In his latest cinematic play, Lebron James will be producing a new Native American basketball film titled Rez Ball. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the story, “follows the Chuska Warriors, a Native American high school basketball team from Chuska, New Mexico, that must band together after losing their star player if they want to keep their quest for a state championship alive. It’s an all-American underdog story about Navajo kids and coaches told from the inside-out.”
Sydney Freeland, is set to direct the film, co-writing it along with Sterlin Harjo, who co-created FX’s Reservation Dogs.
The script is adapted from Michael Powell’s Canyon Dreams sports novel, incorporating pieces from his own New York Times articles which preceded the original book. The overarching story focus on “reservation basketball,” a fast-paced iteration of the sport that many credit with influencing top NBA teams and coaches.
“Basketball on the Rez is like high school football in West Texas,” says Freeland. “It has a fanatical following that few sports can rival. This is a story that’s commonplace on Indian reservations all over the US, but most people aren’t even aware it exists. What we want to do is bring people into our world, to tell a story about the people and places we know, and what better way to do that than through a sports movie?”