20. Rez Ball
In Chinle and surrounding Navajo Nation towns and communities, basketball hoops are in virtually every back yard.
Photo by Scott Hargrove
One of the nation's greatest secrets is the Navajo Indian Reservation's fervent love for basketball. It's a love affair that dates all the way back to the invention of the game and is located near the four-corner's region of the United States.
MaxPreps spent four days in the mecca of Rez Ball, a town and high school named
Chinle (Ariz.) where the single main street is dusty and unpaved, but its basketball arena is state-of-the-art and holds 8,000 fans.
A MaxPreps Beyond the X feature investigated this cultural phenomenon with the help of Arizona Republic staff writer Richard Obert, who has written an unpublished book on the culture and game.
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Players on the Navajo Nation are treated like rock stars.
Photo by Geri Henry
