Return about 30 years and various on this planet of basketball may not have predicted Lloyd Daniels to nonetheless be in right here in 2022.
Right here, as in alive, not to mention sitting courtside in a small-college area in West Texas, watching a recreation, smiling and mingling with different spectators.
Within the mid-Nineteen Eighties, Lloyd Daniels was thought to be one of many subsequent huge stars in basketball — arguably, the subsequent huge star, a 6-foot-7 guard who even drew comparisons to Magic Johnson. However each astonishing factor he did on the court docket appeared to be matched by a foul resolution off it, to the extent that he was arrested for getting crack cocaine in 1987 and shot thrice in 1989.
One way or the other, he survived to play 20 years {of professional} basketball, together with stints with 5 NBA groups. And for the previous 21 years, starting when he was nonetheless enjoying, he is coached an AAU program in New Jersey. The staff identify, appropriately, is Reborn, which is how Daniels views his life.
“I am right here as we speak, at 54. God is sweet,” he mentioned on a current night time on the Rip Griffin Heart. “I can see my son play, meet plenty of good individuals round right here. I am blessed, man. Folks mentioned I wasn’t going to be right here at 54, and I am right here. I have been shot. I have been by all that. You recognize my story.
“I am blessed. I do not look backward. All I am doing is wanting ahead, someday at a time.”
For Daniels, one of many advantages to nonetheless being right here is having the ability to converse proudly of three kids who’re excessive achievers. And, for the previous few years, to look at his namesake, Lloyd Daniels — Lloyd Abram Daniels, or “LD” to many within the Lubbock Christian College basketball group — keep on and polish the identify.
The youthful Daniels has been a cornerstone participant for LCU the previous three years, carrying season scoring averages of 16.2, 15.7 and 16.7 factors per recreation on groups which have gone 63-16. All three years, he is made first-team all-Lone Star Convention — within the largest Division II convention within the nation, one with 17 groups.
A 6-foot-4 level guard, he ranks fifth within the LSC this season in scoring and third in assists with a median of 4.7 per recreation.
The Chaps, ranked No. 4 in NCAA Division II, are the highest seed within the South Central Area of the Division II NCAA Event that begins this weekend. LCU (26-3) takes on Texas A&M-Commerce (17-8) at 5 p.m. Saturday in a first-round recreation of the eight-team bracket on the Rip Griffin Heart.
After West Texas A&M beat LCU within the regional ultimate final 12 months, Daniels briefly contemplated utilizing his ultimate 12 months of eligibility elsewhere. He had his identify within the NCAA switch portal for 2 weeks, pondering he would possibly discover a faculty nearer to residence, making it simpler for household to come back watch him play. He talked to plenty of faculties and attracted scholarship affords from Division I applications Troy, Indiana State and St. Francis.
In the end, he determined no state of affairs seemed higher than what he is had in Lubbock.
Moreover, from a staff that reached No. 2 within the nationwide polls and completed 18-3 final season, he would have been the one key participant not returning. So he stayed, and within the final week of the common season, along with his dad and considered one of his sisters sitting courtside close to the LCU bench, the Chaps clinched the convention championship for the second 12 months in a row.
“I am huge on successful championships,” Daniels mentioned. “I gained a state championship again in New Jersey. So I simply knew I had good guys right here. Nice staff. Nice coaches. I knew if I got here again, we would have a legit shot to win all of it with everybody we had coming again, so it was a simple resolution to make.”
Daniels performs beneath management and with persistence, and he has a deft contact across the basket. His field-goal share of higher than 53 p.c is second within the LSC.
“He is simply obtained a particular knack,” Chaps coach Todd Duncan mentioned. “He actually by no means takes an off-balance (shot). He is off-balance typically, however the photographs he could make, it is not like with one other participant in that very same place. The upper diploma of problem, the extra of a knack he has for placing it in.”
The elder Daniels watches most LCU video games on-line.
Requested to evaluate the Chaps’ Lloyd, he mentioned, “What I see in my son, he thinks cross greater than I do. And that is factor. He is a real level guard. Shoot, me, I put it up. I shoot the ball. However you have obtained plenty of good gamers on this staff, so he is doing the proper factor.”
Talking from expertise, Daniels is aware of doing the proper factor encompasses greater than making good choices on the court docket.
The youthful Daniels transferred to LCU from a junior school in Oklahoma. His father mentioned he was completely happy his son was going to a Christian faculty.
“Go the place your coronary heart’s at. There’s nothing like God and Jesus,” he mentioned. “That is why all people loves him down right here, as a result of for those who’ve obtained God and Jesus, that is how he was raised. That is the number-one purpose. …
“I respect all of the followers and individuals right here like him off the court docket. That is extra essential than something. Basketball, you solely get to do for a brief time period. However when the fan base comes as much as me and says, ‘We like your son’ as a human being, that is good. Which means me and my spouse did job elevating him.”
One of many youthful Daniels’ sisters, Aubrey, has a Ph. D. from Penn State and is an assistant professor at Rider College in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. “She’s the brains of the household,” the Chaps’ guard mentioned. His sister, Shaina, teaches second grade, additionally in New Jersey. Daniels praised his mom for being a powerful affect.
“We elevate our youngsters proper,” the elder Daniels mentioned. “Church life. Respect individuals.”
If solely he’d had as sturdy a assist construction rising up, the elder Daniels may need been the perennial NBA all-star many envisioned.
In the summertime of 1985, he was named most excellent participant on the famed 5-Star Basketball Camp. As a highschool senior in Queens, New York, he averaged 31.2 factors, 12.3 rebounds and 10.3 assists per recreation and made the Parade Journal all-America staff.
A Sports activities Illustrated author in 1989 mentioned Daniels “was as soon as hailed as probably the most proficient New York Metropolis basketball participant to come back alongside since Lew Alcindor. He was mentioned by some to be Magic Johnson with a good higher outdoors shot.”
In a SLAM journal story in 2000, New York-based recruiting analyst Tom Konchalski mentioned, “Getting clear, having a household and making the NBA are accomplishments, however he ought to have been a 10-time All-Star.”
Daniels was going to play at Nevada-Las Vegas for Jerry Tarkanian , who sized up Daniels as being “as proficient a high-school participant as I’ve ever seen.”
His teachers compelled him to go the junior-college route first. He was presupposed to go to UNLV after that, however his arrest for getting crack from an undercover officer closed that door. The NCAA later busted UNLV, partially due to an allegation {that a} sports activities gambler linked Daniels to UNLV.
Daniels spent from 1987 to 2006 bouncing to greater than two dozen professional groups stateside and abroad, none for very lengthy. However between 1992 and 1997, he did play for the San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers, Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento Kings and New Jersey Nets.
“Since he performed within the NBA, I at all times seemed as much as him, simply watching his tapes rising up,” the youthful Daniels mentioned. “I nonetheless watch his tapes now. However simply seeing how he made it and his story — his story’s distinctive.”
The Chaps guard desires to make use of that story, motivating what he is able to on the court docket and reminding him all of the issues to not do when he leaves the world.
“I need to carry his identify,” the youthful Daniels mentioned, “and make it higher than what he had it.”
