Former Warriors player Adonal Foyle smiles as Bennett Nenadal, 7, of Mill Valley says bye after having her photo taken with the NBA star during a youth basketball camp at Redwood High School in Larkspur, Calif. on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Alan Dep/Marin Independent Journal)
Caiden Streeter, 13, of Greenbrae runs through a drill during youth basketball camp at Redwood High School in Larkspur, Calif. on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Alan Dep/Marin Independent Journal)
Former Warriors player Adonal Foyle takes a group photo with kids in a youth basketball camp at Redwood High School in Larkspur, Calif. on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Alan Dep/Marin Independent Journal)
Bennett Nenadal, 7, of Mill Valley takes a shot during a youth basketball camp at Redwood High School in Larkspur, Calif. on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Alan Dep/Marin Independent Journal)
Former Warriors player Adonal Foyle answers questions from kids during their youth basketball camp at Redwood High School in Larkspur, Calif. on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Alan Dep/Marin Independent Journal)
Former Warriors player Adonal Foyle speaks to kids during their youth basketball camp at Redwood High School in Larkspur, Calif. on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Alan Dep/Marin Independent Journal)
Former Warriors player Adonal Foyle speaks to kids during their youth basketball camp at Redwood High School in Larkspur, Calif. on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Alan Dep/Marin Independent Journal)
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Former Warriors player Adonal Foyle smiles as Bennett Nenadal, 7, of Mill Valley says bye after having her photo taken with the NBA star during a youth basketball camp at Redwood High School in Larkspur, Calif. on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Alan Dep/Marin Independent Journal)
The gym at Redwood High was buzzing with young basketball players running through 3-on-3 drills when a visitor slipped in. The young children weren’t quite sure who he was, but there was something about this 6-foot-10 man that suggested something exciting was about to happen.
Adonal Foyle, the Golden State Warriors’ all-time leading defensive rebounder, came by the Golden State Sports Academy on Tuesday morning to talk to an eager cluster of 120 campers, ages 6-15.
“I’ve heard of him. I know he was a great player,” said 7-year-old Mill Valley resident Bennett Nenadal, who is too young to have watched the former NBA great in action, but whose family she says are all Warriors fans.
The GSSA, affiliated with the Golden State Warriors and Valkyries, now in its 26th year has grown to be the largest basketball camp in the NBA and WNBA. The program has welcomed more than 80,000 young players, including Juan Toscano-Anderson – the first former camper to both play for Golden State and to win an NBA Championship.
“For us, it’s really about growing the game,” said Jeff Addiego, the vice-president of GSSA. “The game has meant so much to myself, to our staff, with all the life lessons it has taught us. If we can enable the game to do that same thing for this next generation, then we feel like we’re successful.”
Foyle can still be an imposing figure, towering over almost everyone as they posed for a group photo, but that smile. Oh, that infectious smile that makes everyone feel like they’ve been friends with Foyle for years.
“I think I got more out of this camp than they did,” Foyle said after signing autographs and taking photos with each camper. “Look at their energy, and they have such intelligent questions. It’s wonderful.”
Some of the young players were eager to see the moves that made Foyle an NBA star during his 12-year career from 1997-2009 with the Warriors, Orlando and Memphis. They pleaded with him to dunk the basketball in the hoop behind him as he addressed the crowd.
The campers didn’t get to see Foyle dunk Tuesday, but they didn’t leave disappointed.
“When I saw him, I thought ‘There’s an NBA player here. That’s cool.’ There was some emotion there,” said 13-year-old Caiden Streeter of Greenbrae. “The stuff he said about how it’s not just your game, but it’s your mindset and how you take on stuff that is challenging, and having a good attitude in life, was really cool.”
Foyle, from the tiny Caribbean island of Canouan, was perhaps a long shot to make it in the NBA, but he overcame the challenges.
“For me, growing up in the Caribbean and not really having the luxury of going to a camp like this, I really want to let them know how important it is,” Foyle said. “In terms of development, we know that there is no better way in order to become better than learning how to do it and then taking the knowledge home and implementing it.”
Foyle recalled the first time he played basketball, “I grabbed the ball and ran down the court with it and forgot to dribble. All my friends were laughing at me. I wrote a whole kids book about it [‘Too Tall Foyle Finds His Game’]. But part of the journey of basketball is failure, and then a little success, and then failures, and then more success. It’s important that kids understand that.”
Whether or not these children become successful athletes, “there is an amazing opportunity to be a student-athlete and to really understand the importance of academics,” said Foyle, who told them how proud he was to be the first one in his family to graduate from college.
“But I also wanted to talk to them about that balance between physical and mental,” he said. “I think that for young athletes, the landscape in which they’re developing, from social media and the intense scrutiny, having a really good mindset is essential for young people. Being a physically gifted athlete, as important as that is, the mental side of the game is more important. If I can inject that into the bloodstream with these young people, I think they’ll be much better prepared for what lies ahead.”
Working with the GSSA is just one of the ways Foyle is trying to give back. His Kerosene Lamp Foundation just distributed backpacks to children in need for the upcoming school year. And the Democracy Matters organization he founded expects to include 22 college campuses with students driving social and political reform.
“I really fundamentally believe that part of the moral responsibility we have as athletes is to help change the lives of the next generation of young people,” Foyle said. “I take that as a sacred mission that we have as people in the public eye to empower and inspire and change the lives of people in even the most simple ways we can.”
Originally Published: July 29, 2025 at 2:42 PM PDT