Adonal Foyle now an American Citizen...

[stuart]

Link from the New York Times...

Always a Solid Citizen, Foyle Is Now an American One By LIZ ROBBINS

Adonal Foyle used the word “we” last week to talk about the United States and, for the first time, he could be accurate as well as proud.

Born on the island of Canouan in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Foyle, who turns 32 tomorrow, became a United States citizen last Tuesday in San Francisco.

“When I say we, it’s with a sense of history and where this country has been and the potential of where it can go,” Foyle said, citing the influences of Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy. “I say we with a full sense of the weight of the word, and a sense of the burden and hope that it carries now.”

Foyle is a shot-blocking center who barely gets off the bench for the Golden State Warriors in his 10th season, but he is far more productive off the court. In 2001, he formed a voting reform movement, Democracy Matters, to encourage college students to focus on campaign finance reform.

Today, there are 85 college chapters of Democracy Matters, including the first, at Foyle’s alma mater, Colgate, where his guardians, Jay and Joan Mandle, are professors.

Foyle said he lectured to student groups, telling them: “This is your country; you have to take it back. You have to make sure your voices are being heard.”

“They would ask me, ‘Are you going to vote?’ ” Foyle said. “I’d have to tell them, ‘Oh, sorry, I can’t.’ ”

Foyle left the Caribbean when he was 15 and never had a chance to vote. The day he pulls the lever for the first time, Foyle said, “it’s going to be huge.”

Even though he leans toward being independent, and favors the campaign finance-reform legislation of Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, Foyle plans to register as a Democrat, in part so he can vote in a primary.

“It’s about good governance rather than being a Democrat or Republican,” Foyle said. “You look at the race with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, it’s beyond belief that we have to raise so much money and yet how could we have kids not being able to graduate from college.”

He added, “I think we need to bring back a sense of integrity and trust” to Americans.

Of whom he is one.

[Czarkazem13]

I am really surprised - considering how politically active he is - that it took him this long.

Anyways, mazel tov to Foyle. I remember watching him play in Colgate, I thought he would have a better NBA career, but he was always smart and active.

[mvblair]

As CKR13 already mentioned in another thread, Adonal Foyle has retired after 13 years.

Adonal Foyle retires from NBA after 13 years, AP, August 17, 2010

Adonal Foyle is ending his NBA playing career after 13 seasons.

The 35-year-old center announced his retirement Monday after playing for the Orlando Magic the last three seasons. Foyle spent his first 10 years with the Golden State Warriors, and had a brief midseason stint with Memphis in 2009.

Foyle is expected to resign from his position as first vice president of the National Basketball Players Association this week. He averaged 4.1 points and 4.7 rebounds for his career.

The Magic touted Foyle as a great mentor for center Dwight Howard. But a right-knee injury often kept the former Colgate star from practicing last season.

Foyle also was inducted into the Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame for charitable work with his Kerosene Lamp Foundation.

This article fails to note his founding of Democracy Matters, an organization that encourages college students to promote democracy.

Adonal Foyle's Website, where you can read his poetry and find out more about his activism.

[CKR13]

A nice article written for Adonal Foyle

One of a kind Foyle was valuable presence beyond the court


Posted Aug 20 2010 6:38PM

Just like all the other players who have announced their retirement with a poem a few days after submitting their Master's thesis, Adonal Foyle was one of a kind, a gentleman giant who spent 13 seasons in the exclusive NBA world but always lived among the rest of us. A 6-foot-10 center who didn't win any individual awards, not so much as second-team All-Rookie after being picked in the lottery, but made an immeasurable impact.

The statistics were obviously underwhelming -- 4.1 points and 4.7 boards, and 10 appearances the last two seasons in Orlando and a rolling stop in Memphis because of injury and being the way-backup to Dwight Howard and Marcin Gortat. But the Magic kept wanting him back, and will keep wanting him back, and there is a statement even in the invisible walk to the finish line: they found his presence valuable even without a contribution on the court.

The one, the only Adonal Foyle was all about valuable presence beyond the court. That's of little concern to fans who wanted tangible contribution that led to victories, an understandable request in Golden State with the buildup as the No. 8 pick in '97 and the six-year, $42 million contract that came in '04, and a reasonable expectation in later years as Orlando reached for a title. It was fair to want more than 5.9 points and seven rebounds as single-season career highs. Among front-office officials in both places, though, and among countless cities in this and other countries, he will be remembered as one of the all-time great people.

That's not such a bad legacy. A guy who made a difference.

Foyle founded Democracy Matters in 2'01 to encourage grass-roots involvement in campaign-finance reform, an organization that has grown to approximately 70 chapters on college and high school campuses in 23 states. The Kerosene Lamp Foundation -- named after the light he used to study at night while growing up on an island with no electricity, Canouan -- came in '06 with the goal of empowering the youth of his native eastern Caribbean and the United States "to take control of their future." He carried books on NBA schedule hops to finish an undergraduate degree from Colgate in history. Still maintaining a part-time residence in the Bay Area, he is close to finishing a Master's degree in sports psychology from JFK University in Orinda, Calif., having submitted his thesis last week and needing only a field internship as the final requirement.

"He looked at basketball for what it was," Magic general manager Otis Smith said in the best perspective of Foyle's meaningful 13 seasons. "An opportunity for him to do greater things. His chance to impact other people."

Foyle grew up on tiny Canouan (population: 1,000) and did not play organized basketball until 16, but he turned into the player who shared the Democracy Matters program with President Bill Clinton and Rep. John L. Lewis, a civil rights hero, at a national student conference in Washington in '05.

"My mom said, 'Take everything in. Reach as far as you can. Keep reaching,' " said Foyle, who will likely take a front-office job with the Magic, probably in player development, with the goal of one day becoming an NBA general manager. "I feel like I've done that. I feel like I've honored her and I've honored myself. And that's an incredible feeling."

The poem, a farewell to his playing career, was released through the Magic. He called it Love Song to a Game.

How should I tell thee goodbye?

What can you say about a love affair to rival that of Romeo & Juliet? This is not just some melancholy ode to a hackneyed love of mortals.

I found our love deep in the entrails of the Caribbean Sea. Love that swept me to a land where our embrace became mythical.

You showed me a world that few have dreamt of.

Colgate's golden steeple, a sojourn where ancient teachings flooded my mind. There in the Chenango Valley where 13 sang my soul to flight, basketball laid siege to my soul.

I do not cry for the passing of our love for it stands radiant while my brittle bones crumble through swift time.

I have known you by so many faces; I will spend my end of days recalling.

You have infected so many with the allure of riches and black gold. But I am not angry with you my love. For to a boy who was lost in the bosom of nothing you gave hope and home.

Like the flickering of a light we come and go without much fuss. So I leave you to fend off seekers, hoping they too will cherish your unyielding countenance.

As for me, I will forever live in the glare of your loving embrace. From time to time I hope you will look in on this pitiful fool.

I will miss brothers of a quilt struggling with burning lights. If I offer advice, pierce beyond the glaring lights and see the faces behind the wall. Don't be fooled by the magicians' nibble fingers. For this is a life with mirrors and screens. Its only truth lies in the understanding it will all end.

The sound I will take home is the symphony of thousands of screaming friends.

Warriors, Magic and yes, Memphis too, I sing you praise, hope, blessings, Flowing from a boy's songs of thanks to you and you and you, to all I knew.

Please stay my "immortal love."

You know. Pretty typical stuff from a player.

"The journey can be a very strange one and can propel you in different directions," Foyle said. "I'm very proud I stayed true to myself."

In bright lights as much as the kerosene lamp.

from NBA.com

[CKR13]

Adonal Foyle was named as a Director of Player Development by the Orlando Magic Organization.