CHSU Discovery

Abstract
Background: Youth sports are increasingly shifting towards a “pay to play” model in which financial barriers exist for participation. There is limited research that examines the accessibility of Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball for elite athletes.

Hypothesis: Prior AAU teams and high schools of NBA players will be primarily located in areas of higher socioeconomic status.
Study Design: Descriptive epidemiology study

Level of Evidence: Level 3

Methods: The official NBA website was queried to identify all active domestic NBA players for the 2022-2023 season. Players’ AAU team locations were collected through the Season Ticket database and via a team’s published social media page. To determine data on socioeconomic status (SES), the physical address of the team and the high school attended by the NBA players was used to determine their Area Deprivation Index (ADI). Pearson correlations were used to evaluate associations between AAU and High school state and national ADIs. Histogram plots of AAU and high school state and national ADIs were generated and evaluated for skewness towards a certain socioeconomic status using Skewness and Kurtosis test. Straight line distance between AAU and high school addresses were also calculated.

Results: We identified 114 AAU teams with physical addresses for 250 (50%) currently active domestic NBA players. The State ADI of the high schools as well as national and state ADIs of prior AAU teams of active NBA players were significantly skewed toward lower ADI rankings (higher socioeconomic status) (p<0.05). Significantly positive correlations were observed between the national ADI of the high school and the national ADI of the AAU team of a player (R2 = .27, p<.05). The mean distance between high school location and AAU location was 170 miles.

Conclusions: Prior AAU teams of currently active NBA players are more frequently located in areas of higher socioeconomic status with nearly 50% being within the top 3rd lower state decile as measured by the area deprivation index. Similarly, we found the high schools these players attended, as a proxy for areas they grew up in, were also more frequently located in areas of higher socioeconomic status.
Clinical Relevance: There is a higher prevalence of prior AAU teams and high schools of current NBA players in higher socioeconomic status areas. The transition from recreational sports to exclusive and costly privatized sports, exemplified by AAU teams, can present significant barriers for youth living in underserved communities.