Randy Foye: "I am the leader"

It was the Wolves media day this afternoon and this exchange with Randy Foye was probably the most interesting conversation I had.

Who is the leader of this team? I asked Foye, point blank.

“I’ll take it,” Foye said instantly. “I am the leader. There is pressure in that but I like it. I don’t think there are a lot of people in their career get a chance to say, `I was the leader of an NBA team.’ That’s how I am approaching things and how people approach me. I am the leader.”

In the locker room as well as on the court how will your status as the leader change the way you behave? I asked.

“My motto is that you practice what you preach and you lead by example,” Foye answered. “If you are in the locker room goofing off before a game and someone else is watching and I’m supposed to be the leader, [they will think], well I can do that too. Well I might be able to go out on the court and perform, but that person who is goofing off, he can’t do it. So I am just going to come in with a straightforward attitude…my situation growing up, I am a natural born leader; I never was a follower of like anything. If someone said, Oh let’s go do this, if it didn’t feel right I wasn’t going to do it, even if he was my best friend.”

Third question: Who are you most looking forward to playing with this year?

Foye: “I am looking forward to definitely playing with Al. I’m looking forward to playing with Theo, because the way he’s playing, he blocks everything. I’m looking forward to playing with Corey, and with Gerald, just because I love lob passes, and I’m looking forward to playign with my boy Craig, my best friend. And I’m looking forward to playing with the guys I played with last year. And with Ryan Gomes, because I played against him in the Big East and I know how he likes the ball.”

Otherwise, Coach Wittman confirmed that Al Jefferson will likely be playing a lot of center, although he doesn’t want to wear him down defending against the bigger bangers in the league–Dampier of Dallas was specifically mentioned. And Witt did say that Marko Jaric will be given a look at point guard, and made it clear that Marko gets frustrated when he doesn’t get touches and that getting touches for Marko wasn’t something he went out of his way to do last season; the implication being that Marko doing some point time would kill two birds with one stone in that respect; make Marko happy and give the Wolves a vet at the point when Foye and presumably Telfair need a blow.

Al Jefferson was impressive. It wasn’t clear to me whether he requested it or it was given to him by management, but he will be ensconced in KG’s locker space, a circumstance that he responded to with a nice blend of “I’m honored” and “I’m not the least bit intimidated.” When I asked him why his game took such a big jump last year, he essentially replied that it was the first time he really dedicated himself to working hard and getting himself ready to go, even with the injuries. And when I asked if he felt the Wolves needed to prove something to him just as much as he needed to prove something to management, he said being traded for Kevin Garnett was proof enough on management’s commitment. When another person asked about re-upping his contract, rumored to be in the works, he demurred and said he’s just concentrating on playing ball.

Gerald Green offered nothing but platitudes to a variety of questions, which doesn’t mean anything about how he’ll play on the court but also offers zero insight into what makes him tick.

The Wolves head out to Turkey and won’t be back for a couple of weeks. By then, the sifting of the roster will have begun. It is a shame, though perhaps financially understandable in these lean times for journalism, that neither the Strib nor the PiPress are sending their beat writer along.


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