HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – How many times have you taken a moment to sit back and really soak up the moment?
When is the last time you paused to examine your next step and where it is you plan to go after living a dream, in this case playing basketball at the highest level?
Both Adonal Foyle and Kenny Anderson have done exactly that. With a combined 27 seasons of playing experience in the NBA (13 seasons for Foyle and 14 for Anderson) the guests on Episode 23 of the Hang Time Podcast bring a perspective as retired players that you simply cannot afford to miss.
LISTEN HERE:
There are plenty of laughs — Foyle insists Dwight Howard does the best Stan Van Gundy impersonation, but Van Gundy isn’t the best “shouter” Foyle has ever played for and Anderson doesn’t hesitate to tell you exactly how he feels about everything.
But there are also plenty of important words of wisdom being shared by both players, each bringing their own unique perspective to basketball careers that began early, for Anderson, and a little later, for Foyle.
They both began their NBA careers as top 10 picks, Anderson was the 2nd pick overall in 1991 and Foyle was the 8th pick overall in the 1997. Yet they both finished as seldom-used veterans. Anderson’s last game was with in 2005 with the Los Angeles Clippers, the 10th team he suited up for. Foyle, who finished his career with Howard and Van Gundy in Orlando, announced his retirement last week and went out in his trademark, “Renaissance Man” style — including a farewell poem dedicated to the game.
Foyle’s 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.”
As always, we welcome your feedback. You can follow the entire crew, including the Hang Time Podcast, Lang Whitaker of SLAM Magazine and Sekou Smith on Twitter.
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Kenny Anderson’s responses on the blog should be MANDATORY for every kid thinking of making a career in the NBA. Every ‘glamor’ job or spotlight profession has its backside. I learned more about what a professional NBA player (not a superstar) has to go through than all of the ‘autobiographies’ and books that have been written.
Too many times we fans see the glamor and ‘participate’ vicariously in our team’s season and forget that these are people just like us going to work. Just listening to him helped be understand something that I could never understand before…players ‘minutes’ (time spent actually on the floor) and how it translated into performance and attitude (I always thought ‘Hey, they should be happy getting 10mins of play in for what they are being paid’).
His views on ‘early entrance’ vs going to college was particularly enlightening and EVERY high school and college prospect should take notice.
Whew! Don’t know if you can keep topping previous Podcast every time out. This was another barbershop sound buster. Both guess were great.