Native American High School Basketball Players Given Place To Shine At NABI

A basketball blessing, GinaMarie Scarpa and the Native American Basketball Invitational (NABI) have provided student-athletes with opportunities that extend beyond the court for the last 22 years. And she's just getting warmed up.

With NBA player MarJon Beauchamp presenting the MVP trophy last year to Daniel Creepingbear, 204 Native American teams and high school players return to Phoenix this July for the 2025 NABI Tournament. / NABI

There are countless high school basketball and AAU tournaments that take place all summer long across the United States, but there's only one Native American Basketball Invitational. 

It’s been that way for the last 22 years with over 2,400 student-athletes from Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, other states and Canada suiting up each year on the court to play close to 500 games in a matter of days. It’s their chance to rise and shine in a popular traditional and generational game played on reservation lands throughout the country. We call it basketball. They affectionately refer to it as “Rezball”. 

The NABI Fills A Need in The Native American Community

For GinaMarie Scarpa, CEO and co-founder, the Native American Basketball Invitational (NABI) is simply her baby. She’s nurtured it. She’s gently cared for and showered it with love. She’s seen it grow better and bigger than she could have imagined. 

“My inspiration was seeing a need among our Native youth that was not being addressed,” Scarpa told High School on SI, as she looked back and ahead to July 22-26, when teams travel to Phoenix, Arizona for the 2025 NABI Tournament. 

“Being an indigenous Mexican on my Mother's side and experiencing a lot of the same challenges growing up in housing projects in East Boston, I felt led to do something-anything. I felt everything I experienced, good, bad, and indifferent led me to start NABI.”

Last July in Phoenix at the Footprint Center, the Rezbombers made up of high school girl players from the Navajo Nation did what they do best. They finished the job. Led by head coach Brian Kaye and tournament MVP and New Mexico Gatorade Player of the Year, Sydney Benally (Sandia High School), the Rezbombers ran the floor and ran away with the championship from Oklahoma’s Legendary Elite, 68-40.

The boys championship game between Oklahoma’s Cheyenne Arapaho and Minnesota’s Lower Sioux was also a touch match-up with Cheyenne Arapaho holding on to beat Lower Sioux, 56-50. Lower Sioux’s Dominic Fairbanks (Cass Lake-Bena High School) finished the game with 25 points, while Daniel Creepingbear (Riverside Indian High School) earned MVP honors with 14 points and a couple of late game three-pointers. 

Time to run it back for the crown

With strong competition from across the United States and Canada coming for the champs, can the Rezbombers repeat at the 2025 Native American Basketball Invitational? / NABI

“This year, our tournament will be presented by sponsor Resolution Copper and feature over 450 games played in 16 gyms in the Phoenix area with the semifinal and championship games taking place at the PHX Arena, home of the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury. Our championship games will be televised LIVE on AZ Family Sports. Over 160 tribal nations will be represented at this summer's tournament which includes a College & Career Fair where colleges and universities from across the country come and share what their institutions have to offer NABI athletes,” explained Scarpa.

The event will also feature an Educational Youth Summit with guest speakers and athletes like Jason Amador (NABI alumni, Grand Canyon University) sharing his inspirational story. This year NABI will award over $35K in scholarships to NABI senior players who need financial help, and since the inception of the tournament NABI has awarded over $500K. On and off the court, Scarpa has seen first-hand the impact that NABI has on Native players, teams, coaches, fans, and sponsors. She also knows better than anyone the growing pains that come with organizing and leading a premiere basketball tournament, year in and year out. It’s not for the faint of heart. 

It almost wasn’t for Scarpa

“In hindsight, I must have been crazy but I knew we could take the game of Rezball mainstream, tell their story and create a platform to showcase our Native athletes to increase their presence in college basketball programs. The need was the athletes had no platform to be showcased or recruited. He also mentioned high school drop-out rates, chemical abuse and suicide rates amoung our Native youth that surpass our national averages.”

A cup of coffee and a casual conversation. That’s how it started. It was 2002 and Scarpa was working for the AC Green Youth Foundation as the organization’s Executive Director of his Foundation when she, Phoenix Suns legend Mark West, and friend Scott Podleski collaborated on forming the Native American Basketball Invitational. What followed was a year of highs and lows. The Tournament was a hit but the financials took the biggest blow with the organization going $180 in debt. There were additional struggles determining if NABI would operate as a non-profit or be deemed a “qualified sponsor event”. There was also a relationship with Nike N7 and NABI before Scarpa opted to create their own NABI brand and merchandise. 

“I should have walked away, but I decided to give it one more shot so in 2023 we started all over again,” Scarpa said. 

“In our first year we received interest from tribal teams out-of-state. I knew we started something exciting and we can grow it.  Everything in my spirit was telling me not to give up, even with the $180K debt hanging over our heads and my Mother giving me the first $25K to start the tournament.  To this day, even with the challenge of raising sponsorships continue to loom over us, I can still hear my late Mother's broken English voice saying ‘Mija you can do it.’

GinaMarie Scarpa, co-founder and CEO of NABI Foundation, (left) and Lynette Lewis, director of basketball operations and program development at NABI foundation count down to the 2025 NABI Tournament. | Cheryl Evans/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK / Cheryl Evans/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK

For Scarpa, her own experience as an unsure young mother kept her moving forward. She was 19 years old, had a one year old son on her hip, and she’d just moved to Phoenix. 

“I had no plan but I had the burning desire to break out of the cycle I was raised in. I wanted more for my son and I. Opportunities presented themselves to me which lifted me up and set me on my path including working with AC Green, Mark West, and countless other mentors. The biggest take away for me is the trust Indian Country put into us; a trust I do not take lightly for the obvious. That trust allowed us to build NABI so the thanks goes to them for allowing us to lift up their youth and educate the world about our talented Native American athletes through the game of Rezball. With that I can leave my time here knowing I made a small positive difference.”

This summer, GinaMaria Scarpa’s valuable contributions to furthering opportunities for Native American student-athletes continues to spread with over 204 teams competing in the 2025 Native American Basketball Invitational in Phoenix in July. The custom uniforms will be fresh. The NABI merch and gear will undoubtedly be sold out once again. There’s even talk of a possible shoe launch coming. 

"I truly believe as part of the human experience we are our brothers' keepers,” Scarpa added.

“We all have a duty to give back.”