Should we assume our beloved game of basketball is immune to the ever-evolving, situation-ethic nature of 21^st century life? Of course not. So, it’s time we review the “new fundamentals” of the game in the context of the “old school” tried and true methods that so many of us were weaned on.

Even a cursory look reveals the flashy new fundamentals that have come to rule the game – for better or for worse – modifying, if not supplanting, many old traditions. The salient question is “Can the virtues of each blend, co-existing, to make change the bellwether of an improving game?”

Actions that would have earned players a seat on the bench in my day (high school class of 1966) now often elicit praise.

Let’s start on offense. Even allowing for the shot clock and the three-point shot, there is regularly the mandate to get off a quick shot (8-10 seconds). Patience never meant slow, but the 10-pass possession (unless a layup shows sooner) has nearly vanished. For many teams, “volume” shooting (often by one player) has replaced passing and even distribution. When’s the last time you heard the old standby, “You can get the outside shot anytime; probe inside first”? Set plays are dinosaurs amid today’s motion offenses. The omnipresent 4 out/1 in look has rendered low posts, high posts, high/low post combos – even the relatively young “pinch”- post - obsolete. The emphasis is on passing and cutting, great points to stress (and useful vs. all defenses) but at the expense of at least one “big,” who must yield to the “stretch 4,” a mid-size, or taller, forward who can make the three.

The one-hand push pass off the dribble revokes the ban on such passes. The old school preached the retractable two-hand pass. The hook and the wraparound sound more like 60’s dance steps than passes. The forbidden crosscourt pass has re-surfaced as the “skip” or the “fade.” Station-to-station passing is dull – passes passé. The tandem guard set against backcourt pressure has yielded to clearing out for the lead dribbler. And reaching the frontcourt, said dribbler is allowed the multi-dribbling, bobbing and weaving foray – an isolation once deemed anathema to smooth offense. Back in the day, “Iso” was signage for a seamstress; now it’s a strategy.

Let’s look at defense – when we can find it. Actually, defense has at times done graduate level work in the new fundamentals. One ran suicides for giving up the baseline, a cardinal sin, since it was reputed to eliminate help defense. Today’s vogue is to force the dribbler into a baseline trap, stripping his options. Turning the ball to the middle for more help has been trumped by the realization that the middle offers far more offensive opportunities. Big props for the new fundamentals here!

The old school took an oath to win by out-defending you on the premise that offense can have off nights. The new school pledges to outscore you, playing defense in the last few minutes if you have not surrendered, exhausted.

New fundamentals allow players to go behind ball screens (older fellows swore to swim over the top or get pulled through). Even more heretical, switching on all screens can be the norm when matched with the ideal of five interchangeable player parts, athletes who can effectively reduce the 1-5 player numbering system to a mere supporting role for X’s and O’s productions. Yet, even to us old-timers, the concept of interchangeable athletes sounds darn exciting, in spite of ourselves. And one cannot deny the excitement provided when said athletes are high-flying shot blockers, defying the edict to “stay on the floor to stay on the floor!” Perhaps even the “fly-by” defender may not suffer the PT deprivations of days gone by.

Finally, however, there is so much to love in our game. Yes, today’s social network, sound-byte culture takes rapt player attention down a few notches now and then. However, at bottom, players do remain teachable, ideally sponges for what we coaches offer and then responsible inquirers, who take joint ownership of the process (I hear the old coach saying, “This is not a democracy.”).

Perhaps there is a rich bounty to inherit if we willingly marry the often conservative old school fundamentals to the riskier, fast-paced new fundamentals. As clinicians would have it, then “take what works for you.” So, okay, your opposite number may enter your gym wearing a team logo golf shirt while you don jacket and tie. And body activation now obviates the need to wait for vapor lights in said gym. Progress. Technology invades the game, allowing endless analysis and review, some helpful, some not so much.

So, for us old-schoolers – no chips on our shoulders (hey, will they soon be in our shoulders, modifying behavior along with a host of subcutaneous devices to spur 3s, or rebounds, or dribbles). Rather, let’s celebrate what we hold dear and always have: the value of competition, the fun of hard work, the joy of teaching and learning, the will to always prepare and, above all, the privilege to work with young folks.

After all, we no longer retrieve made shots from peach baskets and re-jump after every score. Change has always been a dribble away.