Sport şi Societate (May 2017)
SCOUTING IN CONTEMPORARY BASKETBALL
Abstract
Scouting in basketball means spying and carefully exploring to get information on basketball players. Finding valuable basketball players and integrating them in a team ensures a high quality, spectacular game that attracts the public. In this paper, the author defines the most important factors that contribute to the analysis and choice of players for a competing team. We emphasise the goals and ways of making scouting effective. Our goal was to see if a scouter’s activity is useful in athletic performance. To do so, we used literature, observation, video recordings, questionnaires, and interviews. We designed a questionnaire with seven items related to scouting in contemporary basketball. We asked six scouters to answer the following open questions related to their activity of “talent seekers”: When do you scout for basketball players? (When do you monitor basketball players?) What are your criteria in choosing basketball players? What do you seek for in a basketball player? How do you contact basketball players? How do you know they meet your basketball club’s demands? How do you sign a contract with a basketball player? (What are the steps you follow?) Do you benefit of a percentage of the contracts or does the basketball club pay you? (This question is not mandatory). The most important criterion in choosing a basketball player is his ability of integrating into the game model and team structure (66% of the respondents). The scouters interviewed believe that a player’s individual value comes first in choosing him for the club. A period of testing and the choice of information from the player’s previous colleagues or coaches determine a player’s choice. Scouting is a particularly important activity when performance is aimed at. Effective scouting helps discover the suitable basketball player, which can make a difference between failure and success.
