Daniels, Playing in GBA, Still Has His NBA Dreams

The latest stop in Lloyd Daniels’ basketball odyssey is a second-floor YMCA gymnasium in the slow lane of Tobacco Road. The NBA plays down the road in Charlotte, but it remains, as always, just out of reach for the man who was supposed to be there by now.

“Everybody dreams of a shot in the NBA,” Daniels said after practicing at the Y earlier this week with the Greensboro City Gaters of the Global Basketball Assn. “I just have to concentrate on doing well mn this league. The NBA has been there before; they’ll be there again.”

Indeed, it appeared the onetime New York playground legend finally might get his chance at the big time this fall when the Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks considered inviting him to camp, but those possibilities fell through and Daniels landed in the first-year GBA, which includes former college stars such as Shelton Jones of St. John’s, John Crotty of Virginia and Chris Corchiani of North Carolina State.

So far, Daniels is doing well in what would be his first full winter of organized basketball since his junior season at Jackson High School in Queens in 1985-86. He is averaging 22 points (fifth in the league), six rebounds, three assists and 35 minutes at small forward for the Gaters (3-4), and apparently has behaved well both on the court and off.

“I haven’t had one minute’s problem with him,” Coach Ed McLean said. “I didn’t know everything about Lloyd coming in, so I had an open mind. I didn’t read any of the books or articles about him.”

Had McLean done so, he would have learned about the dizzying paths Daniels’ career -- and life -- have followed. He attended four high schools in three states, was arvested and shot in separate drug-related incidents and has played in the PSAL, NJCAA, USBL, CBA and GBA, not to mention New Zealand. But despite long-ago predictions he would be the best player out of New York since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, he has not played a minute at the two levels that matter most -- the NCAA and NBA.

Gary Sugarman, Daniels’ agent since early last month, said he has been in contact with a half-dozen NBA teams concerning the 6-foot-8 guard-forward, but declined to name them. An NBA team looking for bench help might take a look at Daniels, but McLean thinks Daniels would be better off staying in the GBA for a full season.

“He could be picked up tomorrow; you know as well as I do there are NBA teams that will take a chance and take up a guy who’s not quite ready,” McLean said. “But I don’t think Lloyd is the kind of player who would enjoy going up and sitting on the bench.”

Lee Rose, the Bucks’ director of player personnel, said he plans to keep a close eye on Daniels this season. “You’re interested in every player until they give you sufficient reason not to be, and he hasn’t given us any reason not to be.”

Sugarman said Daniels will be tested for drug use three times during the season, just like every other player in the league. “He’s continuing to follow his rehabilitation program,” the agent said. “He’s clean and has been clean. It’s something he’ll have to watch for the rest of his life.”

Daniels took part in a rehab program run by former NBA star John Lucas after playing for the USBL’s Miami Tropics last summer.

Sugarman wouldn’t reveal Daniels’ salary, but the GBA has a per-team cap of $200,000 for 10 players. Daniels isn’t complaining, though. He said he is happy in Greensboro and emotionally and physically fit.

Daniels, 24, was the last player to leave the court after a recent practice, cheerfully goading an assistant coach into a game of one-on-one. Afterward, the man whose screwups have become the stuff of city basketball legend expressed thanks without his usual promises about this time being different from the others.

“It’s just great being out there on the court again,” he said, “doing what you love to do.” Then he left for the road trip that would take him to Huntsville, Ala., and Saginaw, Mich., two more destinations on his wandering trip through adolescence and early adulthood.