Navajo Nation President, Buu Van Nygren, hooping

The Women’s Final Four brought the Hoopbus to Phoenix. Lynette brought it to Navajo Nation.

If you ask Lynette what basketball means on the reservation, don’t expect a short answer.

She’ll tell you it is the foundation of the support system in Navajo. She’ll tell you about kids who don’t live with their parents but find love on the court. She’ll tell you about elders and high schoolers sharing space through the game - a community that shows up not just to play, but to be seen.

Lynette grew up in a single-parent home on the reservation. She was an athlete herself and knew early on the power of the sport.

“Basketball is more than a sport, especially to a community like ours,” Lynette says. “There is a lot of negativity here, but basketball brings joy. For our youth, it’s an outlet.”

The Hoopbus tour was supported by Nike N7, whose mission is rooted in the seventh-generation principle - the belief that every action should consider the impact on the next seven generations. When she saw the light blue wrapped bus with the Nike N7 logo, Lynette recognized it immediately, as most Indigenous communities would. It felt like a sign.

the ask

She reached out and got connected with Hoopbus - and a few days later, the bus was on its way to Navajo. 24 hours before the event, Lynette posted a single flyer and word of mouth carried it the rest of the way.

The community showed up early. When news came that the bus would be delayed an hour from mechanical issues, the crowd stayed, no one left. Everyone wanted to feel the energy that comes when the Joy Spreaders step off the bus.

With much anticipation, the bus pulled in, and what followed was a 3x3 round robin tournament that wove together every generation from high schoolers to elders.

When the ball finally stopped bouncing, nobody rushed off. There was no time limit and no hard load-out. Lynette took the Hoopbus crew over to Window Rock, the monument the area is named after, and they climbed it together. It was a true human exchange, no program or schedule needed.

The Impact

After the tournament, a young girl walked up to Lynette and asked for a photo. It reminded her that younger kids are always watching.

In Navajo Nation, kids don’t have a pro team right down the road to look up to. Phoenix is the closest major city, hours away. So the role models are often the people doing things right in their own community.

“I looked up to high school players thinking I wanted to be like them when I got there,” Lynette says. Names like Layla Curtis carry weight in Navajo. The people showing up and doing something positive in the community become the role models. Lynette realized the next generation of young girls looked up to her now.

The day a Window Rock was a 3×3 tournament on the surface, but if you talk to someone on the ground, it was a core memory that people will remember for years to come.

The Navajo Nation President recognizes basketball as a lifeline to approaching challenging issues. Him and his team collaborate with their schools during the basketball season to hold sessions on financial literacy - teaching youth life skills in a approachable way. (Learn More)

Hoopbus is built on that initiative: the power of basketball for social change. View the gallery to see our impact across the tour.

Be Apart of the Impact