Participants in a Jr. NBA camp. Photo from Facebook
The very first Jr. NBA camps in Indian Country are taking place this month. NBA players Detlef Schrempf and Spencer Hawes will headline the camp at the Tulalip Boys and Girls Club on the Tulalip Reservation in Washington from July 8-10. The event will be followed by a camp featuring coach David Joerger at the Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Reservation, home to the Oglala Sioux Tribe, in South Dakota from July 29-31. "The Jr. NBA is always looking to engage different communities that love basketball,” said David Krichavsky, the NBA’s vice president of youth basketball development. “Working with Tulalip and Pine Ridge provides us a unique opportunity to connect with our young fans and their coaches alongside some of the NBA’s best ambassadors.” The Jr. NBA is hosting a series of basketball clinics, skills challenges and tournaments throughout the U.S. Local representatives are excited about the organization's decision to come to their communities. "Our Native community loves basketball and the NBA," said National Indian Athletic Association Basketball Hall of Famer Marlin Fryberg Jr., a Tulalip Tribes council member who serves as executive director of the Tulalip Tribes Boys & Girls Club. "The Jr. NBA camps acknowledge our Native American passion for the game and will help make NBA fans for life while teaching basketball’s important values." "“As a young basketball player on the reservation, the values of the game helped me succeed in the classroom and in life,” said Christian McGhee, a 2008 graduate of Red Cloud and the school’s current athletic director. “Bringing the Jr. NBA to Pine Ridge is a dream come true and will expose a large number of our boys and girls to the lessons only basketball can teach.”
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