$74 is a lot of money for someone getting $600 a month with SSI.

Or someone working minimum wage with 3 kids.

I played in most of the city soccer leagues and little league when I was young. Demographics were almost all-white, despite there being a sizeable minority population in College Station.

Taking the family to a nice restaurant is a luxury that many people can't afford. Putting your kid in a basketball league is the same for many.

Sure. And if you lived in Haiti, then $20 would probably be beyond your rich. Or if you lived in Western China, $6 would be a deal-breaker.

But to characterize our league as a rich-kid league is funny. Feel free to call it a "middle-class" league if that makes you feel better.

Many of the local soccer and volleyball elite teams charge $700 per kid. Our b-ball league (and my assistant and I) goes the extra mile to keep costs down.

Call it whatever you want. The fact is when you are a have-not, everyone that is not a have-not is a "have". It's a dichotomous world for the poor.

Many have-nots cannot afford $74 for a basketball league. How many have-nots are in your league? Probably few if any.

The point is, at least in Texas, it would be folly to rate your kid based on a league or system that tended to exclude anyone below the middle class.

Your theory makes sense but I'm not sure that's how it happens in the real world. I guarantee you the next Lebron James that's in 6th grade right now is playing on an AAU team.

Amare Stoudemire didn't start playing until he was 14.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amare_Stoudemire

Hakeem Olajuwon didn't start until he was 15.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakeem_Olajuwon

I would take that bet. AAU leagues are a step above city leagues in terms of cost and availability.

Believe it or not, many 6th graders now in the NBA were playing on playgrounds and local park gyms as kids.

Maybe in white-bread Utah it is different.

LOL. Ya think?

Mike, it is fun to see how earnest you are about convincing us that Texas is different from Utah. I am not sure why you think we need convincing, but thanks anyway.

Check it out yourself.

http://www.aauboysbasketball.org/blue/index.asp

Star kids nowadays get identified early and get put on AAU teams no matter how poor they are. Exceptions are those that develop late or aren't interested in sports at young age.

Please don't accuse us white-bread Utahns of not understanding the world we live in. We have internet and TV out here in Utah. And sometimes those from outside the borders visit her and tell us how life is out there. Sometimes we even venture outside the borders.

One thing to consider is that in Utah, a lot of the kids that play super-league of any sport really aren't good enough to play at that level, but do so because their parents sponsor a team. Super-league is one of the most political youth activities out there.

You all see the world through the lens of the entitled and educated.

There is a whole different world outside of Happy Valley.

I was a national champion in the AAU. But I had no illusions that I was even top 20 in my state. Because I knew that AAU was just a thin slice of a very big pie.

National AAU champion of what?