FLAGSTAFF — JJ Nakai misses playing electrifying basketball on the Navajo reservation.
But the jam-packed gymnasiums, thunderous crowds, breakneck pace of play and the irresponsibly creative trick passes are more than just memories.
They provide the framework for how she plays, and it’s one of the reasons why Nakai — Pima College’s latest basketball star — is one of the highest-rated junior-college players in the country.
“I loved playing on the reservation so much. The atmosphere once you’d enter the gym was so amazing. It was packed, I miss it,” Nakai said.
A Division I college offer would mean more than just a chance for Nakai, 18, to play basketball on a big stage. It would help Nakai become the first member of her immediate family to graduate with a bachelor’s degree. It also could make her the Native American role model she looked for but never found while growing up.
Although statistics are difficult to calculate because tribal lands are sovereign, Native Americans struggle to attain higher education. In 2017, the Postsecondary National Policy Institute, a nonprofit funded by Bill and Melinda Gates, compiled several studies on higher education, finding that only 10 percent of Native Americans earn bachelor’s degrees.
The roots
During her childhood, Nakai — whose first name is Jacqulynn but who goes by JJ — spent the beginning of each week in Flagstaff, attending Coconino High School. Then, as if she were living two lives, Nakai would leave the quiet forest community and drive more than two hours to a land of dry, dirt roads and quaint clusters of mobile homes and houses built of logs and clay, called hogans. It was the Navajo Reservation, where she took care of her grandparents.
While on the reservation, Nakai would travel to Tuba City, Window Rock and other towns to play in tournaments that featured a free-flowing, run-and-gun basketball philosophy predicated on pace and passing, known as “Rez ball.”
“It’s so much different there. It’s so wide open, and you just do whatever you want. You do everything your own way,” Nakai said, sitting at a table in the quiet clubhouse of the Timberline Place apartment complex, where her aunt, Ernestine Thomas, lives.
If the reservation was her second home, the clubhouse was her third. Down the hall is a full-length basketball court, in pristine condition. Unused and open 24 hours a day, the quiet court became Nakai’s basketball laboratory, a place to master her right-handed floater and quick-trigger 3-point stroke.
It was stark contrast from the crowded gyms on the reservation.
In Flagstaff “everything is like premade and prepared for you,” Nakai said. “It really is like a different world.”
Along with her 5-foot-6-inch frame, Nakai carries the essence of a point guard. Her soft face is unbothered, impervious to chaos. Her dark brown eyes show a relentless drive, uninterested in easily attainable goals and completely obsessed with her true love: basketball.
That wasn’t always Nakai’s path. While sports have always been in her life, her mom, Jessica Spencer-Nakai, an avid softball player, always wanted her daughter to follow in her footsteps. For a while, Nakai did, until Thomas — who apparently offered her niece more than just a fob to the clubhouse — took a then 7-year-old JJ to watch one of Thomas’ basketball tournaments.
Nakai stuck with softball until high school, but the hot sun and long innings became too much to bear. Basketball took over everything.
Looking for inspiration
Nakai idolized her aunt, and the two grew closer, united by their love of basketball. As Nakai’s game improved, she looked for someone to relate to.
She couldn’t find that someone.
“Native Americans in general aren’t known to be successful, especially in sports,” Nakai said.
Despite the widespread love of basketball among tribal communities, Shoni Schimmel, the 2014 WNBA All-Star Game MVP, is one of the few Native Americans to reach the top of professional basketball.
“When I was younger, I was always looking for someone like me … whose shoes I could fill. Someone I could be like,” Nakai said.
The lack of Native American athletes in the mainstream consciousness has fueled Nakai. She spends more than seven hours a day running up Mount Elden, pulling a sled, lifting weights and perfecting her jump shot, thinking that maybe she could blaze the trail.
“I’ve used that as motivation to be the role model for Native Americans that I was looking for,” Nakai said.
She brought what she’d learned on the reservation to the Coconino High School basketball team. She earned the role of starting point guard, and the offense was off and running.
By her senior year, Coconino was one of the top-ranked teams in Arizona. It finished the 2017 season with the best record in the conference and advanced to the Class 4A state semifinals. Nakai did everything her senior season, averaging 20 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals per game. She was named AIA’s Grand Canyon Region Player of the Year.
After high school, the offers from four-year universities began to come in. Alaska-Anchorage, a Division II school with a well-respected women’s basketball program, intrigued her the most.
But Nakai comes from a close-knit family, one that traveled with her and cheered her on at every tournament. She and her mother were worried that a bout with homesickness could derail her basketball career before it even started.
Then, at a basketball camp in Tucson, Nakai found a school that could accommodate her needs.
Closer to home
Pima College coach Todd Holthaus has spent the past decade building a winning basketball program and helping elevate his players to four-year universities. It didn’t take long for him to see that Nakai could be his next great player.
“I offered JJ the minute I saw her play live,” Holthaus said. “We’d heard about her, so she was on our radar. She has so much energy in how she plays and she takes so much pride in making her teammates better. It’s so much fun to watch.”
A large man with a bushy, mustache-less goatee, Holthaus initially was intimidating to Nakai. If the scholarship offer didn’t ease her mind, then Holthaus’ approach to basketball certainly did.
“Over the last few years, we’ve led the conference in scoring,” Holthaus said. “Teams are usually bigger and more athletic than us, so we shoot more 3s than anyone, and we play up-tempo. We move the ball. We run the floor. JJ came in and adapted perfectly.”
Nakai had to take a couple of weekend trips back to Flagstaff because of homesickness. Otherwise, she fit in — especially on the court. The point guard led the Aztecs in scoring and assists and made 40 percent of her 3-point attempts. Nakai’s ability to shoot off the dribble and turn any situation into a fast break meshed perfectly with her teammates. They even adjusted to her unexpected no-look passes.
“We’ve gotten a feel for how each other plays and the no-look and behind-the-back passes are not as difficult, but we just have to be prepared for whatever she is going give to us,” teammate Shauna Bribiescas said.
With Nakai leading the way, Pima posted a 23-9 record. Nakai was named a National Junior College Athletic Association Division II first-team All-American and was one of 40 players selected to play in the junior college all-star game in Atlanta.
As the awards came pouring in, so did offers from four-year universities. Coaches would call Holthaus, gauging Nakai’s interest. At her orders, Holthaus would keep what he heard to himself, unless the right school came calling.
“He gave me a few names, but I didn’t really want to know,” Nakai said. “I didn’t want to get complacent once the offers started coming in. This fall is when I’m going to sit down and decide.”
When the time comes, Nakai won’t be overly picky in deciding where she goes to play, but she has a dream school: Arizona State.
The road to big-time college basketball is long and bumpy; Nakai and Holthaus know that. This summer, they’ll both be spending a lot of time in the gym, building her strength.
“I asked JJ what she wanted, and she told me she wants to play at ASU,” Holthaus said. “I told her that I think she has the ability to make it, but that starts in the weight room and in the classroom.”
Nakai understands the importance of the classroom. She’s always planned on getting a college degree, even without basketball. She wants to study sports medicine.
“JJ is a great basketball player,” Holthaus said. “But I know it means a lot to her, her family and her tribe that she’s out here setting an example for younger Native Americans who maybe felt that higher education wasn’t attainable.”
The accomplishments and accolades have made Nakai somewhat of a celebrity among tribal communities. Kids will come up and ask to have their picture taken with her. When Holthaus is out scouting, young players will come up and say, “Oh my gosh, you coach JJ Nakai.”
Her love of basketball leaves little time for much else. Occasionally, Nakai enjoys lounging with friends and family, and shopping, which usually ends with her adding to her collection of basketball shoes. The Damian Lillard 4s are her newest pair. Even her dream of traveling the world comes with a caveat: playing professionally for an international team.
Recently, Nakai has found a new way to spend her limited free time. She gives free lessons to young Native American kids.
“I know a lot of parents don’t have a child like her. I’m lucky,” Spencer-Nakai said. “I’m lucky she has the mindset where she wants to be. I’m amazed with how hard she’s willing to work.”
