Foundation Basketball Academy

Foundation Basketball Academy A european pro-style player development program designed to maximize every athlete’s potential.

Donovan Mitchell turns 30 today.At 15 he was a shortstop. His dad spent seven years in the Astros’ system — baseball was...
09/07/2026

Donovan Mitchell turns 30 today.

At 15 he was a shortstop. His dad spent seven years in the Astros’ system — baseball was the family business.

Then a collision at the plate broke his wrist, ended the season, and made the choice for him.

Eight years later he scored 71 points in an NBA game. At 6’1”. Shortest player ever to crack 70.

Everybody tells your kid to pick one sport at 12 or get left behind. His path says the opposite:

→ Shortstop hands became catch-and-shoot footwork — ball in the air, feet already set → Baseball hips became the one-foot launch he finishes over 7-footers with → Playing the count became 20-of-25 from the line on the 71-point night → A broken wrist cost him a whole AAU summer — he was still a top-45 recruit → Picked basketball at 15. Went 13th. Seven straight All-Star games. $273 million.

The second sport isn’t a distraction. It’s a second set of reps.

Built, not born.

Comment REPS and I’ll DM you the two-sport athlete’s off-season plan. And send this to a dad who’s being told his kid has to choose at 12.

Follow Foundation Basketball Academy for the training behind the highlights.

June 20, 2019. Sixty names got called on draft night. Lu Dort’s wasn’t one of them.Six years later he’s an NBA champion,...
09/06/2026

June 20, 2019. Sixty names got called on draft night. Lu Dort’s wasn’t one of them.

Six years later he’s an NBA champion, first-team All-Defense, and this week he dropped 25 for Canada in a World Cup qualifier. Atlanta traded for him this summer to be the missing piece.

Here’s what happened in between — and it isn’t luck. OKC offered him a two-way contract. Half NBA, half G League. Most undrafted kids spend that year trying to prove they can score. Dort did the opposite: he took the one job nobody in the gym wants. Guard the other team’s best player. Every night. No nights off.

The scoring came later. The job came first.

→ Pick the job nobody wants. That’s the open door. → Be elite at it before anyone pays you. → Take the star assignment every single night. → Add the rest slowly — the three, then the 25-point games. → Never give the job back.

Only eight undrafted players in NBA history have made an All-Defensive team. He’s one of them.

If your kid didn’t make the list — good. The list is one night. The work is every day after it.

Save this for the kid who didn’t get picked. Built, not born.

Follow Foundation Basketball Academy — new breakdown every week.

— Foundation Basketball Academy

May 13, 2025. Game 4 at the Garden. Jayson Tatum’s Achilles snapped, and the usual timeline for that injury is a full ye...
08/29/2026

May 13, 2025. Game 4 at the Garden. Jayson Tatum’s Achilles snapped, and the usual timeline for that injury is a full year.

He was back in ten months.

Here’s the part nobody’s talking about — look at his shots after he came back. 49.8% of them from three, a career high. Only 17.1% at the rim, a career low. The legs weren’t all the way there yet, so the game got narrow. Most players would just live there.

He spent this summer fixing it. Boxing with his head coach for footwork. Filmed midrange work — pull-ups, fadeaways, the in-between game he’d stopped using. (The internet argued about the one-legged three. They missed the point.)

Here’s the part for your kid:

→ Rebuild the base first. Footwork before shots. → Audit the old game honestly. What did you stop doing? → Add the shot that doesn’t need a jump. The midrange. → Make the new shot boring. Thousands of filmed reps. → Come back with more than you lost.

The injury isn’t the story. The rebuild is.

If your kid is hurt right now — good. It’s the only time you get to redesign the whole game. Don’t come back. Come back different.

Save this for the kid in the boot. Built, not born.

Follow Foundation Basketball Academy — new breakdown every week.

— Foundation Basketball Academy

Underdog / bad-season engine (save machine — every dad whose kid’s ranking and last season don’t agree). Peg: 4-yr/$88M ...
08/28/2026

Underdog / bad-season engine (save machine — every dad whose kid’s ranking and last season don’t agree). Peg: 4-yr/$88M sign-and-trade to Cleveland (Aug 19-20, 2026). Locked Yaxel/JB template, no logo. CTA = save + follow. Foundation Basketball Academy.

Peyton Watson scored 105 points in college. Total. Thirty-two games, 3.3 a night.

Last week the Cavaliers paid him $88 million.

Here’s the part that matters for your kid — he wasn’t a nobody. He was a McDonald’s All-American. The top-ranked player in California. And his one year at UCLA still looked like a miss on paper: 12 minutes a game, 3 points. Then he went 30th in the draft. Last pick of the first round.

Nobody rewrote the ranking. He added one thing every season.

→ Year one: 23 games, 8 minutes a night. He took them. → Year two: 80 games. Earned the minutes with defense first. → Year three: 8 points a game off the bench. Reliable. → Year four: 14.6 a game, 41% from three. He added the shot. → This January: 115 points in four games. More than his whole college career.

That’s the whole climb. One skill a season, four seasons.

If your kid’s ranking says one thing and his last season says another — good. Rankings expire. Reps compound.

Save this for the kid who just had a bad year. Built, not born.

Follow Foundation Basketball Academy — new breakdown every week.

— Foundation Basketball Academy

For 17 years, analytics told every kid in America to stop shooting DeMar DeRozan’s shot. He just passed Oscar Robertson ...
08/18/2026

For 17 years, analytics told every kid in America to stop shooting DeMar DeRozan’s shot. He just passed Oscar Robertson with it.

Drafted in 2009. Called outdated by 2012. Every scouting model said the midrange was dead math — shoot threes or get to the rim, nothing in between.

He kept shooting it. Last season, at 36, he climbed from 25th to 16th on the all-time scoring list. 26,702 points. This week the Warriors signed him to play next to Steph Curry.

Here’s why the “dead” shot keeps paying — and what it actually teaches (inspired by his game, not copied from his playbook):

→ One-dribble pull-up, both directions.
→ Live off the pump fake. Free throws are free points.
→ Jab, pivot, rise on balance. Footwork beats athleticism every year after 30.
→ Master 3 spots, not 30. Elbows and the nail, automatic.
→ Finish every workout at the line.

Trends change. Footwork doesn’t.

Your kid doesn’t need the trendy shot. He needs a shot nobody can take away.

Put this in your bag. Follow Foundation Basketball Academy — new breakdown every week.

Built, not born.

— Foundation Basketball Academy

Tonight they put him in the Hall of Fame. In high school, he couldn’t even stay in one gym.Amar’e Stoudemire went to six...
08/15/2026

Tonight they put him in the Hall of Fame. In high school, he couldn’t even stay in one gym.

Amar’e Stoudemire went to six high schools in five years. One of them held class in an office basement. His dad died when he was 12. His mom was in and out of jail. Add it up and he got two full seasons of high school basketball — total.

Two seasons. Then the Suns took him 9th overall straight out of high school, and he became the first prep-to-pro player ever to win Rookie of the Year. To this day only two guys have done it: Amar’e and LeBron.

Here’s what that run actually teaches:

→ Make the game your constant. Schools changed. The work didn’t.
→ Make limited reps count. Two seasons was enough because none of it was wasted.
→ Bring energy nobody can teach. Ask anyone who tried to stand under a STAT dunk.
→ Let the work outrun the chaos.

Stability is a luxury. Standards aren’t.

If your kid thinks their situation disqualifies them, show them the guy getting enshrined in Springfield tonight.

Comment STAT and we’ll DM you 5 free workout guides to start building the constant now.
Follow Foundation Basketball Academy — new breakdown every week.

Built, not born.

— Foundation Basketball Academy

A Murray State assistant left the main gym to buy Doritos and a soda. He walked past the side gym — and found an unranke...
08/15/2026

A Murray State assistant left the main gym to buy Doritos and a soda. He walked past the side gym — and found an unranked kid nobody was there to watch.

That kid turns 27 today. He went No. 2 in the NBA draft.

Ja Morant had no 247Sports rating out of high school. One high-major offer. Every scout in the building that day was watching the camp roster in the main gym — and the future Rookie of the Year was hooping in the auxiliary gym, off the list.

Here’s what that story actually teaches, because it isn’t luck either:

→ Play when nobody’s watching. He got left off the camp roster and hooped anyway. That’s the gym the coach walked into.
→ Dominate your level first. First NCAA player ever to average 20 points and 10 assists.
→ It only takes one gym. One coach. A few minutes.
→ Rankings measure exposure, not ceiling. The services had him unrated. The draft had him 2nd.

Stars count attention. Not ability.

If your kid is grinding with no stars next to his name, send him this one.

Comment FOUND and we’ll DM you the Get Found recruiting one-pager — what actually gets an overlooked player seen.
Follow Foundation Basketball Academy — new breakdown every week.

Built, not born.

— Foundation Basketball Academy

At 16 he was 5-foot-9 and had never played organized basketball. He became a 7-foot-1 MVP. Every “my kid’s behind” paren...
08/08/2026

At 16 he was 5-foot-9 and had never played organized basketball. He became a 7-foot-1 MVP. Every “my kid’s behind” parent needs this one.

David Robinson didn’t play real basketball until his senior year of high school — no AAU, no camps, no ranking. He
was a 5’9” junior. Then he grew about nine inches as a senior, kept growing to 6’7” entering the Naval Academy
(needed a height waiver), and topped out over 7 feet in the NBA. He became Rookie of the Year, an MVP, a two-time
champion, and a Hall of Famer.

Here’s the part that isn’t luck. The growth spurt? Out of his control. But what it landed on wasn’t: a multi-sport
athlete’s coordination, the grades that got him into the Naval Academy, and the discipline the Navy drilled into
him. When the height finally showed up, everything it needed was already built and waiting.

So if your kid is the smallest one in the gym right now, hear this:

→ Build the engine — play everything, coordination travels.
→ Keep the grades up — they open doors size can’t.
→ Make discipline a skill.
→ Master footwork early.
→ Be ready when you grow.

You can’t pick the growth spurt. You pick what it lands on.

If your kid feels behind, send them this. 🏀 Happy birthday to the Admiral.

Comment WORKOUTS and I’ll DM you 5 free workout guides to start building the engine now.
Follow Foundation Basketball Academy — new breakdown every week.

Built, not born.

— Foundation Basketball Academy

The fastest way for any kid to earn minutes isn’t a better jumper. It’s a willingness to guard.Every player has nights t...
07/29/2026

The fastest way for any kid to earn minutes isn’t a better jumper. It’s a willingness to guard.

Every player has nights the shot won’t fall — that’s mostly out of your control. But defense? Effort? Those never
have an off night. That’s exactly why coaches trust the kid who guards: on a night nothing’s going in, that kid
still helps you win. Scoring makes highlights. Defense makes you un-benchable.

And here’s the best part for a young player — defense is the one elite skill that requires zero talent. Just a low
stance, active hands, and the decision to compete on every possession.

→ Stance low, hands active.
→ Beat your man to the spot.
→ Contest every shot.
→ Talk every possession — be the loudest voice on the floor.
→ Box out, every single time.

Offense sells tickets. Defense earns trust. Be the kid a coach can’t take off the floor.

If your player wants more minutes, send them this. 🏀

Comment WORKOUTS and I’ll DM you 5 free workout guides to build the complete game.
Follow Foundation Basketball Academy — new breakdown every week.

Built, not born.

— Foundation Basketball Academy

He played 11 games of high school basketball. Nobody recruited him. He just won Summer League MVP.Yaxel Lendeborg’s stor...
07/28/2026

He played 11 games of high school basketball. Nobody recruited him. He just won Summer League MVP.

Yaxel Lendeborg’s story shouldn’t work on paper. Grades kept him off the floor in high school — just 11 varsity
games. After graduation he took a warehouse job with no college plan. No ranking. No offers. No hype machine.

So he did the only thing that actually moves the needle: he produced. JUCO at Arizona Western. Then a mid-major
at UAB — 17.7 points and 11.4 rebounds a night. Then a national title at Michigan and first-team All-American.
Then the No. 11 pick. And this month, leading the Warriors to the Summer League title, he was named MVP — the
first player ever to win both Summer League MVP and Championship Game MVP.

Here’s the truth every under-recruited family needs: rankings are a guess someone made about you at 16. Production
is a fact you create every night. The scouting service can’t rank what you haven’t done yet — so go do it, at
whatever level will have you, and let the numbers travel.

→ Produce everywhere you go.
→ Take the JUCO or mid-major path — a door is a door.
→ Put it all on film.
→ Outwork your ranking.
→ Let the numbers travel.

Rankings run out. Production travels.

If your kid didn’t get ranked or offered, send them this. 🏀

Comment WORKOUTS and I’ll DM you 5 free workout guides to start stacking production.
Follow Foundation Basketball Academy — new breakdown every week.

Built, not born.

— Foundation Basketball Academy

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904 Four Seasons Road
Bloomington, IL
61701

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Tuesday 4pm - 7pm
Thursday 4pm - 7pm

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+12177723220

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