Former Warrior Adonal Foyle takes aim at political system

San Francisco Chronicle
March 22, 2018
By Scott Ostler

Adonal Foyle, who came to America when he was 15, was so eager to contribute to his new home that he founded a nationwide campus political-action organization while he was still playing in the NBA, six years before he became an American citizen.

Democracy Matters is Foyle’s baby, founded in 2001 when he was the Warriors’ center, a post he held down for 10 seasons. He is the Warriors’ all-time leading shot-blocker. He has been retired since 2009, but only from playing basketball.

Foyle works for the Warriors as a community ambassador, the perfect job for a guy with his people skills and infectious laugh. But that’s not his only gig. Foyle is working on his second masters degree, and he writes—two children’s books, two advice books for retired athletes, a poetry collections, book reviews. He is founder and president of the Kerosene Lamp Foundation, promoting education and health awareness in at-risk youth.

Also, Foyle stirs the pot of democracy, seeking a better recipe via Democracy Matters–a non-partisan, campus-based organization dedicated to getting private money out of politics, and getting real people into it.

Steve Kerr and his Warriors are not shy about offering political opinions, and even dabbling in activism, but they don’t approach Foyle’s actual impact. His organization has chapters on more than 50 college campuses, with paid interns running organized programs, and it reaches into high schools. Foyle does the heavy lifting, with the full-time assistance of his stepmother, a Colgate professor who took a sabbatical to help run DM.

Because student political activism is a hot topic these days, I dropped in on Foyle to get his thoughts, to pose the universal question, what’s goin’ on?

Foyle said that the current political debates, such as Students vs. NRA, have been good for DM growth.

“With the political climate we are in, there is a much bigger sense that this (money influencing politics) is the central issue of our time,” said Foyle, relaxing in the living room of his Orinda home. “If you look at what’s happening with almost any policy now in Washington, there is still a force that is causing politicians to not really recognize the will of the American people, in the sense that consensus doesn’t matter. . .

“It’s always perplexing when you think that in a democracy, where politicians should be responsive to the will of the majority, you’re not seeing that. I think the reason Democracy Matters is thriving more in this time is people are starting to see this disconnect, where they probably weren’t paying attention before.”

It’s simple, said Foyle, who graduated magna cum laude from Colgate with a degree in history.

“We do not want money to be the determinant of who gets elected into office and who doesn’t … I think if you argue that in a democracy that money (in the form of campaign contributions) equals free speech — and the (U.S. Supreme) Court has certainly done that— in a society where a majority of the wealth is concentrated in the hands of less than one percent, than in fact you’re saying that the more money you have, the more free speech you have, that the billionaire gets to speak more than everybody else.”

Foyle said he loves it when Kerr and other Warriors publicly express their opinions on political and social topics. He said they should never heed the scolding words of FOX News commentator Laura Ingraham, who told Trump critic LeBron James to: “Shut up and dribble.”

“The idea that somehow my ability to play sports makes me unable to be politically aware, that’s so offensive,” Foyle said. “If we say that our profession defines how we truly engage with the world, then we don’t understand the first principals of democracy. . .(That kind of thinking) is so offensive, and I think it is fundamental to this disconnect about our democracy and how it works.”

I asked Foyle about Colin Kaepernick, who has come a symbol of public protest and grass-roots activism, but has been scornful of the voting process.

“When he started (protesting), I was a bit skeptical,” Foyle said, “because I didn’t know him, in terms of what he represented in the community. But seeing how he was able to articulate his voice, and how thoughtful he was in reaching out to other people, listening, getting advice, the more aware I became of who he was and how thoughtful he was, the more powerful his story is. . .

“It took me a while to get there, but I was following his journey in real time, and have been fascinated. We don’t like messy sometimes in this country, but messy is how people grow, and I am very fortunate to have seen somebody who has sparked a national conversation at that level.”

But Foyle is dedicated to getting out the vote, while Kaepernick, so far, has expressed contempt for voting.

“That’s the disconnect,” Foyle said. “Outrage is how you get into the system. Anger, injustice is how you get into the system. The next step is sitting at the table with the people who have the power to change the rules. If you forget that fundamental step, no activism is true, no activism is complete. . .

“To me, one of the last remaining rallying calls is for us to pull together to get every single person we know, from Timbuktu to wherever, to register to vote. I think a massive voter registration drive across the country is required. (The next step in activism) is to take that cultural awakening and that cultural struggle and turn it into a positive force by going to the polls, and understanding that ultimately, that is the one remedy. … That’s how we make change at the next level.”

Is it hard for Foyle to be idealistic and optimistic in the current climate, where pessimism and cynicism seem to rule?

“I’ve always been idealistic,” Foyle said, “because I think I have been blessed in so many ways. To come from an island (Canouan, in St. Vincent and the Grenadines) with less than 1,700 people, and to make it to the NBA. I think fundamentally, I’ve seen enough of history and studied enough to know that when you look at the civil rights movement, the antiwar movement, the gender issues movement, there is a body of knowledge from those that we can call on.

“And those events were not easily-fought. They weren’t given to us. They were fought for over years, and decades. It has to be remembered that progress is not swift sometimes. It’s a long, winding road, we have to be willing to buckle up and go for the long ride, because it gets bumpy.

“I don’t know if I would say I am optimistic, as much as I would say I’m persistent.”