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Few Natives in college or professional basketball
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Native girls and boys teams win basketball championships in many Western states but very few are seen on the college court and even fewer on the professional circuit.
According to The Denver Post, fewer than 0.5 percent of male and female college basketball players are Native. An only a few men have ever gone pro. At least one woman, 33-year-old Ryneldi Becenti of the Navajo Nation, played in the Women's National Basketball Association.
Rainy Crisp, 25, said it was tough to get noticed at Arizona State University even though she was a star player in high school. "Talented Navajo players are not getting seen," she tells the paper. "I had to really sell myself. My parents had taped my games, and I'd take those tapes with me." She now coaches at Navajo Prep.
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Trying to turn the game into more than a dead end
(The Denver Post 5/17)
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