“Rez Ball”
Outside of the state-of-the-art basketball arenas in Chinle, Ariz., the sights are often stark, impoverished and usually include a makeshift basketball rim.
Photo by Scott Hargrove
Inside the plush and large gyms are often sights
of excellence and celebration.
Photo by Geri Henry
Metropolitan regions such as New York, Detroit and Chicago often lay claim to it. Some believe the more sprawling areas of Los Angeles or Dallas or Atlanta own it, or the rural roads of Indiana. But the Mecca of high school basketball may lie in the unlikely, impoverished counties of Apache and Navajo, in the heart of Navajo Nation in northeastern Arizona and parts of New Mexico and Utah. It is there where makeshift hoops made from bicycle rims and milk crates, nailed to trees and sides of homes and other dwellings, are seen everywhere on the vast and open landscape. It is also where fans from hundreds of miles away fill large, state-of-the-art gymnasiums, built with federal money, to watch their reservation sons and daughters in a game they love at the core. In a town of 5,200 residents, The Wildcat Den, home of
Chinle (Ariz.), holds 7,000 and annually draws up to 15,000 for a three-day sectional playoff event. Arizona Republic staff writer Richard Obert has covered prep basketball on the reservation for almost 15 years. Its popularity and passion, combined with the culture, inspired him to write a yet-to-be-published book, entitled "Rez Ball."
"People just go nuts for it," he said. "They can't get enough of it. The kids are treated like rock stars. You'll see little kids line up before games and after games trying to get these guys' autographs. They feel like the Kobe Bryants and LeBron James' of the world when they're on the reservation."
Casting callPaul Giamatti would make a perfect Steve Troglia, the outgoing former Chinle coach and athletic director.
Willem Dafoe shows great conviction in every role and as the chiseled, articulate and soft-spoken journalist Obert, he would excel.
Adam Beach could play the forceful and get-things-done administrator Quincy Natay.
