A welcome home

It is so difficult to imagine now, because Seattle SuperSonics guard Antonio Daniels is so clean cut and buttoned down.

But when Daniels was playing for the San Antonio Spurs – the team the Sonics will face in the second round of the NBA playoffs beginning tonight – he got into what he described as an altercation that quite possibly changed the course of his life.

Daniels said he was participating in a summer league game at the Jewish Community Center, and after the game he said another player threw a ball at him, which led to a short confrontation. Daniels said he and his girlfriend, Sonia – now his wife who is expecting their child – left, though apparently some of his friends got into a shoving match with the man after Daniels departed.

The next day, Daniels said, he got phone calls from Spurs general manager R.C. Buford and coach Gregg Popovich, asking him what happened.

“What do you mean what happened?” Daniels said he answered. “Turn on the news,” they told him. The story led the local newscast, with reporters interviewing the man, who Daniels said was displaying scratches on his neck.

“I mean, I was leading the news. That shows you how small San Antonio is,” Daniels said.

He said he publicly apologized to the team’s fans to protect the Spurs’ image, even though he said he didn’t do anything wrong.

Daniels said the issue disappeared when it was discovered that the accuser was wanted for burglary. But not long after, Daniels said, Popovich called him to tell him the team was considering trading him, that other teams were calling.

“Who knows if that had anything to do with it,” Daniels said. “In my four years there, that was the one thing I got into. Right after that happened, that was when trade talks started.”

Daniels eventually was dealt to Portland, along with Charles Smith and Amal McCaskill, for Erick Barkley and Steve Kerr. After a torturous season with the Trail Blazers, Daniels signed a free-agent contract with Seattle.

In a sense, his career is coming full circle as his new team faces his former one in a Western Conference series that promises to be entertaining and competitive. Though many players in his position would view this opportunity as payback, Daniels, averaging nine points and 4.8 assists, said he does not.

“Those bitter feelings are gone,” Daniels said. “I am having the best year of my career. I am on a very good basketball team. One thing I understand about this league – it is a business. No matter the relationship you have, the ties you have, this is a business first. Teams are going to do what they feel is best for their team. That is the big picture of this whole thing. They feel they have to do what they have to do.

“Shaq was traded. Anybody can get traded in this league. No one is untradeable. When you do get traded, you have to deal with it and move on.”

Perhaps a key to Daniels’ level-headed approach is that he still has close ties to San Antonio. He and Sonia have built a 12,000-square-foot mansion in the Hill Country that has been described by a teammate as resembling Tony Montana’s house in “Scarface.”

Sonia’s family lives in the area. Spurs forward Tim Duncan, a two-time league MVP, and former Spurs forward Malik Rose, who was traded this season to New York, were groomsmen at Daniels’ wedding. Daniels still holds two summer league camps in the area, and they have been sold out the past five years.

“It’ll be an exciting series,” Daniels said. “I talked to Tim Duncan the night they (beat Denver to clinch the Spurs’ first-round series win). The first thing he said was, ‘Gosh, you guys are playing real well. This will be a fun series.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I know.’

“I am excited about it, getting the opportunity to go home and see some friends and family. At the same time, I understand what I am there for. I am there to try to get a win, to try to beat San Antonio. That is first on my list of priorities.”

Daniels said there will be nothing odd about competing against players and coaches he considers good friends.

“I am going to play basketball,” Daniels said. “That is it. That is what I am out there for. I am doing whatever I have to do to get Seattle a win. Nothing else matters. Before the game, it is cool. After the game, we can get out to eat, whatever, that is great. But during the game, I am right here, I am trying to get Seattle a win.”

The reason, Daniels said, is that his lasting memory of San Antonio is not the way his years there ended, but the way they began, with a title to end the 1998-99 season, his first with the Spurs.

“I just remember the camaraderie that we had on that team,” Daniels said.