Read This: Shadow of a Nation

Image courtesy of Instagram user @eyesarecrummy.

In which the young men from a marginalized culture seek something approaching greatness and find something approaching tragedy.

"Not far away sat the other starting guard, Jo Jo Pretty Paint, a brilliant long-range shooter, a dedicated kid—just a few minutes before a game at Miles City, his coach had found him alone, crouched, shuffling, covering an invisible opponent in the locker room shower. In two years Pretty Paint would go out drinking one evening, get into a car and careen over an embankment. He would go to his grave with a photograph of himself in his uniform, clutching a basketball..."

Read the rest of Gary Smith's iconic piece over at SI.