This year’s Native American Basketball Invitational featured a who’s who of superstar basketball student-athletes from Indian Country, including several from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.

3 Takeaways:

• NABI took place July 15-18 across a dozen Valley gym locations.
• Several basketball clubs from the SRPMIC participated in both the boys’ and girls’ divisions.
• The annual tournament also hosted an education and job fair.

The squeaky sounds of tennis shoes returned Phoenix hardwood courts in July to remind many that it was once again time for the popular Native American Basketball Invitational.

The tournament is simply known by basketball heads as NABI.

This year marked the tournament’s 23rd year. Games were held at nearly a dozen gyms across the Valley. One big difference was that championship Saturday was shifted from the Mortgage Matchup Center, where it was held in past years, to the Phoenix College campus.

Teams are guaranteed three pool-play games before shifting to the knockout stage, where a team must win at least six or seven straight games to be crowned champion.

The SRPMIC featured several teams in the boys’ and girls’ divisions. In the boys’ division, fan favorites The River attempted to bring home top honors. In the girls’ division, Natives with Talent (NWT) and Tribal Dynasty played well, with many fans and supporters packing the bleachers cheering them on.

As it has in previous years, during the near weeklong tournament NABI also hosted education and job fair events for student-athletes and coaches.

The River

Sporting their red and black NABI jerseys, The River got off to a bumpy start, so to speak. They lost a winnable game to Zuyá 53-46 but bounced back quickly by winning three straight games, two in pool play, by defeating Snowbirds from Alaska, Rez Dogs from Arizona and RezElite Mescalero from New Mexico. They ran into some slightly faster and taller competition in the knockout rounds, bowing 56-43 to Cheyenne & Arapaho from Concho, Oklahoma.

NWT (Natives with Talent)

Always living up to their team’s name, the stars on this year’s NWT team proved why they’re one of the top Native girls’ basketball teams around. NWT started off with a nail-biting victory against Salish Hoops from Bellingham, Washington. In their next game, they defeated Bird City, 54-6. They added two additional victories against Eesha and Wi’he Elite as well as a single-bucket victory against Lady AZ Newest, 31-29. However, that’s where the run ended. Native Soldiers from Hollywood, Florida, defeated NWT, 58-35.

Tribal Dynasty

This year’s Tribal Dynasty team began NABI with a three-point victory against Northern Thunder from New Town, North Dakota. They then notched two additional victories, against N8V Eyepatch from Chambers, Arizona, and 505 Thunder from Albuquerque, New Mexico. SRPMIC superstar Mani Williams led the charge, operating the court like a floor general, dishing the ball to her open teammates with ease while also making tough layups in the paint. They were bested by NSAP from Oklahoma, 52-21.

In the championship games, team Warrior Movement from Montana won the boys’ championship and Team Rezbombers from Arizona won the girls’ championship.

Warrior Movement featured players from the Chippewa Cree, Blackfeet, Crow, Lummi, Confederated Salish and Kootenai, and Northern Cheyenne tribes.

Team Rezbombers featured players from the Navajo Nation, Samoa, the Sioux Tribe and the Chippewa Cree Tribe.