The Kazakhstan university league has been cancelled for this year. The only school leagues consistently operating is the private school league. Yet 3×3 tournaments continue to play almost every weekend. What is beginning to evolve is a basketball system focused more on 3×3, almost completely neglecting the traditional 5×5 system.

Why? Perhaps a large reason is simply to generate more income for the organizers. With 10-minute 3×3 games, many more teams can register, with far less work. So be it. People have the right to create a business and earn money for their work. But then we need to ask ourselves – is this good for Kazakhstan basketball overall? The answer is absolutely no. By focusing on the short-term gain and overemphasizing the 3×3 system, we risk depriving young people from having the opportunity to learn lessons taught from a long-term commitment of a 5×5 system.

What is happening is a reversion to the Soviet-style club system where 5×5 is reserved for the elite players in a few select sport school or club teams. In this new system, rather than making a
strong national team, the goal is to recruit prospective young players, get them under contract, develop them, then sale them for a nice profit to other club teams, usually in Russia. There is a
fine line between the club system and human trafficking.

In the past changing passports to market young players, who were actually a year or two older, was commonplace. In some cases, kids were threatened if they did not sign a contract. Now at the pressures of the global economy, and Kazakhstan’s need to show a face of a good place to invest, we are doing the right thing by fighting this type of corruption – or at least we hope so.
Why the insistence on keeping a tight reign over basketball development, and the failure to develop a wide open “free market” of basketball? This mentality stems from a Soviet mindset that control is the highest virtue. There is a fear of competition. If players were free to play for a school or university team outside the control of the federation, God forbid – they might get recruited to play in America and the club system lose to opportunity to make money from their contract.

A free market is the correct path to the realization of the 2050 Plan. Imagine if you opened a business selling sport clothing and maintained a complete monopoly on the market, eliminating all competition? In such case there would be no incentive to get better. If however there was a free market, a competitor might improve his chances by offering better clothing. You might respond with better marketing. They respond with better quality. You match their quality and add convenient parking for customers. They respond with research and development for the creation of better products. You do the same. And so on. In the end both businesses succeed as the overall quality improves and now we are selling much better quality to a global market, bringing in the purchases of foreign currencies, thereby increasing the value of the tenge.

This is how the system works. Instead of fearing competition, we need to embrace it. Competition makes us better, just as a good basketball team will work harder to prepare for an opponent. The opponent does the same. Both teams look good. Fans come to watch. A market for basketball is created. Products are sold. Instead of begging sponsors for help, sponsors come asking for the right to be your general sponsor. The irony is that when we abide by the rules and do it the right way – there is far more money to be made for those with personal business interests.
As a nation, Kazakhstan must transition from the tight controls of an elite few to a free market where ordinary Kazakhstan citizens are free to express their ideas, use their talents, and create
businesses in an atmosphere of freedom. It is not oil or commodities which create economy. People create economy! If their rights and property are protected by rule of law in a climate where they are free to grow without the interference of excessive government regulation or criminal expropriation.

Economist Muhummad Yunus brilliantly demonstrated this principle when he and his students collected seeds from a 20-meter tree and planted some of the seeds in a large open field, while planting other seeds in a small flower pot. Many years later, the seeds planted in the large open field grew to a normal 20-meter tree. However those seeds planted in a small flower pot only grew to half of a meter. Why?

The seeds were the same. The seeds possessed the same potential. The question was the environment. Where seeds were planted in an atmosphere of freedom, where their roots could extend deep and wide, they flourished. However, when seeds were placed in a small and restrictive flower pot, the potential growth of the tree was restricted.

The potential of Kazakhstan is not its oil, gas, or other commodities. The potential of Kazakhstan, as well as any nation, is its people. People create economy – if they are planted in the right environment where they are free to expand and flourish. This is the answer for Kazakhstan in basketball development, as well as economic development. Rather than controlling people and controlling the market through the monopolization of an elite ruling class, we need to empower people by serving them – protecting rights, abiding by the rules, and seeking how can empower a young generation to create great businesses and make Kazakhstan competitive in the global market.

This is why I love to coach basketball. The values of hard work, taking responsibility, team work, and abiding by the rules are foundational for success on the basketball court, but more importantly in life. Indeed it is a great joy to watch a young man or woman to work hard and become a great player today, knowing that tomorrow they will know how to use the same values to become a great husband, father, wife, mother, and Kazakhstan citizen. The successes on the basketball court today prepare them for the successes of Kazakhstan tomorrow – in business, government, and society. Let us invest in our young people and lead them in the right path for the sake of the future of Kazakhstan!