Rezball
Native American version of basketball
Rezball, (sometimes referred to as Rez Ball or American Indian basketball) short for reservation ball, is a style of basketball associated with Native Americans. It is particularly known at the high school level in the Southwestern United States. As rezball has grown, there has been greater attention to how native indigenous communities are both positively and negatively impacted by the sport of rezball, such as that of suicide rates, alcohol abuse, and the challenge assimilating into the culture outside of reservations.
Description
Rezball is transition-based basketball style that forces tempo with aggressive play, quick scoring (or shooting), and an assertive defense that looks to force turnovers through pressing or half-court traps. There are slight variations from program to program.
Many Native Americans learned how to play basketball while they were held in boarding schools by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). They incorporated running, quick passing and fast scoring to create the modern style of rezball. Rezball provided an opportunity for competition among Native Americans in reservations, as well as helping bring Native American communities together by helping them overcome strife while on reservations.
Origins
Native Americans were known to have played a sport similar to basketball, but they did not learn standard US game until they were placed in boarding schools by the BIA in the late 18th century or early 19th century.
Importance for Native American communities
Rezball plays a major role in Native American culture.
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This entry incorporates text from “Rezball” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.