## 4 Discussion
This study indicates that the boy's growth spurt in stature occurs about half-year earlier in the Lisbon district (Portuguese) boys as compared to [PERSON] study cut-off value (i.e., 13.81 years of age) and other European studies [2; 8] but later than the predicted mean APHV (13.30 years) obtain, with Mirwald equation, for our sample. These facts may suggest that the selection process of male U-14 Portuguese elite regional basketball teams, which participated in the tournament, was influenced by biological maturation. The same trend was described for the boy's categories of Spanish basketball, i.e., Spanish elite players (selected from the best and more representative teams) had a higher biological age (measured by years from APHV, i.e., maturity offset) than non-elite basketball players [7]. Maturity-related differences among male athletes are well documented in the available literature [8]. Body size dimensions have been considered important attributes for young male basketball players performance [7]. In the present study, athletes with different maturational status showed significant differences in body mass, stature, arm span and hand span with large effects sizes been observed for body mass, stature and arm span. Moreover, early maturation is also associated with better performances [1; 8]. In this study, early maturing basketball players performed significantly better on upper (HG and MBT) and lower (CMJ and CMJ-S power) body strength tests (effect sizes showed large effects for HG, MBT, CMJ and CMJ-S power). Our results confirmed that chronological age and biological maturation have an impact on body size attributes and strength performances. The three cut-off points presented the same differences among groups showing that morphologic and fitness results were not dependent from the cut-off point used. Although the lack of late maturvers when using 13.81 years of age cut-off point and the number of late maturvers (9%) when groups were classified using 13.30 years cut-off value, the morphologic and fitness results were similar to those previously reported, showing that maturation status explained a significant portion of body size variance and had a significant effect on jumps and upper body strength [7]. The present study found that maturational status had a significant and positive effect on morphological attributes and fitness performance, but a small influence on Performance Index Rating (PIR) and average scored points. These two scores of basketball individual performance (i.e., PIR and point average) are the game performance indicators most commonly used to evaluate player's individual performance in a basketball game [1; 7]. However, the cut-off value 13.30 years of age (average APHV of the studied basketball players), which included a very small number of athletes (5%) in the advanced group, showed significant differences between the on time and the late maturvers, but not with the early maturity status, with only one exception, the rebounds. Thus, although some morphological and fitness attributes regarding speed and power are important attributes for basketball success, our results suggested, in accordance with [PERSON] et al., (2006) [9], that these attributes, by themselves, are not the drive for excellence in basketball. [PERSON] and coauthors (2016) [1] observed: (a) that stature and maturity offset were the best predictors of individual performance in basketball; and (b) a moderate correlation between maturity offset and PIR per game. In the present study, maturity status groups showed no effect on player individual performance (evaluated by PIR) and pointsscored (per game and per minute), but was not used as a predictor nor as a covariate. In addition, maturity status (only for maturity groups based on 13.30 and 13.81 years of age cut-off points) had a significant effect on average rebound. Rebounding involves previous physical contact, and for that very reason, it is expected that heavier and taller players, with greater jump power would be able to win more rebounds per game.