You have to balance the outcome with the means to get the outcome.

If you are a 6'3" white guy, you are competing against thousands and thousands of other 6'3" white guys on AAU teams across the country. Your odds of playing at a high level are pretty dang low. Maybe that kid can make a small college team somewhere.

So if that is the ceiling, you have to ask if the cost is worth it. If the cost is a lot of local practice and time and energy, there are a ton of benefits to that whole process. If the cost is 8 hours a week of driving for 4 hours of total practice time with one parent being gone two nights of the week and a bunch of other kids left neglected, I just can't see how that is worth it.

I don't mean to crap on the small college experience. I was once faced with that decision myself and I chose to give up athletics. That might make me biased in this discussion. But I also see this stuff in clinic every day. Many parents are totally delusional about the talents of their kid and that kid's potential. I will never understand why people sacrifice so much for such a small payout.