By Anthony Bosco
A few years ago I loaned my prized copy of Swee’ Pea and other Playground Legends to a fellow reporter never to be seen again (the book not the reporter). And I wish I had it now, because the lessons the book teaches are timeless for high school basketball players in New York City.
Anytime I hear about or have to report on the failing of a talented Queens kid who shoots himself in the foot on the road to success, I think about that book. I just hope I won’t have to think about it again this season.
The book, in case you don’t know, was written by Newsday’s John Valenti with Cardozo basketball coach Ron Naclerio and focuses on the infamous trials and tribulations of one Lloyd Daniels. Daniels, a basketball prodigy in his youth, squandered his seemingly endless ability on drugs, eventually taking four bullets outside his southeast Queens home.
Daniels survived, though his basketball potential had taken a near-fatal blow.
All his life Daniels was treated as someone special, simply because he had the talent to put a round ball in a round hoop. He was courted by drug dealers, high school coaches and later college scouts, all attaching themselves to a player everyone considered a can’t-miss prospect.
Jerry Tarkanian, the former coach of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas Runnin’ Rebels, is quoted in the book as saying, “When they write the final chapter on guards, they’ll start with Jerry West, Oscar Robinson, Magic Johnson and Lloyd Daniels.”
When Tarkanian said that, Daniels had yet to play a college game.
Daniels’ road to college had more twists and turns than a Hitchcock thriller. He attended one school after another, finding a way to get eligible — no doubt with a little help — despite that he hardly ever went to class and was mostly illiterate.
One of his most prominent stops was at Andrew Jackson High School, now called Campus Magnet, where he played for current coach Chuck Granby. Daniels may have never been better than the time he spent at Jackson.
No matter who was guarding Daniels, he could score. Future Division I players and some future pros could not contain him. Only he could stop Lloyd Daniels.
Daniels dropped out of Jackson after his junior season, one day after losing a playoff to his friend Naclerio and the Cardozo Judges. Instead of graduating, Daniels declared himself sort of a free agent, opting instead to pursue a GED than a diploma in hopes of becoming eligible for college.
Rather it seemed from reading the book that everyone around him wanted to help Daniels achieve his goals, because they themselves had a stake in seeing him succeed. But in their rush to produce the world’s best basketball player, Daniels, his friends and his advisors never hammered home what was truly important.
His first of many falls came when he was arrested for trying to by crack cocaine before his college career ever got off the ground in Las Vegas.
Eventually Daniels found his way to the pro ranks, playing for the Topeka Sizzlers in the Continental Basketball Association, a minor league of sorts of the NBA.
The pros, even the minors, should have suited him fine. There were no classes or eligibility to worry about. And he was getting paid, to boot. But having had everything go his way almost his entire life, Daniels could not conform to the strictness of a pro practice and began slacking off, leading to his inevitable departure.
His ability was paying the price. Not only did Daniels fail to keep his sharpest, he wasn’t playing against the best players, either. He was so dominant, he didn’t have to work as hard as everyone else.
At least that was his attitude when he went to New Zealand to play professional ball. His stay was short and full of turmoil. But it would cost him.
Daniels was not selected in the subsequent NBA draft, mostly due to his well-known antics in college, the CBA and New Zealand. He went into rehab, hoping he could make an impression before the start of the next season and be invited to a team tryout.
Before he would ever get that chance, Daniels was shot.
It made headlines around the country, but a true survivor, Daniels pulled through. He wasn’t done yet.
Daniels finally began to work hard, so hard in fact that he did eventually make it to the NBA. His longest stint was at San Antonio, just a few years before finding spot duty with the Philadelphia 76ers, the Los Angeles Lakers and the New Jersey Nets.
He’s out of the NBA now, having made a good living playing basketball overseas.
But Daniels never attained the level of success so many had predicted for him. Though he somehow managed to survive and even succeed, his story is still one of potential never fulfilled, at least to me.
I never met Daniels, never got to shake his hand. By most accounts he is a nice enough guy who followed the wrong path a long time ago. And though he seems to have finally found his way, so much of what he could have done is lost forever.
With the high school basketball season in full gear, I can only plead with the current crop of talented hoopsters not to lose sight of what is most important.
No matter how good you are, the wrong path will swallow you whole. Don’t take it from me; Lloyd Daniels and countless others can tell you that.
Reach Sports Editor Anthony Bosco by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 130.
