For Ivan Leshinsky, playing the game isn’t the problem – it’s getting the players.
Maybe that’s because Leshinsky — the former Long Island University basketball star is a spry 78 years old.
“I’ll be playing in the National Senior Games for the sixth time this July,” he told the Brooklyn Eagle. “But I need a few more players on my team.”
Leshinsky says he’s looking for a playmaking guard who can shoot the three; a ferocious rebounder – or someone who can still play the old-fashioned way, would fit the bill.
Not an easy task.
“Finding someone over 75 years old still playing competitive basketball is not easy,” he said. “I’ve even appealed to some of my former LIU teammates, including Barry Leibowitz, Mike Eilenberg, Scott Singer and Bill Foley – but they all said their playing days are over.”
Yet Leshinsky marches on. He’ll be playing in the three-on-three half-court 75-79-year-old age bracket this year in Des Moines, Iowa – July 28th to August 1st. “I’m the player-coach for the Baltimore team, and I’d really like to add one or two more players who can pass and cut, pick-and-roll, set a screen, and still move their legs quickly enough to guard someone. You know the way we used to do it in the ‘60s,” he said.
“There is a nationwide directory for players,” Leshinsky, the Midwood High grad said, “About 50 players – men and women, and they’ll put blurbs next to their names on how they shoot, dribble, or rebound. I haven’t found anyone on that list yet.”
But he says there is some good competition out there – he’s waiting. It’s a real challenge – but he does admit playing basketball at his age is somewhat more difficult than finding a teammate the same age.
The Senior Games are common ground for Leshinsky who has toured with his team in Houston, Minneapolis, Cleveland and Birmingham. “We played in Pittsburgh in 2023,” he said. “There were 13 teams in the 75 year-old bracket and finished fifth.”
The games consist of two 15-minute halves, with running time the last two minutes. “If you’re fouled in the act of shooting, the shooting team keeps possession of the basketball.” The Games are played every two years.
Senior Basketball suits Leshinsky just fine. He didn’t start at Midwood until his senior year. The six-foot-six star who grew up living on Avenue J and Ocean Avenue started his love of the game at P.S. 193.
“As a Midwood senior,” he said, “I must’ve weighed about 170 dripping wet – and I was already 6-foot-6.” Yet, the 1963 grad was the most improved on the ballclub, leading the squad in scoring and rebounding. “I was recruited by about five schools, and LIU was one of them.”
He played in the 1968 National Invitation Tournament quarterfinals at Madison Square Garden on a LIU team that beat Bradley and lost to Notre Dame by a point. And in the 1968 NBA draft, he was selected by the Boston Celtics in the tenth round (130th pick). He chose to go to Israel to play basketball.
And he’s never stopped – playing. Why?
“Because I can,” he laughed. “I love it. And I really like to see where I stand with guys around the country.”
When he’s not playing basketball, he’s editing his second book he plans to publish this summer and he is a board member for the Southwest Sports and Fitness Alliance – a nonprofit he founded that uses sports as a youth development strategy.
Oh, did we mention he also plays tennis several times-a-week.
He recalled a story when he and his wife went skiing two years ago. “We were taking our equipment out of our car,” he said, “And I said, I’m getting too old for this.”
The driver of the car parked next to his said: “You’re not too old to ski. You’re too old when you stop. Once you stop what you love to do – you get old.”
And get better.
That’s exactly what Ivan Leshinsky did.
Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle. He may be reached at: [email protected] X: @AndyFurmanFSR.
