'We play for Indian Country': how Bilingual Basketball league is preserving Indigenous languages

[cbabe]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/29/bilingual-basketball-league-indigenous-languages

‘We play for Indian Country’: how Bilingual Basketball league is preserving Indigenous languages

Native Americans have made basketball their own as they hustle to retain and defend their culture and traditions

Alan Chazaro
Sat 29 Mar 2025 10.00 EDT

Long before Michael Jordan changed the sport of basketball, another Jordon transformed the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) history by breaking the league’s racial barrier as its first Native American player.

In 1956, Phil “The Flash” Jordon, a descendant of the Wailaki and Nomlaki tribes, was drafted by the New York Knicks and played 10 seasons in the league. Though he may not carry the same cultural cache as other hoopers throughout professional basketball’s century-plus existence, Jordon embodies a longstanding Native American fixation on the sport – especially at the community level.

Throughout the years, Native Americans have embraced basketball and made it their own. One way they’re doing so today is with “rez ball,” a lightning-fast style of basketball associated with Native American teams.
Although the notion of Native Americans in basketball hasn’t fully permeated the mainstream sports consciousness (basketball gyms on reservations are still among the most overlooked in the country by talent scouts), the NBA, Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and other basketball entities have begun to acknowledge native hoopers and their rich legacy more fully.

Rez Ball, a LeBron James-produced film currently streaming on Netflix, is based on Canyon Dreams, an acclaimed book about a Navajo high school team in northern Arizona. The Toronto Raptors unveiled an alternate team logo designed by Native American artist Luke Swinson in honor of the franchise’s annual Indigenous Heritage Day; the illustration depicts two long haired, brown skinned hoopers flowing inside of a basketball silhouette, which doubles as an amber sunrise. And earlier this season, NBA superstar Kyrie Irving – whose family belongs to the Lakota tribe of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota – went viral for meeting with a group of Native American fans after a Dallas Mavericks game. The eight-time All-Star also debuted Chief Hélà, his pair of indigenous-inspired sneakers, during the 2024 NBA Finals last June.

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[stopdiggin]

1. can assure you - anyone who has PLAYED against these teams

(or just individual talent at the playground level) - knows exactly what a deep well ...
Astonishing talent. Some of the best hoops you've ever seen (or probably not seen) played. For years and years ...

Hats off ....

[Clouds Passing]

2. I'll watch the film.