The Journey Man

To say that nothing on the tiny Caribbean island of Canouan truly prepared Adonal Foyle for the imminent prospect of facing a force field of NBA superstars with storybook nicknames is not entirely true.

Scary, yes, to eventually have to deal with the likes of the Worm, the Admiral, Mailman, Shaq Diesel . . . and the truly frightening Air. But Foyle, then a skinny little kid, had his bones rattled by a tricky creature in a terrifying folk tale and years later he penned a sonnet about it for a class at Colgate.

“It was called a Socouyant, a blood-sucking creature that turns into a ball of flames and supposedly sucks the blood of its victims,” Foyle said. “It sheds its skin and supposedly hides it. To kill it, you have to take the skin and put it in salt and pepper. Then the sun hits it and turns to ashes.”

So, at least it sounds like he is ready for Dennis Rodman.

A few months ago, it seemed as though Rodman and company would have to wait another year. Near the end of his junior season, Foyle said he was “thinking about” coming out for the draft, but his surrogate parents, Jay and Joan Mandle, both professors at Colgate, were adamant he was staying.

That abruptly changed after a season in which the Red Raiders missed the NCAA tournament for the first time in three years. The 6-foot-10, 255-pound junior, who is the career blocked-shots leader in the NCAA, had hit the glass ceiling in Hamilton, N.Y., after numbers of 24.2 points, 13.1 rebounds and 6.2 blocked shots a game.

“The real issue was he felt like he wasn’t able to benefit and improve at Colgate,” said Joan Mandle, the director of women’s studies at Colgate. “It was really a basketball decision.

“Basketball-wise, he outgrew the Patriot League. I didn’t expect he would do it, it wasn’t something he thought about. He got a lot better and the people around him weren’t as strong. Maybe because he improved, there was a gap . . . it wasn’t a fit.

“One day, we all sort of looked at each other and said, ‘What if?’ ”

Now, the question is: How high?

The watered-down NBA draft Wednesday is thin on genuine marquee talent after Tim Duncan, and sorely lacking in legitimate big men. Which is why Foyle seems to have landed in the top 10--perhaps to Golden State at No. 8 or Milwaukee at No. 10--according to various draft projections.

Whether or not the path runs from Canouan to Colgate to Golden State, Foyle’s odyssey from the eastern Caribbean to the doorstep of the NBA has been nothing short of remarkable.

His life changed when his path inadvertently crossed with the Mandles and their son, Jon. Jon spotted the rail-thin teenager playing in a tournament in 1991, and told his parents about the youngster. Jay, an economics professor, and Joan were familiar with the Caribbean and co-wrote a book “Caribbean Hoops: The Development of West Indian Basketball.”

They met Foyle and soon invited him to the United States after asking his mother’s permission and interviewing his neighbors on Union Island where he went to high school. A jump shot later, Foyle was enrolled at a Catholic high school in Philadelphia and found himself marveling at The Wave at Eagles games and traffic jams longer than Canouan.

“We say we don’t know what happened,” Joan Mandle said. “There must have been a full moon. We lived very controlled lives. We’re very risk-adverse people. We never do anything this thrilling.

Even Foyle, who turned 22 in March, is still somewhat breathless about the unprecedented journey. Of course, he had dreams as a child, but nothing like this, saying “that was crazy.”

“If you had told me this would happen, I would have said they were full of it,” he said, smiling. “They can make jokes but it’s not funny and I don’t find any humor in it. It’s an amazing thing that happened to me and my game. I think I’m religious but not that religious to believe in fate and all that stuff. When I think about entrusting my life to three strangers, I still think I was nuts.

“I didn’t think I was any good, like Jay and Joan saw. I was terrible.”

He was right. His first forays into organized sports were inauspicious. And Foyle knew it too, giggling at his childhood ineptness.

First, there was soccer.

“They stuck me into the goal and pitched balls at my head,” he said. “And that was the end of my soccer career because I started crying.”

Later, his introduction to basketball did not drive him to tears, it drove him straight off the court.

“I had no idea what I was doing,” he said. “Therefore, I saw everybody trying to score. They had me rebounding, no scoring for me. I thought, ‘This is ridiculous,’ and ran the length of the court without dribbling. I turned around and I just saw people falling on the court, rolling with laughter. I was so embarrassed I vowed never to come back.”

Three weeks later, Foyle returned but practiced at night, so he wouldn’t see the other players who made fun of his faux pas. But that is part of Foyle’s resilient nature. His early SAT scores were low, so he spent hours working with flash cards to improve his vocabulary with the Mandles.

Even in the car.

“Did he tell you about the race?” Jay Mandle said. “I was ahead by three [points] and he started to catch up. Then two. Then I started to accelerate.”

Said Joan Mandle: “It was whoever won by the time we were home. I thought he [Jay] was going to crack up the car.”

The Mandles also took control of his off-season basketball education, sending him to different hoop gurus each summer--Swen Nater, Bill Walton and Bob Hill, to name a few.

“He [Walton] is very poetic, and explains in the most sophisticated terms what needs to be done,” Foyle said. “For me it was something I could relate to. It was funny.”

Foyle giggled. “The first time I heard him instruct--I swear, if your head is not really into it, you think, ‘What the hell is he talking about?’ ” he said. “I understand perfectly. He [Walton] goes on, ‘The game is a metaphor of life.’ ”

Philosophy fell by the wayside when Nater brought Foyle to play against Magic Johnson and friends in Southern California.

“When Magic goes on the court everything stops,” Jay Mandle said. “Swen said, ‘Don’t take your eye off Magic when he has the ball. He’s going to hit you in the head if you do that.’ He didn’t hit Adonal in the head but he threw an alley-oop that Adonal missed.”

Joan: “He didn’t know it was coming and Adonal went to Swen and said, ‘Oh my God, you’re right.’ ”

Jay: “Magic gave him a look. Then there’s the second alley-oop and he converts it. Afterward, Adonal said, ‘There was no way I was going to miss that play.’ ”

Thus it was another step for the young man who was raised by his grandmother on an island with no electricity and the nearest basketball court of any value was one island away, a ramshackle facility carefully put together by the players.

Six years removed from the Caribbean, Foyle is a fan of Broadway plays, writes poetry and quotes Shakespeare, but has not lost touch with his upbringing, figuring he would probably be a waiter in a hotel or maybe a construction worker in the Canouan had he not met the Mandles.

His sense of self comes through when he is asked, if he had the choice, who would he want to be in world history?

“That a hard question because I’m such a huge critic,” he said. “I scrutinize every little thing. Sir Thomas More, in terms of courage and willingness to face death. That’s a little extreme, but I think it’s admirable a person can overcome so much adversity and still do the right thing. That’s a true sign of faith.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

NBA Draft

* WHEN: Wednesday

* WHERE: Charlotte, N.C.

* TV: TNT, 4:30 p.m.

* FIRST SELECTION: San Antonio. The Spurs are expected to take Tim Duncan of Wake Forest with the pick.

* FIRST CLIPPER SELECTION: No. 14 in the first round. They have no other selections in the two-round draft.

* FIRST LAKER SELECTION: No. 52 in the second round. They also pick at No. 54 in the second round. The Lakers traded their first-round selection at No. 21 to New Jersey for George McCloud.