No one would ever accuse Kevin Willis of being over the hill.
While his 23 seasons in the NBA and 17,253 points and 11,901 rebounds put him in an elite class, he likes to say his biggest accomplishment is being the oldest player ever to play in the league.
Some record books say Willis, playing his last game when he was 44 years and 224 days old, is actually the second oldest as Nat Hickey was 45 days and 363 days when he played for the Providence Steamrollers in 1948 when the NBA was actually known as Basketball Association of America.
“It means a lot,’’ said Willis, who played his last game for the Dallas Mavericks in 2007. “And it wasn’t just a gimmick when (Dallas owner) Mark Cuban asked me to come back. I wanted to go out and go up and down the court and prove I could still play. It was an honor.’’
So where does Willis stack up with records for being the oldest player ever in the other professional leagues?
In the NFL, George Blanda was 48 in 1975 when he hung up his cleats in Oakland and Gordie Howe was 52 in Hartford when he finally retired from the NHL in 1980, though he skated one shift in the International Hockey League for the Detroit Vipers when he was he was 69 in 1998.
And the oldest was actually baseball’s Satchel Paige in the major leagues, pitching when he was 59 with the Kansas City A’s in 1965.
“I feel like I am still in good shape,’’ said Willis, now 52. “I work out all the time and do a lot of the same things I have always done … the weights, the treadmill. It has always been important to me. It’s why I lasted so long.’’
— I.J. Rosenberg.
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