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WINDOW ROCK, Arizona — High school basketball games on the Navajo Nation draw big, intense crowds, says Quentin Jodie, sports editor for the Navajo Times.
That's nothing new, though. He remembers the same passion as a youth and teen on the reservation. Growing up, "basketball was just the biggest sport here. It's very, very popular," he said. "People just flock to the games."
Now Netflix is tapping into that passion, using basketball as played on a reservation as the focal point of a new sports drama that airs starting on Friday, "Rez Ball." The movie was filmed in part on Navajo Nation land as well as other locations off the reservation in New Mexico, and it spurred a tinge of nostalgia from none other than Buu Nygren, the Navajo Nation president.
"Kids across the Navajo Nation just like me grew up shooting hoops on sandy ground dreaming of future glory on their high school courts," he said in a statement this week ahead of the release of "Rez Ball." Basketball, he went on, "is how passion is defined by generations of Navajo boys, girls and their parents watching them bring home trophies year after year."
While Jodie said the passion is particularly acute in Navajo Nation schools in the Arizona and New Mexico portions of the reservation, he said the rivalry between Monument Valley High School and Whitehorse High School in Utah is intense. He covers a range of sports for the Navajo Times, the weekly newspaper based in Window Rock, Arizona, that serves the reservation.
"It's like pandemonium watching rivals like Monument Valley, Utah, and Whitehorse play. They pack that gym. They sell out there," Jodie said. Both San Juan School District schools serve Navajo Nation students.
"Rez Ball" is the latest in a series of movies that have used the Navajo Nation as a backdrop, starting with the 1939 movie "Stagecoach," which starred John Wayne. A glimpse of the Navajo Nation appears in "Forrest Gump" and many other films as well, notes George Hardeen, spokesman for the Nygren administration. Unlike those movies, however, "Rez Ball" puts the focus squarely on the Navajo Nation and Indigenous community.
"Rez Ball," directed by Sydney Freeland and produced by NBA star LeBron James, tells the story of a fictional high school basketball team, the Chuska Warriors, as the squad vies for a state championship in New Mexico. Netflix calls it "a journey of resilience and unity, a true underdog story deeply rooted in Native American culture and spirit."
Freeland, an Indigenous filmmaker born in New Mexico, said in the Netflix synopsis of the film, the popularity of basketball on reservations stems in part from the fact that they don't have professional or college teams to cheer on. "You have these small arenas, but they're just packed with people," Freeland said.
Jodie echoed that, saying the large crowds the sport draws spur some to play the sport, eager for a moment in the spotlight. "There's just so much passion for basketball," he said.
The game as played by players from reservations is fast-paced, frenetic even.
"They're just going up and down the floor," Jodie said. "With the snap of a finger, you can find the ball on the other side of the court, someone going up for a layup. That's just the way the kids play."
