Navajo Chief and Old Guy: Ballers Both

Today, I take a somewhat elastic approach to the term "global ball," as in basketball that embraces all types of people, including those of different nations within a country - e.g. the Native American nations in the United States. I also feature a 73-year-old dude who plays college basketball, and breaks all manner of age barriers in the process.
Not to get sappy, but I'll get sappy anyway: A day after the United States' Thanksgiving holiday, I truly feel thankful that I live in a nation in which such opportunity is available to all.

From the Boston Herald:

Alabama State has the pieces to contend for another SWAC title. Center Grienntys Chief Kickingstallionsims, a member of the Navajo tribe, is a 7-1, 265 lb. center who could become Chief Kickingserioustail if he continues to improve. Kickingstallionsims averaged eight points in 16 minutes last season and is a second-team preseason conference pick heading into 2008-09.

So far this year, he has averaged

PPG	APG	3P%	RPG	BPG	SPG
6.3	0.3	.000	2.5	2.8	0

Chief's not kicking stallion butts yet! As we see below, his name does not even mean what I so yearned for it to mean...

Collegehoops.net Top 20 Best Names in college basketball:

10) Preston LeMaster - Kentucky

Why? I am the LeMaster of my own domain!

9) Dipo Popoola - Northeastern

Why? Would be twice as funny if his name was Poopola.

8) Fats Cuyler - MSTU

Why? I used to bowl with a guy named Fats. He was fat.

7) Austin Swig - Montana

Why? It would be cool if college kids yelled "Swig! Swig! Swig! Swig!" at parties.

6) Cleve Woodfork - Tenn-Martin

Why? It takes more than a wood fork to cleave meat.

5) Dexter Shankle - UTPA

Why? This name just makes me giggle for some reason.

4) Austen Powers - CS Northridge

Why? If you don't know, I guess you don't like movies.

3) Willie Dingle - Rider

Why? It's not proper to show your Willie Dingle in public.

2) Chris Porn - Elon

Why? Because this guy knows how to use his Willie Dingle.

1) Chief Kickingstallionsims - Stetson

Why? I figured it would mean "Likes to Kick Stallions." But apparently it means "Strength of Fallen Rocks."

Be proud, Tall Chief.

Also in the South, an old man - a "chief" in years, if you will - is making waves, as only a 73-year-old balling with men 1/3 his age can do.

Here's an excerpt from an article about his exploits leading up to becoming a member Roane State Community College basketball team in Tennessee:

Mink said he spent the better part of last summer in the gym at Knoxville's Central Baptist Church.

"On the average, I was in there seven or eight hours a week, running, playing and getting myself in shape,'' Mink said. "I knew I'd be going to school and playing, so I have to have my stamina built up pretty good.''

Mink said he played on a senior Olympic team this summer (3-on-3, half-court), finishing second in state tournaments in Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia.

"And I won the Tennessee state free-throw championship this year by hitting 19 of 20,'' he said.

Mink's goal is to get himself conditioned well enough to play at full speed for a 10- to 15-minute stretch, even though it's likely he won't play more than five or six minutes in a game for Roane State.

No, he's not having a heart attack. Rather, he's having a profound-influence-on-the-way-society-views-older-people-in-sport attack.