Old guys keep winning.
Mike Kelley’s team has won the Florida Senior Games 3-on-3 basketball championship for the last three years in a row. At 6’6” Kelley stands out in a crowd in Plant City, but this height only gets him a small forward role on the court. His team, Geezer Nation, also has a player that is 6’8”, and another one that is 6’10”. Everyone on the team played college basketball. A 3-on-3 team usually has four or five players. “We met each other playing in pick-up games and leagues,” Kelley said. “They were playing before they met me, and they added me to the team. We have a guy that is 5’11”, but he is a three-point assassin,” Kelley said. “But we all can shoot a little bit. I am a pretty good mid-range shooter. We can all score. We’re all good passers. We have a guy that is unstoppable in the paint. If he gets double-teamed, I hang out at the free throw line. You have to know how to play—be smart—unselfish.”
“There are multiple tournaments that we go to,” Kelley said. “The ones that we shine in are the senior games. They have 3-on-3 tournaments all around the state, and then they have a national tournament every year.” The most recent Florida senior games medal they won is in the age 60s category. The first and second teams in a state qualify for the national tournament, and about 60 basketball teams in the 60s age category will show up. The Geezer Nation players will travel to Des Moines to play in the August competition. “We’ve also gone to Utah, where we won the gold medal two years in a row at the Huntsman’s World Senior Games,” Kelley added.
Kelley’s father was a trainer for the Detroit Lions in the 1950s and 1960s. Kelley’s parents were athletic, and he grew up playing basketball. In college, he played at Ft. Lewis College in Colorado. “I tried out for professional teams, but never made it. I was at a level where I could compete, but it didn’t work out. The cool thing about basketball is you play in high school, or you play in college, and you can play forever—there are always leagues, there are always tournaments like PRO-AMS in different cities.” These options opened doors for him to play with and against many high-level NBA players. And with the Federation of International Maxibasketball (FIMBA), Kelley has traveled to Greece to represent the USA. FIMBA runs international tournaments every two years. Geezer Nation is looking to travel to the next one.
Kelley’s wife, Deborah, owns Visiting Angels on Collins Street in downtown Plant City. Mike is the marketing manager for the business, which is a licensed Nurse Registry. They refer caregivers to provide non-medical care and assistance to seniors who want to remain independent in their own homes instead of moving into an assisted-living or medical facility.
Even though he is now in the Masters category, he continues to play, “Because I love it. I love playing basketball. It is a great creative outlet. I was given the genetics to be fairly good, and I work on staying in shape so I can compete. My main motivator to go to the gym is so I can perform in basketball….health is wealth. I don’t take any medications. In the assisted living industry, we see people younger than me who are obese, have high blood pressure, diabetes, can’t get out of bed….it’s a motivating factor seeing that every day. It is really basketball IQ at this point, and conditioning.” Tournament 3-on-3 games are two 12-minute halves and are played on a half court. “Usually, if you play in these tournaments and you are not in good shape, you are going to run out of gas,” Kelley opined. “I have an artificial hip, but I can still play. I want to keep playing. I would like to move up to the 65s next.”
