in the first round. And, according to foreign scouts at the Shaw's Summer League in Boston this week, there will be even more foreigners declaring for the draft and getting into the first round in 2003, pushing American high school and college players not named LeBron James further down the draft board.

"Foreigners do have better skills," said New Jersey Nets wing Richard Jefferson. "Shooting became a lost art in the '90s. Everyone wanted to go to the hole, but if you look at the real successful team, they've had good outside shooters. Look at the guys coming over -- like (Vladimir) Radmanovic with Seattle, (Hedo) Turkoglu with the Kings and (Peja) Stojakovic. They are all great shooters.

"The reason a lot of Europeans are great shooters is that they spend time in the gym. And they're working on their skills. American players have a culture to battle."

College coaches watching the adidas all-star game last week in New Jersey said they would have rather seen players like Shaun Livingston out of Peoria, Ill., work on his shooting off a dribble, or see how point guard Darius Washington of Orlando did just catching and shooting. Instead, they got more games where one or two players dominated the game by taking the majority of shots. Brooklyn point Sebastian Telfair took 27 shots in 15 minutes, not exactly a true depiction of his skills.

In the end, college and NBA scouts would rather watch a European player's workout than see Telfair's selfish display during an AAU or camp game.

"It's not just fundamentals, it's maturity," Indiana coach Mike Davis said. "I played ball in Europe and those kids start off in seventh and eighth grade when they're in a professional program. They can go six or seven hours a day, where here playing four or five hours is out of the norm.

"When I played over there, I knew it would only be a matter of time before they caught up," Davis adds. "They'll never catch up from a standpoint of being a Michael Jordan and that type, but there are a lot of good players over there. They're hungry and want to make it bad in the worst way and the hungry person usually wins."

For these very reasons, scouts were enamored with 6-foot-11 Malick Badiane of Senegal and 6-11 Yi Jianlian of China at the adidas camp. Both showed advanced skills at shot-blocking and their touch around the basket, respectively. Two of the better players at the Nike camp weren't American born, either. Ndudi Ebi and Luol Deng may have been schooled in the U.S., but their drive and hunger, as Davis said, comes from a different land.

There is another view by some coaches, however, who say simply judging the foreign talent on summer camps, or the NBA draft, is skewed.

"We only see the cream of the crop and a lot of their kids aren't as sound fundamentally," said Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton, who saw even more foreign players during his limited stint as head coach of the Washington Wizards. "If we take the best of the American kids and send them to Europe, then they'll say our kids are more skilled than their kids.

"What we're seeing is the best of what they have to offer. There are a lot of players coming out of our system just as skilled, but these guys are ahead of some of ours."

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim is another college coach who is quick to defend the American way of youth basketball. Boeheim has coached for years against European, South American and Asian players with USA Basketball, and doesn't agree that foreign players have the book on fundamentals down, while American players are struggling to get through the first few chapters.

And, according to players like Kansas' Nick Collison and Aaron Miles, it's not even close comparing American players defensively, strength-wise and overall athletically.

Still, regardless of the point of view and competition between lands of basketball, American players need to focus on fundamentals, something that Alford said has become a lost art. His drills aren't being picked up as much and that's a concern for all of basketball, considering as the NBA draft goes more foreign and colleges continue produce fewer and fewer shooters.

Earlier early-entry date
The NBA players association isn't against it, neither is the NBA, but someone needs to bring the two parties together to make the early-entry deadline earlier. It would help the NBA teams, and more importantly, NCAA Division I programs.

What would need to be changed, however, is a rule governed under the collective bargaining agreement. As of now, the deadline to declare for the NBA draft has to be at least 45 days prior to the draft. That means it usually falls around May 13-15, with the draft held on the last Wednesday in June.

Dan Wasserman, the NBA Players Association spokesperson, said nobody from the NBA has approached the association about changing the date. But he said he didn't know why they would be opposed to it. Russ Granik, second in command at the NBA, said through spokesperson Tim Frank that NBA teams would want the date to be earlier so they could get a complete evaluation of players.

"If that's something the players want to change then they need to talk to us. In the past, it's not something that they have wanted to change," Frank said. "It works well in the NBA for some 25 years and we've had no problems with it."

The collective bargaining agreement runs for two more years, with an option for a third. But here's why the date should be changed when the CBA comes up for negotiations.

There is no reason to allow a Division I player two months, two months, to decide if he is going to enter the draft. The majority of Division I teams end their season in mid-March unless they're advancing to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. The longer this decision drags out, the more likely it can mess with a program for the following season. The majority of players who declare usually stay in the draft and waiting until early May makes it almost impossible for a coach to replace that player's position. Obviously, the coach isn't going to get a player of similar talent, but at least he could find another point guard or forward in the spring recruiting period, which usually ends around May 15. Auburn got burned when point guard Jamison Brewer declared for the draft on May 14, 2001, leaving the Tigers without a point guard. The Tigers ultimately struggled at the position this past season. College coaches were nearly unanimous during the recruiting period last week that the early-entry deadline should be moved into April. NBA teams are in full agreement.

If players did declare earlier, NBA teams would have more of an argument to bring back the early May draft camp in either Phoenix or Dallas after a one-year hiatus. That would allow the underclassmen to participate in a May event that could act as a tryout for Chicago, which would create of an elite-level gathering in Chicago. As it stands now, Chicago gets essentially everyone who declared for the draft, watering down the camp to a point where only a handful of players who were in the draft camp actually get drafted.

While changing the early-entry date may happen down the road, college coaches should forget about there being an age limit, or a three-year rule, that would prevent a player from declaring for the draft for three seasons once he has entered college. The NBAPA isn't going to agree to that stipulation. The NBA wants the NBAPA to make that change "for the good of the game," but the players association sees it as a way to hurt its players financially.

An 18-year old player who is drafted has four years under the rookie wage scale before he's eligible for a seven-year deal, which would take him to 29. He could then ink another seven-year deal of the maximum to take him to 36. But, a player like Shane Battier played four years at Duke and entered the league at 22. He will be 26 and 33 when he's eligible for the max deals. But would a team be willing to give him that second seven-year deall to 40? Plus, an over 36-year-old salary cap restriction makes a deal that takes a player to or over his 36th birthday almost impossible.

"The rookie wage scale was supposed to be a disincentive, but it has turned out to be the opposite," Wasserman said. "We would agree to a change in the wage scale that says if you stay four years in college then we'll take a year off the rookie scale. But the league doesn't want to hear about that."

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