'Life-changing': N.W.T. heads to Native American Basketball Invitational

A group of young basketball players from the Northwest Territories will board a plane for Phoenix this Friday, heading to the largest native basketball tournament in the world.

The group of players — from Inuvik, Yellowknife, Fort Simpson, and Deline — will compete in the Native American Basketball Invitational, a 152-team tournament featuring squads from across the United States. The Northwest Territories' contingent is the only Canadian squad making the trip.

Neil Barry, the team's coach, has brought teams to the tournament on multiple occassions. To the players lucky enough to make the trip, the experience can be "life-changing," he says. 

Generating the funds to make the trip wasn't easy for Barry's team. To do so, they had to collectively raise $30,000 — money that was generated through donations in the athletes' home communities, a GoFundMe page, and organizations and businesses within the territory. 

The group of First Nation, Metis, Inuit and Inuvialuit players will get the chance to strut their stuff on the court at the highest level — the team will play at the U.S. Airways Centre, home of the NBA's Phoenix Suns — but will also represent the territory off the court, planning to perform cultural demonstrations. 

"The biggest thing," says Barry, "is just the pride of native athletes, indigenous athletes from around the world. 

"Seeing that they can play at a high level and see each other succeed, and knowing what they have to work on to get to that next level and that they can see right in front of them that it's possible. I think those possibilities don't always exist in the Northwest Territories."