Beyond the X: Rez Ball fuels basketball fever in Arizona's Navajo Nation

Window Rock and The Messiah

Although no full Navajo has ever made it to the NBA, they dare to dream to be the first. And throughout this rocky, lonely land, people manage to find a game to forget their own lost journey.

"High school basketball is the greatest entertainment," says Navajo Genevieve Ashley, who graduated from high school in 1980 and married a Hopi. "It's our joy. We yell at the team. That's how we get out our frustrations. When I was 30, I'd race with a 60-year-old woman to get a seat closest to the floor. She'd beat me. Rez ball. Kids live for that."
Kyler Ashley did it all backwards.

Most aspiring basketball players grow up in a small town and strive to play with the big city kids. This Window Rock senior was born in Phoenix, but couldn't wait to play Rez Ball.

"My whole family was from Window Rock," he said of the town that sits on the Arizona-New Mexico border. "I grew up with a ball in my hand. I couldn't wait to play in front of a big old crowd."

He's been able to do that for four straight years and has developed a cult following.

The 5-7 point guard is considered one of the top players in the state, despite his lack of height or muscles. He led the Scouts to three straight section victories over vastly taller and stronger teams, including 78-46 over Snowflake when Ashley scored a game-high 21 points to go along with nine assists in the final sectional game at the Wildcat Den.

"I honestly think he's one of the top five players in the state," Troglia said. "He controls absolutely everything."

Just like his grandfather did. And his father. Both were basketball stars at Window Rock, and both, like Ashley, received the rock star treatment.

"It helped me be prepared for what it would be like," Ashley said. "But you get used to it. I try not to let them down."

He didn't after the finale against Snowflake while signing dozens of autographs.

The Navajo Nation can't get enough, as coach Brad Thorsted literally had to pull him from the masses 20 minutes after the final horn.

"It's good to have fans like this," he said. "How can I complain? I think we all love it."

Ashley is the smallest player on a team that features no one taller than 6-1 Ian Bahe, a superb senior leaper who averaged better than 10 points per game.

Though extremely balanced, Ashley and Bahe led the Scouts to a sterling 27-3 record. They were trying to be the first Rez boys team to win a state title since Tuba City in 2001.

But after their win over Snowflake, the team's 23rd straight, the Scouts were upset by Show Low 49-47, a team they defeated nine days earlier 63-57.

Even though he was raised for six years in Albuquerque, N.M., Bahe moved to the reservation and quickly learned the rules of Rez Ball.

"I learned it's not a sport, that it's a religion," he said. "And that Kyler is the Messiah. … Some people might see it as pressure, we all live up to the moment and try to embrace it. We don't shy away from anything."

They certainly didn't on the court at Chinle.

Though beaten on the boards, the Scouts, like most Rez teams, beat their bigger opponents to the punch. It's a gap reservation squads are used to closing with fast breaks, ball-handling and shooting.

One of the best on the Rez is 6-foot Chinle junior Kevin Yazzie, who averaged 23 points per game. His older sister played at Western Texas College in Snyder and playing collegiately is one of his biggest goals. With a 3.5 grade point average and some game, he has a good shot, Troglia said. He helped the Wildcats to a superb 19-6 season that ended with a bitter 74-73 overtime loss to Fountain Hills in the second round of the state tournament.

Chinle ended on a three-game losing streak that was started by another overtime loss, 80-79 to arch-rival Window Rock.

"I think some kids at school don't think outside of the reservation," Yazzie said. "For me, that's a mistake. I want to make a name for myself and get an education. I love playing in high school and in front of all these people who come out and watch, but I want more."

He played with his cousin Kyler Ashley, Bahe and several Window Rock players during a Navajo Invitational Tournament last summer in Phoenix, and the combined team made it to the finals, a first for an Arizona team, according to Yazzie.

With more than 1,000 teams from throughout the country, that was a major accomplishment. They lost to a team from Oklahoma with a front line of 6-7, 6-5 and 6-5. Bahe was the tallest player for the Rez Ball team.

"All we did was run," he said.

The crowds were sparse during the summer compared to the high school season. Bahe said playing in front of such big crowds at such a young age and dealing with all the adoration has been a challenge.

"When I walk out (on to the court), in front of a big crowd, I try not to look all around," said Bahe, who hopes to land at Stanford. "I try to stay centered. It's humbling to know that all these people came out to watch what we do best."