Anderson: A standout as a stand-in

Anderson: A standout as a stand-in

November 3, 2009

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — After watching this Ryan Anderson kid through his first three starts as a stand-in, you have to ask (if only in jest):

So how are the Orlando Magic going to find Rashard Lewis playing time when he comes back?

Even Anderson laughed at the question.

Anderson, 21, has been doing more than just keeping Lewis' power-forward spot warm, but he realizes his days as a starter are numbered. He'll be heading to the bench when Lewis returns from a league-mandated suspension in seven more games.

Anderson has been very Lewis-like in playing the role, averaging 17.3 points per game, second only to Dwight Howard's 21.7 ppg. He, too, is 6 feet 10, and can shoot 3-pointers, nailing 11-of-20 for 55 percent.

And he'll be looking to provide offense again if shooting guard Vince Carter (sprained left ankle) and small forward Mickael Pietrus (flu-like symptoms) are unavailable tonight against the Detroit Pistons.

Coach Stan Van Gundy concedes that Anderson's stellar play has presented a ticklish problem, not to mention an impressive logjam at the position among Lewis, Anderson and Brandon Bass.

"It's something we're going to have to deal with, no question," Van Gundy said. "But it's a good problem for a coach to have: Too many good players. It's better than the other way around."

Barring injuries, Anderson and Bass are going to see their playing time shrink.

Van Gundy has every intention of starting Lewis at power forward when he's eligible to come back — Nov. 16 against the Charlotte Bobcats in Orlando.

Lewis turned 30 in August and has been a workhorse as a two-time all-star. He led all teammates in minutes played last season (36.6 per game) and was second next to Howard in his first season in Orlando.

He has given the Magic a matchup advantage with his ability to shoot the 3-pointer, leading the league last season in 3s made and attempted.

The Magic reached the NBA Finals with Lewis providing an unconventional twist in Van Gundy's lineup, so why would Van Gundy change now?

Lewis will see some time at small forward, but only in certain situations, leaving Anderson and Bass to battle for the leftovers. This is the way it works on contending teams that are loaded.

So why not move Lewis to small forward — once his natural position — and keep Anderson at power forward?

The issue comes down to defense.

The Magic are starting Pietrus at small forward so he can mostly guard the best perimeter player. He has a much better chance than Lewis of keeping up with the likes of LeBron James and running through screens to chase the Pistons' Rip Hamilton (who, by the way, is out tonight with a sore ankle).

Lewis played small forward his first nine years in Seattle, but has now become comfortable with the switch as he ages and fits into Van Gundy's system.

For Anderson, he knew the score coming in when he arrived in a trade from New Jersey with Carter. But he says he'll chat with Van Gundy about his role.

"All I can do is play as hard as I can. It's not really up to me," he said. "It's something eventually I'll have to talk to coach about. I have no idea what will happen when Rashard comes back, whether I'll play alongside him or come off the bench. I just want to help us win."

By Josh Robbins - Orlando Sentinel

November 27, 2009

Anthony Johnson had every reason to feel upset about his role with the Orlando Magic until Thanksgiving night.

The team's regular starting point guard, Jameer Nelson, is out with a knee injury, but Johnson still didn't play in the second halves of Sunday's game against Toronto or Wednesday's game against Miami.

Johnson responded like he always does. He didn't complain. He continued to offer teammates tips and suggestions culled from his 12 previous seasons in the NBA. He worked on his shooting after practices.

That extra effort paid dividends Thursday when he came off the bench and scored 17 points to help the Magic beat the Atlanta Hawks 93-76.

"Everybody that's in this league wants to play a lot of minutes, but sometimes it's not in the cards," Johnson said afterward. "I'm just trying to stay patient and trying to stay professional. The bottom line is longevity and just being a good teammate. I'm just trying to stay positive and stay ready."

The Magic need Johnson to continue to provide more strong performances, beginning with tonight's road game against the Milwaukee Bucks and their lightning-fast rookie point guard, Brandon Jennings.

With Nelson injured, the Magic have just two point guards, and coach Stan Van Gundy acknowledges that 34-year-old starter Jason Williams needs more rest than normal these days. Sunday's contest against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden will end a grueling stretch in which the Magic will have played four games in five nights.

Johnson played just over 21 minutes against Atlanta, including the game's final 13 minutes. Van Gundy said afterward that the Magic wouldn't have beaten the Hawks without Johnson.

Dwight Howard said other players can learn from Johnson's example.

"He wasn't worrying about or mad about not playing in the last few games," Howard said. "He just came out and did his job. That's the difference between this year's team and last year's team. When we have situations where guys miss games, usually when they come back and play they're [ticked] off and they don't perform like they want to.

"He didn't think about why 'the coach hasn't played me' or this or that. He just went out there and played. It shows that this team is not worried about points or who plays the most minutes but just winning."

Johnson, 35, has dealt with professional disappointment this past year. He helped the Magic reach the NBA Finals after Nelson suffered a serious shoulder injury on Feb. 2, but when Nelson returned for the championship series, Johnson didn't play a single minute against the Los Angeles Lakers.

This summer, the Magic also tried to trade for Golden State Warriors point guard C.J. Watson in an attempt to acquire a younger backup to Nelson.

Johnson stayed quiet through it all. He never expressed any anger publicly.

"When you're in the rotation and you don't play, it's easy to get frustrated," Vince Carter said. "He's been wonderful. He's been very supportive."

Johnson has perspective. He said he recently thought back to 1997, the year the Sacramento Kings used the 40th overall pick in the draft to select him out of the College of Charleston. Johnson realized that he's one of perhaps 10 players chosen that day who still draw an NBA paycheck.

He smiled as he recalled that thought.

"His professionalism, his work ethic, his toughness are the reasons that he's had the lengthy career that he's had," Van Gundy said. "He's a competitor."

As Thursday showed, he's someone who's not done competing just yet.

George Diaz – Orlando Sentinel - COMMENTARY

7:44 PM EDT, March 20, 2010

The Most Important Player on the Orlando Magic roster hasn't played a minute this season.

He's only played 62 minutes over the last two seasons.

He wears a stylish sports coat instead of a jersey on most nights. He sits on the far end of the bench, close enough for any courtside fan passing by to reach out and touch, unless the security guy intervenes.

His salary is $1.3 million.

The Average Joe sitting in the upper deck might look down at Adonal Foyle and hoist a beer in his honor: "You've got the cushiest job in sports dude!"

Perception is a funny thing. It's true that Foyle isn't dazzling anybody with his low-post moves. Nobody will ever mistake him for Superman. It's hard to remember the last time he rated a mention on ESPN.

But if you peek behind the curtain, where games are won and lost in the day-to-day grind of practice, or in the privacy of the locker room where discussions are held about a team's focus or post-retirement options, Foyle is a million-dollar bargain.

"He may not be the Most Valuable Player but he is the most important player we have on the roster," said Magic General Manager Otis Smith. "He's a veteran who can help young guys deal with the ins and outs of basketball as well as the game of life. Basketball is bigger than what we see for those 48 minutes."

Outside the scope of those 48 minutes, Foyle is one of the most intriguing players in the NBA. His fingerprints are all over the place — the degree from Colgate (magna cum laude), the stack of poems he has written, the 900 or so bottles of wine in the cellar of his Bay area home, and two foundations he has established. Did we mention that he's also in the Humanitarian Hall of Fame?

That kind of resume deserves a closer look.

Foyle allowed me tag-along access to his world last Wednesday, leading up to Orlando's game against the San Antonio Spurs in the Amway Arena. We started with coffee at 8 a.m. at the corner unit condo he leases overlooking Lake Eola in downtown Orlando, and said goodbye around 11 p.m., as he was leaving the arena to drive to the Orlando Executive Airport for a charter flight to Miami.

In-between, he jockeyed with Dwight Howard in the post during practice, then went-one-on-one with Magic Spanish-language broadcaster Joey Colon in five games of racquetball in the afternoon. He left the racquetball court for a quick haircut, and then scooted back to his condo to pack for the one-day road trip before going to the arena at 6:30 p.m.

Foyle has no worries about tweaking any muscles on the racquetball court. He's not on the active roster, although he has suited up when other players have been inactive for various reasons. He was dressed and ready to go when Orlando played the Chicago Bulls on March 11, a night when Magic fans began chanting his name during a 29-point blowout. Coach Stan Van Gundy decided not to play Foyle for meaningless, mop-up minutes.

No offense taken.

"There in the moment, it was a nice thing, but I'm also thinking, ‘Oh my God, I've been sitting here for three hours,' " Foyle said, laughing. "I understand the context in which it was meant. In many ways it was a compliment."

Foyle, who recently turned 35, has been around long enough to understand the intricacies of the league and the dynamics of team chemistry. It is one of the very reasons he remains in the NBA, and why Smith opts not to give up that last roster spot to some young guy with potential.

Experience has its perks.

He has been hopping on those planes for 13 seasons now, a journey of professional and personal growth. His political awareness, appreciation for art, and taste for wine has evolved over the years, much like his role on the basketball court.

He played 10 seasons with the Golden State Warriors — starting in 269 games as a post-position player — before the two sides mutually agreed to part ways in 2007. Foyle has spent the rest of his NBA career with Orlando, expect for a brief period in Memphis after the Magic traded him as part of the deal to acquire Rafer Alston in February of 2009. Smith brought him back 21 days later after Memphis cut ties with Foyle, reflecting Smith's strong feelings of what he can bring to this franchise.

With each snippet of our conversation, ranging from campaign finance reform to the subject matter of the thesis he is working on — the struggles of retired NBA players — its' easy to see why Smith is so smitten. Foyle makes an impression.

None of this will ever show up on the stat sheet.

"Everybody thinks the game is the moment," Foyle said. "But basketball is about the world behind the game. The game is the easiest part of this life. To get to the game so many things must come together. That game becomes a performance. You have to do all the work of putting it together. There's a whole lot going on behind the scenes that people don't see."

In those private moments is where Foyle pushes Howard, not only with his muscle in practice, but with his words. He challenged Howard to work harder during a players' only meeting in late January, after the Magic barely beat the Boston Celtics. "The things that Adonal said were probably the most poignant things and really challenged a lot of guys, especially Dwight," teammate J.J. Redick said. "He has Dwight's respect, the franchise player."

On any given game night, Foyle will take notes on a stat sheet, helping prep all of Orlando's bigs — Howard, Marcin Gortat and Brandon Bass — on nuances that will help them win battles up front. Against the Spurs, he urged Howard to go to the baseline because defenders were double-teaming him from the middle of the floor. He told Bass to adjust his shot by attacking the shoulder of a bigger defender, instead of trying to shoot over the top.

And then there are all those other conversations, on worldly topics.

A man who smiles easily, Foyle stormed off the practice court in late January, uncharacteristically furious. Elizabeth Brett, a Magic intern, asked him what was troubling him. Foyle was upset over a Supreme Court ruling, prohibiting the government from banning political spending by corporations in candidate elections.

It's that passion that has driven him to start two foundations. Democracy Matters seeks to engage young people in the political process. The Kerosene Lamp Foundation promotes education and health awareness for kids, providing free basketball clinics and other opportunities. The name comes from Foyle's own experiences: Growing up in Canouan, an island in the southern reaches of the Caribbean, Foyle didn't have the luxury of electricity or running water. Because candles were too expensive, he studied with a kerosene lamp by his side.

Foyle can afford a few perks these days. His apartment is apartment-model immaculate, a few pieces of art and wine bottles dotting the walls. A miniature Magic basketball on the coffee table is the only giveaway that he has an interest in sports.

He travels when he wants. He has put his brother through school, and paid for his sister to go to culinary school and become a chef. Foyle didn't get the chef's gene. Making coffee is his one and only culinary talent. There's a lot of takeout food and eating out at Kres, Hue, or Ruth's Chris Steak House in Winter Park.

He plays racquetball at least once a week with Colon, his feisty nemesis who is much more apt to scream at the end of a point than Foyle. Colon got the better of him on Wednesday, without the advantage of seven racquets that Foyle brought with him in his gym bag.

This Magic thing is a good gig.

Foyle knows it. He sees himself as a vagabond traveling salesman, but he's never trying to dump anything on your doorstep under false pretenses. There is honor and passion in what he does. There is sweat. There is sacrifice.

And yes, there are perks.

On game nights, Adonal Folye has the best seat in the house.

Vince the bowler? DJ Pietrus? Magic players have many talents besides hoops

By Josh Robbins - Orlando Sentinel

6:02 PM EDT, April 10, 2010

We all know what the Orlando Magic can do on the basketball court.

But what about off the court?

After all, professional athletes are people, too.

And like everybody else, Magic players have talents that have nothing to do with their jobs.

Marcin Gortat learned how to repair cars in his native Poland. Jameer Nelson and J.J. Redick cook well. Jason Williams astounds teammates with card tricks.

Ryan Anderson crafts music on his MacBook laptop. Brandon Bass creates and sings rap-music lyrics. Mickael Pietrus spins records at clubs.

Adonal Foyle writes. Dwight Howard impersonates just about everyone. Vince Carter can hook a bowling ball down a lane.

Indeed, Magic players have plenty of talents off the court.

These are their stories.

The next time you go bowling, don't be surprised if you look up and see Vince Carter in the lane next to you.

The Magic's starting shooting guard loves the sport so much that he played this past summer in a local league. He owns six bowling balls and four pairs of bowling shoes.

His high score is 256.

"Summertime is when I play all the time," Carter says. "I love it."

Carter bowled a bit as a kid growing up in Daytona Beach, but he traces his fascination with the sport to watching it on TV. He saw professional bowlers hook the ball, and Carter decided he wanted to master the hook himself.

His passion grew when he played for the Toronto Raptors from 1998 to 2004. When the Raptors would play their trademark early Sunday-afternoon home games, Carter would go directly from the arena to a local alley and be bowling by 4 or 5 p.m.

Carter continued to bowl after Toronto traded him to New Jersey in Dec. 2004. In Jersey, he and teammate Jason Kidd joined a bowling league together.

Now, Carter bowls with a group of friends that includes Magic community ambassador Bo Outlaw.

Carter keeps four different bowling balls in the trunk of his car. One of them has his initials — VLC, for Vincent Lamar Carter. He uses one ball only for oily lanes. He uses another for dry lanes.

He still watches old tournaments on ESPN Classic.

And, one day, after his basketball career has ended, he can envision himself attempting to become a pro bowler.

"Absolutely," he says.

"I like bowling so much that I don't go there just to have fun and for leisure and to laugh and joke. When it's your turn, let's go. That's how I bowl."

Marcin Gortat repaired cars before he concentrated on basketball.

The affable backup center spent four years at a high school in his native Poland learning to become a car mechanic. He also apprenticed in repair shops.

"I was like an intern over there, and I was watching their hands and what they were doing," Gortat says.

At the time, he didn't realize that he would eventually play pro basketball in the United States.

But now that he's making a handsome living — he's in the first year of a five-year contract that will pay him $34 million — he indulges his love for fine cars.

Gortat owns a black BMW M5, and it's his pride and joy.

He doesn't work on car himself because it would endanger his hands and because much has changed about cars since he was in school. He leaves the nitty-gritty labor to experts.

But he's constantly asking those folks to make improvements to the vehicle — and that's where his background as a mechanic comes into play. All those tweaks, he says, has made driving his BMW from 0 to 60 mph feel like piloting a jet airplane.

"That was the car of my dreams," Gortat says. "Because I bought the car of my dreams, just one day I came up with the idea, ‘Hey, let's make a beast out of this car.'

"I'm talking about every little detail. I'm thinking how to make the car lighter. People are laughing that I spend a lot of money on my rims, but they don't know that all my four rims weigh the same as one rim in another car. And they're way powerful."

The magician

Jason Williams originally gained fame for his flashy passes and dribbling.

These days, he's putting his hand-eye coordination and natural flair for showmanship to use off the court.

The backup point guard enlivens long plane flights with card tricks.

"He could be like David Blaine and do magic tricks and stuff," Dwight Howard says.

Williams picked up the card tricks from friends and from his father, Terry.

"It's all sleight of hand," Jason says. "These guys are easily amused on this team. It doesn't take much."

He's being modest.

Williams performed three of his tricks the other day for the Orlando Sentinel after a team practice.

He took a stack of cards, shuffled them and asked a newspaper reporter to pick a card.

It was the Jack of Clubs.

"You can show the camera," Williams said. "Just don't let me see it."

The card went back into the deck, and he shuffled again.

Williams picked a card out of the deck.

"Is that your card?" he asked.

"No."

He repeated the process for three other cards — none of them the Jack of Clubs.

With four cards on the table, he said, "Touch of two of 'em."

Then, he took the other two cards away.

He pointed to the two cards on the table.

"Touch one of them," he said.

Done.

Then Williams turned over that card.

And a smile crossed Williams' face.

Before the 2009-10 season even started, Ryan Anderson and teammate J.J. Redick said they were producing a rap song, with Anderson creating the music and Redick providing the vocals.

The national media had a field day with that visual. Next thing you know, major magazines reported that Redick was putting together a rap album.

Now, almost six months later, the world is still waiting to hear a song — any song — from the duo and we're kinda doubting that it'll ever exist. We think Anderson and Redick, two guys with healthy senses of humor, pulled a fast one on those gullible media types.

But Anderson, a 21-year-old backup power forward, does produce beats.

We've heard them with our own ears.

The Magic's backup power forward uses the computer programs GarageBand and Fruity Loops on his MacBook laptop to create music. He's even recently purchased an acoustic guitar, and the programs allow him to record the guitar's sounds onto his computer.

Anderson's beats are fun to listen to.

One of his recent beats included piano and orchestra strings. The 3½-minute song took him about 1½ to two hours on a team plane flight to complete.

Anderson became interested in creating his own beats from Maurice Ager, a former New Jersey Nets teammate.

"It's kind of what I do for fun," Anderson says. "I don't think people would look at me and think I make beats, but it's just kind of fun."

The writer

Adonal Foyle is a renaissance man.

Born on the Caribbean islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Foyle used the light from a kerosene lamp to study at night as a child.

All that hard work paid off. He earned an undergraduate degree from Colgate University and is working on a master's degree in sports psychology.

All along, he's pursued an interest in writing.

Foyle, a third-string center, writes poetry.

He also contributes to the Sentinel's Orlando Opinionators blog, penning essays on issues such as health-care reform and on Tiger Woods' ability to be a role model.

He also serves as the literary editor for Hoop, the NBA's official magazine.

"One of the things that I dislike is that people tend to assume that by virtue of the fact that you're an athlete or you do something that you're really good at that you should not have a voice in other things," Foyle says. "I think what is most critical for me is that I feel like you need people from all walks of life to engage in anything that is happening."

The rapper

Backup power forward Brandon Bass is one of the most popular players in the Magic locker room.

Teammates love to kid around with him and make fun of the Louisiana native's southern accent and trademark syntax.

"We're going to get him a thesaurus," point guard Anthony Johnson says. "We're going to get him a dictionary."

In fact, Bass might be one of the best poets on the team.

In his spare time, Bass records rap music culled from his life experiences. He produces the music mostly as a release. He has no plans or desire to market it to an audience.

One of his songs revolves around his mother, Aretha, who died of a heart attack when Bass was 10 years old.

Set to the hooks of Drake's and Trey Songz' "I Just Want To Be Successful," it features this passage, which Bass can recite by heart:

Bass has been in the studio four times this season, as recently as a week ago.

"What I enjoy about it is putting my life story in a rhyme," Bass says.

The cooks

The Food Network airs a popular show called Iron Chef America in which two chefs compete against each other in an hour-long cooking contest.

May we suggest a showdown between Magic starting point guard Jameer Nelson and backup shooting guard J.J. Redick?

"I'd put money on me," Nelson says. "I can make whatever you need me to make. I'm serious."

"Jameer has his own chef!" Redick says. "Jameer does not cook."

Sounds like smack talk.

But, seriously, folks, both guys are pretty good around the kitchen.

Nelson says he cooks for his family.

"I don't follow recipes or anything like that," Nelson says. "I just cook off of imagination."

Redick often cooks with his fiancée, Chelsea Kilgore.

"To me, it's relaxing," Redick says. "Sometimes we make a homemade brine for a pork tenderloin. Sometimes we make a homemade marinade. So, we do different things. When you go through that process and then you finally get everything on the table and there's a finished product and it tastes good, it's satisfying. It's rewarding."

The impersonator

We all know Dwight Howard has a taste for the theatric.

Donning a Superman cape during the 2008 slam dunk contest at All-Star Weekend is proof of that.

But Howard, Orlando's starting center, also is an excellent mimic.

He does impressions of plenty of basketball personalities, including TNT analyst Charles Barkley, Magic coach Stan Van Gundy and teammate Jason Williams.

All are spot-on.

His impersonation of Barkley seems to be his favorite.

"LeBron Raymone James is the best player in the world," Howard says, picking up on Barkley's Alabama accent. "If he played golf, he'd be the best golfer to ever golf. He'd be the best Twitterer if he Twittered. He would be the best Facebooker. LeBron James can do it all."

Mickael Pietrus sees parallels between his job as a pro basketball player and one of his favorite hobbies, spinning records.

Last Wednesday, the backup small forward employed a laptop and a turntable to play songs for patrons of an Orlando club called the Backroom.

At games, the audience enjoys watching Pietrus and his teammates play basketball. At the club, people enjoy listening to the music Pietrus plays.