OrlandoMagicZone.com

October 4, 2007
by Ken Hornack

New Magic Big Man Also New Citizen

MAITLAND - Don't get Adonal Foyle wrong. It mattered to him he was with the Golden State Warriors when they ended the NBA's longest active postseason drought last spring, and stunned the Dallas Mavericks in the opening round of the playoffs.

But in the larger scheme of things, that can't compare to what the Orlando Magic's new backup center went through this past March 13.

Foyle was among the 1,151 people who took an oath at San Francisco's Masonic Auditorium to become United States citizens. He first came to America at age 15 from Canouan, a speck of an island in the Caribbean that's part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, with a student visa. But on the eve of the 2004 presidential election, he estimated it would still take another five years for him to apply for citizenship in a state brimming with people in the same situation as his.

"I'm 32, and I've never really voted in anything," Foyle said Wednesday during a break at the Magic's training camp. "So I was very excited for the opportunity to be able to do that. And to do it at a time when you probably have one of the most colorful presidential selections coming up, that's a pretty interesting time to get involved. Whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, it's an interesting political landscape."

'A HELL OF A GUY'

Colorful? Interesting?

Those terms can easily apply to Foyle, the only player in the league to have drawn comparisons to John McCain and to have sat on a panel alongside longtime Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.

"He could probably run for president someday if he actually wanted to," said Magic general manager Otis Smith, who knew of Foyle during the years in which both of them were in Golden State. "He's a hell of a guy."

Matching up against Dwight Howard in practice every day must seem like child's play compared to matching smarts with Greenspan, whom Foyle described with a laugh as "very intimidating."

Foyle's encounters with some of Washington's most powerful political figures stem from his involvement in Democracy Matters, a non-profit and non-partisan student organization he founded in 2001. Its primary focus is campaign finance reform, a subject more commonly associated with senators in their 70s from Arizona than 6-foot-10 guys who averaged almost two blocked shots per game during a 10-year span with the Warriors.

"When you put yourself out there," Foyle said, "you don't know who you're going to come into contact with. I've learned that much."

PAYING ATTENTION?

Claiming "I would like to think I'd follow ideas more than party affiliations," Foyle thinks of himself as an independent. Magic owner Rich DeVos, on the other hand, has been a prominent GOP fund-raiser for years.

In Foyle's mind and in Foyle's organization, there is room for all points of view.

"I want normal people to be curious," he said. "I want everybody to be curious because it's important. And if you're curious about anything and paying attention, politicians would be less apt to b.s."

Yes, the Magic locker room just got a lot more colorful and interesting.

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