In part two of our conversation Foyle talks about retiring, life after hoops, why he loves poetry and what it was like being inducted into the Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame

SCOTT JACOBS

Missed part 1 of our chat with Adonal? Read it here.

And now, here’s part 2.

JS:  Speaking of memories, what would you consider your favorite NBA memory now that you’re retired or a good story that you’ll always be fond of.

AF: I think that was definitely one of them.  I think my first year of being drafted.  Just making it.  I think spending 13 years in the league.  Most people didn’t think I’d be there that long and I managed to take my play and make it work for me, and make my things that I do work for me.  I’m very proud of that.

JS: How hard of a decision was it to retire after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery?  Have you ever second guessed your decision ever since?

AF: No.  I mean, I was in so much pain that it wasn’t even a question.  Once I got the surgery I thought everything was going to be fine, but it wasn’t.  It actually felt terrible.  I felt a lot of pain. So I was like, ‘this has to be the time.’  If I had knees I would be playing until they literally took the uniform off of me and threw me out of the league.

JS: Shortly after your retirement you landed a role with the Magic as their team’s director of player development. What kind of transition has it been for you, going from an NBA player since 1997 to a front office position with Orlando?

AF: I think it was probably a bit quick in terms of getting a job right away.  I went to school that summer and then straight out of school I went to do this job.  I think in many ways you’re never really prepared for this kind of transition.  I think I’ve been more prepared than most.  I finished up my college degree.  I’m a few credits away from my Masters degree.  I thought extensively and wrote extensively about retirement experiences of NBA players.  So I think I put myself in the absolute best place to take advantage of retirement.  Yet, it’s something that’s so difficult.  After 20 years of playing one sport and really becoming very good at it you have to give it up and to start something else that you’re not very good at.  So I always find that to be an interesting thing.  If a golfer becomes great in his prime he literally can enjoy the benefits of that until he’s like 70, he can still be playing.  Basketball, when we’re done, we have no knees, no nothing.  When we’re most brilliant, as far as mentally, is when we’re most vulnerable.

JS: What does the Director of Player Development do? What kind of job responsibilities do you have with the Magic?

AF: I basically think of myself as a mentor.  I look and see what happens on the court.  If something is happening on the court I can talk to the guy about it.  Lifting your arms when you rebound, holding the ball 10 inches higher.  I can talk to them about stuff that happens on the court but I can also talk to them about stuff off the court.  They want to do something, like a charity.  They want to figure out a way how to do something off the court.  I can put them in touch with the right people and help them to figure it out.  It’s both on and off the court and I think in terms of mentorship and being there, and lending a hand, and lending them an opportunity to talk and to feel out what they want to do.  Just trying to help them figure out what they want to do after basketball, and that is really looking at the arch of a guys career.  How does he fit into this thing, the way he is now, into retirement.  So that’s pretty unique.

“Basketball, when we’re done, we have no knees, no nothing.  When we’re most brilliant, as far as mentally, is when we’re most vulnerable..” – Adonal Foyle

JS:  That sounds like an interesting position.  You hardly ever hear about the after-NBA life unless guys go into the front office or join the broadcast team or whatever.  So that’s a very interesting position that you have.  Speaking of players what was your initial reaction when GM Otis Smith pulled off those two mega deals to reshape the Magic?

AF: Nothing surprises me with Otis, because unlike most GM’s he’s constantly there.  He’s always present, he’s at every shoot-around, every practice, he travels with the team, he watches every single game that these guys play.  I think in many ways, when he does something it’s because he sees something.  He knows that something needs to get done.  He’s seen it.  It’s not theoretical, it’s very basic in practicality.  Obviously when you have guys that you’ve been with awhile, you’re emotionally connected to them and you obviously become a part of their inner circle of who they are.  But when things aren’t working and you make a change it doesn’t make it easy.  It just makes it business that you have to do.  Things that you don’t normally want to do, but it may be in the best interest of the team.  So I think those decisions have been very difficult to kind of lookout and watch, but at the same time I understand them.  I understood them in a way, just by being there, seeing how diligent he is, that he’s earned the right to make those decisions because of how he is as the general manager.

JS:  What kind of relationships did you have with the guys who were traded: Mickael Pietrus, Marcin Gortat, Vince Carter, and Rashard Lewis? Was it tough to see them go?

AF: I  played with Mickael at Golden State so I already had a pre-existing relationship with him, and I played with all these guys in the last few years at the end of my career here.  It does make it a bit difficult, but one things guys are starting to understand is that it’s part of the business of the league.

JS: On September 24, 2009 you were inducted into the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame, becoming just the 8^th NBA player ever to receive such an honor. What was that experience like for you?

AF: It was so amazing to go up there and meet all these amazing people and they were so generous and I got to meet some of the other award winners.  It was really an amazing time. My mom was there. My stepmom was there.  It was really a cool experience just to be there and to really be given something so unbelievable. I obviously didn’t feel worthy of it, but it was so amazing that I’ll spend the rest of my days trying to live up to what this award meant and means.  I was floored.  I really had a great time.

JS:  Off the court you’re a guy who has a love for poetry. Where did that passion for poetry start and what other non-sports things are you passionate about?

AF: When I was in high school I was in AP English and I was asked to write a poem and I was stressing out about it.  It was freaking me out, because I had never done anything like that.  I was like, ‘okay, I have to do this,’ and I wrote it.  I like the idea of compacting your thoughts into some kind of formula and making it not very wordy.  Making it very concise. Every word is strategic and every word is important.  And every word has a meaning or a meaning beyond a meaning.  So I like the idea of the restraint.  Everybody if you’re emotionally upset can scream or howl, but there’s something to be said when you can take a dramatic event and make it beautiful or make it poignant or make it a little bit more than sadness.  There is a way to make it more visual, more dark.  You can get to a point where you can really paint yourself and you do it with such a little amount of words.  I like the idea of the restraint of that.  I like playing around with words. I like the diction.  I like the choices that you make when you’re writing poetry, so that’s pretty cool.

(On his hobbies)

In terms of other things I do, I love the movies.  I love going to the theater.  I love traveling.  I travel to different countries. I travel globally.  I love to read.  I love wine.  I love going to Napa and trying different wines.  Trying to figure out what I like.  What are the characteristics of making a wine great, or good, or not good.  I love doing that.

JS:  Wow, that was an impressive list.  The wine thing, that was pretty cool.  Obviously being in Golden State for as long as you were, you weren’t very far away from Napa Valley.

AF: 35 minutes!  I had it down pact.

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