Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 at 10:53 am  |  19 responses

Adonal Foyle Retires

by Lang Whitaker | @langwhitaker

Adonal Foyle, a former number 8 pick who played 13 years in the NBA, has announced his retirement. While Foyle never became the dominant center NBA teams hoped he would develop into, he developed into a solid reserve center. Foyle is probably more familiar to fans for his involvement away from the court, such as his founding of Democracy Matters and involvement in social issues.

As Foyle told TNT’s David Aldridge last season…

Basketball has always kind of been like my center. I’ve never been one of those people who thought the game is boring. I always find the game to be fascinating and an opportunity to learn so much. Most of what I do kind of tentacles out from the center, which is the game. Everything else is kind of connected. Basketball has been a part of my life … when you look at basketball, and what it’s done from many levels, you look at it from a socio-economic level, and what it’s done to our society, what it’s done to the integration globally. You could trace globalization through basketball. I find basketball to be a fascinating part of our society in general. Sports is, but I think basketball, because of its international implication, because it has the potential — predominately African-Americans and what it’s done for their lives — I’m intrigued by it. I like it. I think I still learn something from it after 13 years … it has the potential to take mere mortals to ridiculous levels and take average people and make them ridiculously wealthy, and has the potential to transform lives.

Do I want to play? Yeah, we all do. We all want to play ’till we’re 60. One or the other is going to decide, (either) injuries or the body don’t take it anymore. But until they rip the uniform off, I’m going to be around. I told Otis (Smith, Orlando’s general manager) when he wants it, just take it away. Just rip it off, because I’m not giving it up.

  • Add a Comment
  • Share
  • RSS

Tags: ,

  • dirty frank Posted: Aug.17 at 11:16 am
    Love the last line. Goodbye Mr. Foyle

  • newzealanderinlondon Posted: Aug.17 at 11:19 am
    a-doyle rules!

  • BossTerry Posted: Aug.17 at 11:35 am
    Servicable big-man, had a pretty good career considering he lasted so long. (without being waived)

  • riggs Posted: Aug.17 at 11:37 am
    damn i feel old.

  • LeoneL Posted: Aug.17 at 11:45 am
    We’ll miss you like you missed that backboard. Just kidding! Good luck with your future endeavors big man!

  • lexluther703 Posted: Aug.17 at 11:51 am
    The posterchild for overpaid athletes who receive enormous paydays because of their “potential”. Either way, good luck with your future, Mr. Foyal..

  • Coney Islander Posted: Aug.17 at 1:26 pm
    Who’s Adonal Foyle?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?:o/ Good riddance to bad rubbish!

  • JOE! Posted: Aug.17 at 1:31 pm
    Didn’t he stop playing right after he got drafted?

  • The Nupe Posted: Aug.17 at 1:53 pm
    Since he barely played – I can’t say I’ll miss him. However, I wish him luck. He has lead a great off-the-court life and has done his best to contribute positive things to the community. His legacy will not be in the hall of fame, nor will he be thought of as a great NBA player. However, he may well be considered a great man and humanitarian – which is a much bigger honor. BTW, his poem that he wrote to say goodbye to the NBA was nice too.

  • Iannyb Posted: Aug.17 at 2:01 pm
    Good career Adonal coming from a fellow Caribbean man. You repped good enough even though you court time was scarce. Now you’re invited to St Lucia to tutor the young men.

  • davidR Posted: Aug.17 at 2:55 pm
    i present to you, the greatest adonal foyle mix. thanks for the bay area memories, good and bad, adonal. best of luck:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUY_TSpCkXk

  • dfrance Posted: Aug.17 at 3:29 pm
    @lexluther The funny thing is, he recieved a big ole payday way after he proved he was a bum. Hopefully since he’s a stanup dude by all accounts, he’ll put some of those millions he didn’t really earn on the court, to good use off it.

  • PlanetAsia14 Posted: Aug.17 at 4:17 pm
    Wasn’t a superstar, but a great tutor/veteran to the young guns of the league… Best of luck Adonal.

  • B.C. Posted: Aug.17 at 4:33 pm
    About time this dude sucks.

  • The Philosopher Posted: Aug.17 at 5:15 pm
    Respect.

  • total scrotal implosion Posted: Aug.17 at 6:38 pm
    Extremely overpaid. like the frenchie said he got a large contract after he proved to be a mediocre backup. Nice for him, but he didnt do siht on the court. And as far as humanitarian stuff, deke should be the base off which all others are judged. Im sure guys give, but they could give so much more and still have insane money. Reading books to kids for 30 mins is nice and all, but they can do more. It goes beyond athletes, oprah for instance, could single handedly make a huge impact, but shes more interested in her empire, yes she gives some but still has billions, she could do so much.

  • IAMORANGE4EVER Posted: Aug.17 at 6:48 pm
    Adonal I chose Colgate over Syracuse Foyle is a Patriot League Legend.

  • Chief Posted: Aug.18 at 7:22 am
    Trust in Foyle to retire like a man.

  • wayno Posted: Aug.18 at 10:16 am
    NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! I seriously didn’t know he was in the league still actually…

Comments




The comments section is a place to further discuss the topics in this post. Commenters who seek to accomplish any of the following may be banned: - Personally attack other commenters. - Make derogatory comments regarding race, ethnicity, language, gender, sexual orientation or religion. - Troll, or comment with the intention of creating problems. Trolling includes, but isn't limited to, baiting people to flame at you, encouraging people to leave the site, spamming and using alternate IDs.