Old Man's Basketball Tournament

[Phil Lilley]

I headed to Ft Lauderdale, FL last week to play in the Master's BBall tournament.  This was my 3rd time to play this one - it's one of the biggest tournaments that I know of, other than Huntsman in Utah.  I've played with a few guys from the DC area a couple of times and we have eventually put together a team that competed well with the big boys this year.

We went 3-2.  Our 2 loses were close, one overtime and the other we lost by 3.  Should have won both games.  We're playing teams that play together year round.  Four of our guys play together in Maryland.

About 120 teams total.  About 35 women's teams in the 40+ and 50+, almost all from South or Central America.  They were fun to watch.  40+ to 70+ divisions for men.  We played 65+.  11 teams in our division, most from the east coast.  A team from Indy won the 65+.  We lost to a team from Harlem for 3rd place.

[BilletHead]

                      This is so neat Phil! Congrats and Thanks for sharing. 

   

[Quillback]

I miss playing hoops, knee replacement put the kibosh on that.  Glad you folks had a good time!

[dpitt]

Kudo's for hooping it up in your 60's.   Funny story, my son's basketball team had a father son night, this was a while ago,  most of the Dad's were in there 50's, we started off warming up with the boys, dads were  dropping like flies,  Achilles popped,  turned ankle,  overheating, most of us had not run a court on a long time, did not really have enough left to play a game.     I bet bball keeps you in  excellent shape.  

[Al Agnew]

Sure wish it would work out for me to take part in one of these tournaments.  I started playing again about a year ago out here in Montana.  Joined an athletic club with a great gym, they play pickup basketball 2 hours a day every day of the week, plus 2 hours for "distinguished gentlemen" on Tuesdays and Fridays before the two hours of adult all ages.  I hadn't played in two years.  I started playing with the older guys, in terrible basketball shape even though they only played half court 4 on 4.  Took several months and a bunch of minor injuries to get myself in shape.  Now I play the two hours with the old guys, plus one other day a week with the younger guys full court, plus on most Fridays I play an hour with the young guys AFTER playing two hours with the old guys.  Other than annoying plantar fasciatus, I'm feeling pretty good for a 72 year old! (I'm not the oldest of the old guys playing...there are two that are in their 80s!)

When I come back to MO, I play two hours a night two nights a week at the nearest YMCA, full court, all ages.  I need another place to play, because I've found that I need three days a week of playing to keep myself in good shape.  It took a while, but I got my 3 point shot back (I'm the streakiest shooter alive; I'll hit five in a row and then miss the next 6; works out to 40 plus percent, which isn't bad), and I'm getting a little better at driving to the hoop and pulling up for 10 footers.  The biggest thing you lose with old age is the balance you need to move quickly and effectively; I'm still reasonably quick, but don't have enough control of my body.

[Foghorn]

Sure wish I still could play. The summer I  turned 65 ( 7 years ago) , I was playing against my 15 year old grandson and twisted my left ankle after faking him out and shooting a layup. The ankle was nothing unusual for me but when I went down, I drove my right knee into the ground. Ended up tearing the labrum in my right hip. That plus 36 years getting off and on railroad cars left my back in bad shape. We used to play in the back alley behind the house and those games were tough. Almost had to draw blood to get a foul. Dad was a tremendous basketball player with scholarship offers from Mizzou and Murray State. He chose to play professional baseball instead. The story line locally was always that he was a better basketball player than baseball player. It's great that you all still get to play. I work with the grandkids on their game now.

[Phil Lilley]

9 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

Sure wish it would work out for me to take part in one of these tournaments.  I started playing again about a year ago out here in Montana.  Joined an athletic club with a great gym, they play pickup basketball 2 hours a day every day of the week, plus 2 hours for "distinguished gentlemen" on Tuesdays and Fridays before the two hours of adult all ages.  I hadn't played in two years.  I started playing with the older guys, in terrible basketball shape even though they only played half court 4 on 4.  Took several months and a bunch of minor injuries to get myself in shape.  Now I play the two hours with the old guys, plus one other day a week with the younger guys full court, plus on most Fridays I play an hour with the young guys AFTER playing two hours with the old guys.  Other than annoying plantar fasciatus, I'm feeling pretty good for a 72 year old! (I'm not the oldest of the old guys playing...there are two that are in their 80s!)

When I come back to MO, I play two hours a night two nights a week at the nearest YMCA, full court, all ages.  I need another place to play, because I've found that I need three days a week of playing to keep myself in good shape.  It took a while, but I got my 3 point shot back (I'm the streakiest shooter alive; I'll hit five in a row and then miss the next 6; works out to 40 plus percent, which isn't bad), and I'm getting a little better at driving to the hoop and pulling up for 10 footers.  The biggest thing you lose with old age is the balance you need to move quickly and effectively; I'm still reasonably quick, but don't have enough control of my body.

You can sign up on a free agent's list in most of these tournaments.  You should get picked up.

Huntman Games (October) would be a good one for you, although I haven't played there yet and don't know alot about it.  They have 5x5 and 3x3.

https://seniorgames.net/

I'm playing in Vegas in August.  Not sure what division I'm playing in and not sure if they have a 70's division.  There's another one in Austin I've been invited to but I'm waiting to see if that works out.

[Phil Lilley]

These are not my teams... just wanted to show the level of play.

[top_dollar]

This is great.  It is so important to keep moving!!