The return of spring and summer travel basketball in NYC has brought a sigh of relief to players that lost hope during the two-year COVID-19 stoppage. But the return has also brought back a quick fix meal of team’s, with fast-food players.

The return of NIKE EYBL Peach Jam has brought out the best in a few teams and revealed others. AAU Basketball gets a bad rap in general from the outside looking in, but the spotlight needs to be on the foundation.

PEACH JAM RESULTS:

17 U Teams: 5-0 City Rocks, 2-3 NY Renaissance, 2-3 NH Lightning, 1-4 PSA Cardinals.

16U Team: 3-1 NY Renaissance, 2-2 PSA Cardinals.

15U Team: 1-3 NY Renaissance

When the final eight bracket for 17U appeared, the last standing team was the upstate NY team City Rocks, they were crushed in the quarter finals by 16 points. The 16U NY Renaissance were New York’s last chance at a title and they closed out Peach Jam with a nine-point loss.

There was a common thread this summer with the NIKE EYBL teams, and other NY teams on different circuits. The teams were comprised of players not from NY, and some players should have played up not down. The culture of NYC travel basketball has sadly become a system that values winning over everything. There is a huge reason so many films, books, and other places outside of New York have become so good at basketball they copied the original NYC blueprint.

New York Teams need to return to the foundation, source New York talent and just cut out the fast-food basketball.