Suns new jerseys bring Arizona tribes to the NBA

PHOENIX — November is American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month. And it’s become the year of the Originativ. That’s what the Phoenix Suns organization is calling its new effort to showcase Arizona’s Indigenous history through the city edition uniform.

It’s helping display the tight bond between the game of basketball and tribal communities.

There are 22 federally recognized tribes in Arizona. They are the Ak-Chin Indian Community, Cocopah Indian Tribe, Colorado River Indian Tribes, Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, Fort Mojave Indian Tribe, Fort Yuma Quechan Tribe, Gila River Indian Community, Havasupai Tribe, Hopi Tribe, Hualapai Tribe, Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians, Navajo Nation, Pascua Yaqui Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, San Carlos Apache Tribe, San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe, Tohono O'odham Nation, Tonto Apache Tribe, White Mountain Apache Tribe, Yavapai-Apache Tribe, and Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe.

Kenneth Shirley is a member of the Navajo Nation. He was featured in the launch video by the Suns, doing a traditional gathering dance on the center court of Footprint Center.

“This is kind of like a first time for me. And I’m sure a lot of Native people are finally feeling represented for the first time in a long time," he said.

Shirley owns his own performance business called Indigenous Enterprise. He was asked to be a part of the project by Shawn Martinez. Martinez is the Senior Director of Live Presentation for the Suns organization. He’s also a Navajo tribal member.

“Shawn, originally called me, it was like, hey, we're doing this very, very secret, like collaboration with all 22 tribes of the Arizona and I was like, Alright, so we went and had a meeting," Shirley recalled. "And in that meeting, they wanted to indigenous enterprise in that video shoot. And they asked us, because we have such a big contact of Native American tribes from all over Arizona. So, we started getting people together. And I started making some calls. And as we started to gather that list, we realized that, you know, we want to be able to include the next generation, and I wanted to, like highlight the youth. So, I made the call to Mary Kim and said, hey, we're working on this project, I would love for UNITY to be involved because they have all contacts of 22 tribes. And so, all those kids were able to come and be part of the video based off that call them into UNITY.”

UNITY stands for United National Indian Tribal Youth. The group was able to gather kids of all ages to be a part of the launch and showcase their tribes’ unique culture.

The Suns organization immersed itself in learning about the 22 tribal nations in Arizona. The center court is now a medicine wheel with 22 feathers surrounding it, honoring the tribes and the major impact basketball has on reservations.

Melia Mosley is a member of the San Carlos Apache tribe, and a high school basketball player herself.

She grew up watching her dad and uncles play pickup games saying, "We call it Rezball on the Rez. So it would just be like a tournament, and it's like, you kind of play dirty, but at a fast pace."

She was also featured in the Suns video proudly wearing ceremonial clothes.

"We call it a buckskin. And this is the top to it. And it's it got passed down to me from generations from my nana when a girl has a coming-of-age ceremony,” she explained.

She said her favorite memory from the secret shoot with the players was getting to talk to Suns Small Forward Torrey Craig. She said, “I really liked Torrey Craig, he was super cool. I got to-I was next to him in the photo. And he was just treating me like I was a regular person, you know?”

Basketball is a huge draw for tribes. It's so huge, Footprint Center is the venue for the Native American Basketball Invitational finals. And games on the tribal nations can draw thousands of spectators.

Shirley said, "Even communities on the reservation, for example, they'll see a line for a high school basketball game going down the road, it will be packed. Like it's like an NBA game."

The organization chose turquoise as the color of the new jersey. It was inspired by the turquoise stone meant to give protection. But there's much more that went into this uniform.

Every detail of this jersey has been well thought out. From the color to the word for 'sun' in each tribal language down the sides, down to the medicine wheel at the bottom of the jersey. The players were also gifted a medallion at the unveiling of the jerseys.

“It was like wonderful to see the reactions and kind of like, how connected they are to Native people, because they know that it's a huge part of Arizona, and to see all them being smiling and excited for those medallions," Shirley said. "And the jerseys, you know, I'm sure they're gonna win all these games that they're gonna be playing.”

The Suns players will be carrying the pride of the 22 tribes when they take the court tonight, debuting the new court and uniform against the Golden State Warriors at Footprint Center.

For more information on the launch, click here.