HILE individual bril- liance in performance is as much to be desired in basketball as in most other sports, the team that does not harness each player’s bril- liance so that it fits into the “team scheme” of play will not go very far in these days of highly developed passing attacks. Nothing shows the validity of this statement more than the performance of our own American Olympic team, winners of the first Olympic Games basketball champion- ship ever held. Here was a squad of players—seven from the Universal Pictures team of Hollywood, five from the Globe Oil & Refining Co. team of McPherson, Kansas, better known as the McPher- son Oilers, and one player from the University of Wash- ington five—each a star of the first order, the squad verita- bly an “all star” array of bas- ketball talent. Yet put five of these players in action as the American Olympic team, or as the Hollywood Universals or McPherson Oilers, and the first impression you get after watching them in action for a few minutes is that every player’s move seems designed to fit the movements of his teammates. The key to such efficient play is to be found in a successful passing attack. In basketball a passing at- tack is a more general and flexible plan of advancing the ball than you have in foot- ball. There are a dozen or more different kinds of bas- ketball passing attacks. In the main, they resolve into two general types: (1) the Fast Break and (2) the Slow Break. In the Fast Break the idea is to send three of your play- ers down the floor ahead of the ball at fire-engine speed, and to whip a pass to them as they cut for the basket. The underlying hope is to get there before the defense can get set. Some Fast Break teams send three players