Let’s just take a quick look at the best players in the NBA that are less than 30 years old, you have Jokic, Giannis, Luka, and Embiid in the top four and then you’re probably looking at Tatum, Brown, Ja, Zion, Ant and Trae to round out the top 10.

The top three and arguably top four are all either from Europe or Africa. And there’s really only one American player (Tatum) that’s arguably in the same tier in terms of value to an NBA team. None of this even mentions the fact that next season Wemby could possibly mean that not a single American player cracks the top 5 under 30 team for most of the season.

So that begs a few questions. What is going on here? Why are younger non-American players more successful within the upper echelon of the league compared to their under 30 American counterparts?

I will admit that as basketball and the NBA has gained a lot more global popularity in recent years, I would expect more top players to come from overseas rather than just America.

But I’m still concerned about what we’re doing with homegrown American talent. When it comes to great American players we’re going from having so many generational guys like Kobe, Lebron, Steph, KD, Kawhi to guys like Tatum, Ja and Zion. And right now it seems like these younger American players are very much behind their older millennial counterparts at the same stage.

So I have to wonder, are we doing something wrong without American talent?

I have two hypotheses as to what is going on and I concede that one or the other, both or even neither could be true, but I want to at least get the ball rolling.

First hypothesis is that the American development system has been deteriorating. Players like Austin Rivers have been very critical of AAU and what has become of it. I can definitely see this playing a part in why American players seem to be lagging behind.

The second hypothesis is that American culture or at least American youth basketball culture has bred an environment that produces players that are less “hungry” for maximum success leading to younger players coasting off of pure talent to get their bag rather than push their games to their absolute limits. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this one though.

But these are my thoughts what do y’all think?