Randy Foye’s heart isn’t in the right place.

No, I mean literally, Randy Foye’s heart isn’t in the right place. The Nuggets guard has a condition called situs inversus, which means that “everything is a mirror image, flipped around,” he said. “Your organs are reversed, so my heart isn’t on the left side, it’s on the right side. And my liver isn’t on the right, it’s on the left.

“A little different, right?”

Only one out of every 10,000 people have situs inversus, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, but Foye said it doesn’t affect his performance. He does have a higher likelihood of bronchitis and respiratory infections. It’s Foye’s understanding that he’s the only player in major American sports who has the condition.

“It’s cool, man, to know that I’m the only one,” he said.

When the Nuggets traded for the 3-point weapon this summer, Evan Villanueva promptly did the same.

“As soon as I heard he was going to the Nuggets, I traded him on my NBA 2K (video game) to the Nuggets,” the Chaparral High School senior said.

Only afterward did Villanueva discover Foye, like he, had situs inversus.

“I was like, ‘That’s crazy — that’s my new favorite player,’ ” said Villanueva, a strongside linebacker for the Wolverines. “I’ve never met anybody with it.”

Sure enough, the two are scheduled to meet next week at the Nuggets’ first preseason home game.

Neither Foye nor Villanueva was diagnosed for nearly a decade.

Foye, at age 9, was playing football — “My grandmother would always tell me, ‘Don’t take your coat off at the park,’ and as soon as I’d get to the park, I’d take my coat off,” he said.

Foye caught the flu bug, which turned into pneumonia. He was hospitalized, and doctors discovered his abnormality.

Villanueva was around 11 when his mother talked to a doctor about her son’s build — skinny yet pigeon-chested. The doctor took an X-ray and then called Jen Villanueva, admitting: “I’m confused.”

They soon figured out why the X-ray was so funky.

“We’ve always known the kid was unique,” Jen said. “And this definitely confirms it for us.”

So if Foye happens to put his left hand on his right pectoral during the national anthem, don’t think this is some Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf kind of protest.

When I heard the Nuggets signed Foye this summer, I wasn’t overwhelmed or underwhelmed — simply, whelmed — for he was always just “a guy.” But after chatting with coach Brian Shaw on Thursday, I’m now fascinated to see how the 6-foot-4 shooter will fit in the new coach’s system.

The Nuggets bruised rims across the land with their 3-point shooting last season, and while Foye averaged 10.8 points per game with the Utah Jazz, 434 of his 738 field-goal attempts were 3s. He’ll hoist ’em. And he creates spacing on the floor simply by being a 3-point threat. He made 178 3s (41 percent), the most in Jazz history. And he finished as one of just five players last season to shoot 40 percent or better from 3-point range with 400 or more attempts.

So, should the Nuggets start him at shooting guard? Maybe until the injured Danilo Gallinari returns, with Wilson Chandler at small forward.

But I would be captivated to see Chandler start at shooting guard when Gallinari returns, at least as an experiment, with a healthy Gallo at small forward and Foye firing 3s off the bench.

Chandler is an admirable wing defender. He’s taller than Foye and last season, he also shot 41 percent from 3 — albeit with fewer attempts.

And if the experiment doesn’t work, eh, at least their hearts were in the right place.

Benjamin Hochman: bhochman@denverpost.com or twitter.com/hochman



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