The 51-year-old Gilletti arrived in Portland,Oregon late Wednesday evening from Tulsa, Oklahoma for one reason and one reason only: to compete in the 2008 AND1 Mix-Tape Tour open-run held at Memorial Coliseum on Thursday afternoon.

This is no publicity stunt or novelty act rooted in a decade's worth of AND1 streetball. This is for the love of the game, straight from the heart of an AND1 disciple who says "it's always been a dream to play" with the Mix-Tape Tour.

Now, Gilletti will get the chance – along with an estimated 150 other streetball hopefuls - at a shot of playing against the likes of The Professor, Helicopter and Escalade on Saturday.

"I still have a little something left in the tank," said Gilletti standing in a musty basketball gym outside of Portland, the first stop on this season's Mix-Tape Tour.

"I'm going to make the most out of it. All I can say is – and no disrespect meant to any other fellas – but I hope they don't take me too lightly. They're going to find out the old man has some spunk in him. I'm hard to shake on 'D.' I don't hold and grab."

But Gilletti almost didn't make it to Portland.

He nearly missed his Wednesday morning flight after severe lighting storms struck the Tulsa area. That's when doubt crept in. What was a 50-something-year-old guy doing hopping a flight to a city 1,942 miles away just to play some basketball?  In the end, Gilletti flew standby letting nothing stand in the way of his dream. Yet, that's not the first time the 5-9, 160-pound point guard - who goes by the moniker "The Fountain of Youth" – had to overcome an obstacle.

Joey knows that game all too well.

A late bloomer growing up outside of Anaheim, California, Gilletti didn't start playing basketball until right before high school in the early '70's when he used the sport as a shield against the domestic violence occurring at home. The game became Gilletti's saving grace.

"I was pretty much a loner and every time there was trouble I would just grab the ball and go," admitted Gilletti.

Soon after, Joey played ball whenever he could although he admittedly shied away from organized basketball. He'd play before, during and after school and frequented neighborhood boys clubs to get in a game once his family moved to Pasadena in his teenage years.

"It was rough there. It was the hood, but there was a big difference in talent. We'd go out to Venice Beach and play."

Around that time is when Gilletti befriended and began playing pick-up ball with a lanky older kid who was attending Pasadena City College at the time – Michael Cooper. Cooper – who would go on to become a legend with the "Showtime" Los Angeles Lakers – took Joey under his wing.

"Even though I knew I didn't belong talent wise, something kept drawing me to those games and I'd go to his (Cooper's) house and he'd take me with him. Every place he went I was with him."

Eventually Cooper would inspire Gilletti to walk on at PCC, where he made the junior varsity team at the two year school. But that experience was short-lived as he soon left school. The odds were stacked against Joey. After a falling out with his father – a professional gambler with deep Italian bloodlines –Gilletti basically was disowned by his dad, leaving Joey to fend for himself.

"I was homeless, trying to go to school, and hold down a job," said Gilletti with a distant look in his eye. "Playing ball was just more than I could handle. It just didn't work out. I was basically teaching myself about life."

Shunned by his old man - to his dad's dying day- and separated from his own mother for the better part of thirteen years, Gilletti knows now he endured constant hardships for a reason and eventually a fresh start in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

"Life was pretty rough for me until my late thirties. It's only been for the last seven or eight years that life has been really good for me. I have a nice humble little life and I'm grateful for the hard lessons I've learned, because I might not be the man I am now.

"He (Joey's dad) never saw me play. Neither has my mom who is getting up there in age and is in poor health. I'd like to be on some sort of highlight reel at least once to show them.

Joey confesses he owes a lot to AND1 and their famed Mix-Tape Tour, a cult basketball following that easily replaced lesser vices in his life.

"It's very addicting. That's the kind of streetball I played outside, back in the day at Venice Beach."

Gilletti first saw the And1 Mix-Tape Tour episode on ESPN in 2002 and was instantly hooked. He wanted to play in Oklahoma City in 2005, but that was before he ruptured his Achilles. He was broken. Joey remembers crying afterwards at the missed chance at showing he belonged. In 2007, Gilletti finally saw the Mix-Tape Tour live after traveling 258 miles to Dallas, Texas from Tulsa. Now with the first stop of the tour kicking off in Portland, Gilletti felt he was called to make this journey.

"I normally wouldn't go to a city by myself where I didn't know anybody. People told me I was crazy when I told them I was going to do it but it seemed to be the right thing to do. You're always going to have everyone coming out who thinks they are the best streetball player. And you'll always have your mix of good and bad players. That will be the interesting part for me. Do I want to play or have a little showmanship?

"Nobody is expecting a 50-year-old guy to come out and play basketball when he's coming off a ruptured Achilles. It takes a lot of heart at my age to come out when you're past your prime and try to compete with these young kids."

Back home in Tulsa, Gilletti spends his day working a full-time job at Ferguson Enterprises Inc. – a plumbing and builder supplier – where he's a warehouse worker, and pursuing his AND1 dream.

"My life is pretty simple. I wasn't ever sure it would ever get to that point, but sometimes in life people like me get a break. It's just a blessing."

After rising around 4:30am and personally rehabbing to strengthen his Achilles, Gilletti works a nine-hour shift before heading home for another workout and some basketball. The after-work alternative includes riding five-miles on an exercise bike and more rehab routine. Mix in a little AND1 watching and Joey "The Fountain of Youth" Gilletti is all set, counting each blessing along the way.

"I feel just blessed to be here. At this same time, I've been around the game a long time and I know what the tour is all about. I just want to be real about it. I don't have the same pressures everyone else does coming to play. I know what kind of skills I have, but this is a once and a life time opportunity."

"I'm nobody special. I'm just a guy that loves basketball."