10 Random Thoughts

February, 2008

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10 Random Thoughts offers a different way to get into Adonal's head. The questions are randomly selected (without Adonal knowing ahead of time), allowing him to give his true genuine responses about anything from sports to why Pepsi is better than Coke:

1. Being able to vote for the first time since being an American citizen, what were your thoughts on Super Tuesday on Feb. 5?
[Adonal] Being able to finally have my vote count and then taking a step back and be part of one of the most historic presidential races, and seeing how America is responding to a woman candidate and an Africa-American candidate is really intriguing. The world is changing before our eyes and history is changing before our eyes. And I think that is absolutely incredible.

2. Being a professional athlete who meets dozens of people everyday, can you still recall certain people who approach you, saying you went to high school with them?
[Adonal] I can always remember contacts. I think that's of the good things about being a historian. Will I always remember their names? Absolutely not. But more than likely, if they tell me who they are and how we're connected, I will remember them. I still have friends from high school calling me, people from the islands calling me. And I try to stay in touch with them as much as possible because it's really awesome to reconnect with some elements of your past.

3. The writer's strike is finally coming to an end. But over the course of the strike, which lasted nearly four months, has it affected you in watching your favorite shows?
[Adonal] Watching Bill Maher has been very difficult because he is just not funny without his writers. I've been in pain watching TV without the writers. But fighting for what they believe should be fair is also important to them. And I understand that. With that said, I am looking forward to the conclusion of this issue.

4. The Magic has since cooled off since their hot start the first two months of the season. But you still have a comfortable lead in the Southeast division. That said, is this where you expected your team to be at this point?
[Adonal] Obviously, we started the season remarkably well. But with any good team, everyone else will take notice and will want to come after you. With that said, all teams need to know what it's like to have a bull's eye on your back and know that everyone's going to want a piece of you. So, you're going to have to brace that know that you can't bring your C game or your B game - you have to bring you're a game every night. And if you don't bring you're a game, you'll go down. And that's part of being a great team, as opposed to being just a good team. That's something that can't be learned overnight. And it's something that we're still trying to learn.

5. Why do you suppose your team is better on the road?
[Adonal] Part of the reason is we started the season with a lot of games on the road. And we emphasized the importance of doing well on the road. We came out of the gate saying 'if we don't do well on the road', we won't be successful all season. So we came out, we did well, we were learning how to win on the road and we won a lot of games away from home. It was like a self-fulfilling prophecy. And once we started doing that, we came home and all of a sudden, it didn't feel like it was our home court. We had not been used to our home court. We were so used to being on the road. Also, when you're at home, you tend to be a little bit more comfortable. You're not in a hotel, you're not on a bus and you're not meeting with each other first thing in the morning. On the road, all you have is each other and there's nobody else there to support you.

6. What's the best gift you got for Christmas?
[Adonal] A friend got me a Blu-Ray disc player. I also got a Louis Vuitton man bag. And I got some books from my parents. All are amazing presents.

7. A few months ago, Sean Taylor of the Washington Redskins was killed during a botched robbery in his own home. Being a professional athlete, does Taylor's death raise concerns for your own safety?
[Adonal] There's no denying that what happened to Sean Taylor was a very tragic thing. There has been such an increase in assaults involving professional athletes in a span of months. An NBA player was assaulted at gunpoint and tied up at his own home, another player was assaulted from his own car when he was at a stop sign. These things can certainly cause for pause and make you worry, as an athlete, about their own safety, where you live, your own friends and things like that.

8. Going into the trade deadline, do you like how your team is made up right now, or do you think another piece could be added?
[Adonal] In any system, you're always going to look back and see what it's going to take to try and help put you over the hump. And I'm sure that's something the Magic organization is going to look at very carefully. As for me, it's not my place to determine what I think we should do. We have a wonderful team right now. But the coaching staff and general manager are always going to try and figure out how we can get better. And at the end of the day, they'll be the ones who will make a decision whether we need another piece or not.

9. What is one thing that stands out about your team that nobody really knows?
[Adonal] What makes us gel very well is that we genuinely like each other. There's obviously competition on every team. But I think this is a team where we know that this team belongs to Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu. And none of them feel they have to stand about everyone else individually. It's a system that you can accept or not. But that's the way our team is set up to a certain degree. And the guys are fine with that.

10. On Jan. 4 against the Houston Rockets with .01 seconds left, was the tip good?
[Adonal] According to the officials in the NBA league office, it did not go in. But in my humble opinion, I thought did it. But I guess that's why I'm a player and not an official.

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