Daniels Cleans Up His Act, Gets Another Chance Makes His Latest Nba Stop Is With Kings

The three bullets he took in 1989 should have killed him. Instead, Lloyd Daniels says he was given another opportunity to make good on his potential, to show he could play in the NBA and, more importantly, a chance at a life unclouded by drugs and alcohol.

In May 1989, two men knocked on Daniels’ door in the New York City borough of Queens and shot him over what police say was an old drug debt. Daniels lost 60 percent of his blood, and doctors later removed two of the bullets. But they decided it was better to leave the third one lodged in his right shoulder.

“I shouldn’t even be here talking to you, you know what I’m saying,” said Daniels, 29, who last week signed a one-year, non-guaranteed contract with the Kings. The team signed the 6-foot-8 swingman to fill the roster spot occupied by forward Brian Grant, who is on the injured list after undergoing arthroscopic surgery to repair a partially torn right rotator cuff.

So here Daniels is, getting another opportunity at the NBA. And this time, he says, he’s got his life straight. Instead of focusing on drugs and alcohol, he says he’s used his second chance at life to focus on providing a good life for his wife, Kendra, and their two children. He says he’s been clean for nearly six years.

“Every time I get a chance, I’m putting money away… . I know I can survive, but my main goal now is to see my kids come up through the nice school life, to be there with their mother and father,” Daniels said. “It’s a joy to see my little kids learn.

“That makes me feel good. I just want to see my kids grow up, learn, have a good life and be there for them.”

He says he’s a God-fearing man now, that he could be no less after living the life he has had and being shot and nearly dying. “You know God works,” he likes to say.

Daniels’ mother died when he was 3, and his father walked out shortly thereafter, leaving the boy to be raised by his grandmothers in some of the toughest sections of New York.

“Growing up without a mother and father, it’s tough,” Daniels said. “It’s tough when you don’t have that guidance. You’re just a young kid, coming and going… . I was calling my own shots. Selling drugs, hustling, that life was the devil’s life, but that was the only life I knew because I was a young kid.”

Basketball calls

The one good thing he had as a kid was basketball ability.

By the time he was a junior at Andrew Jackson High School in Queens, Daniels was averaging 31.2 points, 12.3 rebounds and 10 assists per game. The New York news media compared his passing to Magic Johnson and his shooting to Larry Bird. At the time, he was already considered one of the best basketball players New York City had ever produced.

“In terms of high school competition, he was a man against boys,” recalled Portland Trail Blazers guard Kenny Anderson, another New York City high school star.

But for Daniels, life would be a constant struggle between his wondrous basketball ability and forces that would threaten to render that ability worthless.

Drug and alcohol problems. Truancy. A reading disability so severe that, at the age of 18, he was judged at a third-grade level.

Daniels attended four high schools before dropping out in February 1986, after his junior season.

Though he lacked a high school diploma and hadn’t passed a general-equivalency exam, Daniels signed a letter of intent that spring to play for the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. In the fall of 1986, he enrolled at Mount San Antonio Junior College in Walnut, Calif., so he could become eligible to transfer to UNLV.

He played in only two games for Mount San Antonio but received 14 credits from Mount San Antonio and enrolled at UNLV for the 1987 spring semester with plans to play for the Rebels the following December.

But that plan fell apart Feb. 9, 1987, when Daniels was arrested during an undercover drug operation by Las Vegas police. He was charged with trying to buy crack cocaine.

UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian responded by announcing Daniels would never be allowed to play for the Rebels.

Six weeks after the arrest, Newsday reported that Daniels had received a variety of special privileges - including cash, a car and a motorcycle - from UNLV coaches, boosters and other representatives of the school while attempting to become eligible to play for the Rebels. An NCAA investigation resulted in charges of 29 rules violations and, later, restrictions against UNLV.

Knowing no college would ever again ask him to play basketball, Daniels submitted his name for the NBA draft in 1987. No one was interested.

The next stop for Daniels was Topeka, Kan., where he completed a 45-day in-patient drug treatment program in October 1987. He then joined the CBA’s Sizzlers. But in February 1988, after Daniels failed to follow through on the aftercare portion of his drug treatment, the Sizzlers suspended him for the rest of the season.

Daniels then went on a tour of leagues - doing time in the Continental Basketball Association, Global Basketball Association, United States Basketball League and in New Zealand - showing flashes of his talent but always ending the promise with drugs. Then came the shooting, which Daniels says he doesn’t remember a whole lot about.

“All I remember is I didn’t close my eyes,” he said. “I told myself, ‘Don’t close your eyes, because if you close your eyes, you might go out.’ I just tried to fight.”

That fight was successful, but Daniels acknowledges he continued down the wrong path until he was cut from the CBA’s Albany Patroons by then-coach George Karl. Karl told Daniels he needed to get away from basketball and concentrate on staying off drugs.

Lucas’ clinic helps

Daniels enrolled in a drug clinic run by former NBA player John Lucas. That was the start of Daniels’ new life.

“Drugs and alcohol are a disease and as long as you know you’ll have the disease for the rest of your life, you can go a long way,” he said. “There are a lot of guys who won’t admit they have a problem. They sneak around the corner. Me, I know I’ve got a disease until I die.”

Free of drugs, Daniels concentrated on improving his game and getting into the NBA.

Ironically, it was Tarkanian, who had become coach of the San Antonio Spurs, who gave him that opportunity in 1992. The versatile swingman played the 1992 and ‘93 season with the Spurs, giving them some big nights.

“I’m so happy that Lloyd has turned his life around,” said Tarkanian, now the coach at Fresno State University. “I saw good in Lloyd even when he had problems because he was never a violent person. He was courteous, soft-spoken and never talked back.”

In October 1994, Lucas - who had helped Daniels kick his drug habit - signed Daniels to play with the Philadelphia 76ers. It didn’t work out, and he was waived a month later.

But Daniels was more determined than ever to make it in the NBA. He went to the CBA for his third tour of duty, playing for the Fort Wayne Fury.

From the Fury, Daniels was picked up by the Los Angeles Lakers in February 1995 and helped that team win a couple of games.

But Daniels’ shooting went cold, and the Lakers released him. He finished last season playing for Scavolini Pesaro in the top division of the Italian League, where he averaged 23 points a game. Still wanting one more shot at the NBA, he again asked Fury coach Gerald Oliver to get him there.

More than ever, Daniels says he understands the NBA now.

“It’s all about being in the right place at the right time,” Daniels said. “As long as you keep working on your game and staying in shape, you’ll be all right. I think as I get older, I understand the game more.

“It’s all about fitting in and accepting your role… . I know my role now.”

As for his life, he said: “I know my mother would be proud of me, with all the stuff I’ve been through. The hard stuff I’ve experienced with the drugs and the alcohol … that’s over with now.”