BROTHERS ON THREE

An action-packed yet reflective account of the quest for a high school basketball championship on and off a Montana Indian reservation.

“In rural Montana, on the weekend of the state tournament, small towns evacuate, their residents filling arenas designed for rock bands and college teams.” So writes Outside contributing editor Streep, setting the scene for a team on the Flathead Indian Reservation competing in Class C basketball, which “occupies emotional territory somewhere between escape and religion.” The Arlee Warriors lack nothing in the way of community support; when they travel for away games across the sprawling state, nearly half the Flathead Nation goes with them. In other matters, the players are less fortunate. The school is underfunded, the reservation plagued by poverty and addiction, and prejudice is seldom far below the surface beyond its borders. Much of the success of the Warriors can be attributed to the skillful coaching and encouragement of a young man named Zanen Pitts, who recognizes what his players are up against. “Out of the kids that people are afraid to give a chance to, I’d give this kid a chance,” he says of one of his students, a diligent and inventive player who gives his all off and on the court: “To watch him play was to become accustomed to surprise,” writes Streep. Other players have their own styles, some brash and attention-seeking, some shy but fearless. Readers will applaud the boys’ accomplishments against the long odds while shaking their heads at the many institutional and social obstacles placed in their way, not least of them lack of support from higher education. As the author documents, of 222 Montana students recruited for college athletics, “just one basketball player was Native American, a young woman.” With its excellent on-court set pieces and search for context, Streep’s book nicely bookends Michael Powell’s Canyon Dreams (2019), a story of basketball on the Navajo Reservation.

A thoughtful call for social justice as much as a story of striving for athletic excellence.