(A project TLSM LLC has been working on to assist filmmaker Benjamin May).
NEW YORK - The streets of New York have spawned a long list of
playground legends, from Nate “Tiny” Archibald and Connie Hawkins to Earl “The
Goat” Manigault and “Pee Wee” Kirkland. However, few have had the rise, the fall, and the rise again that Lloyd “Swee Pea” Daniels had in the 1980’s and ‘90’s. First
time director Benjamin May now recounts that star-crossed story with “The
Legend of Swee Pea,” which will make its world premiere at DOC NYC on Tuesday
November 17 at the IFC Film Center in New York with a sold out screening, and
November 19 at 7:30 pm at the Bow Tie Cinema at 260 W 23rd St, between 7th and
8th Avenues.
“There is perhaps no sport that creates legends like
basketball does, and there was perhaps no bigger basketball legend in the
1980’s and ‘90’s than that of Lloyd Daniels,” said May, a Minnesota Neuroradiologist
turned film director.
“As a fan of the game I was enthralled with Lloyd’s
amazing story of tragedy, triumph and perseverance and we are proud to tell his
cautionary tale to an audience who may be aware, but more importantly a legion
of basketball fans of a younger generation who may not know the story. It is
one for the ages, and frankly one that is probably not yet done.”
Nicknamed for the son of the legendary cartoon character
Popeye, Daniels was one of the top college basketball recruits of the
late 1980s, playing at five high schools and Mt. San Antonio Junior College before
the University of Nevada Las Vegas won a massive recruiting battle to have him
join the Runin Rebels and legendary coach Jerry "Tark the Shark" Tarkanian. Before he was able
to play a single game at UNLV, he was arrested for cocaine possession, ending
his time at UNLV before it began. Later shot three times in the chest at age 21
over an argument about an $8 dollar bag of cocaine, the man christened as the
best high school player to come out of New York since Kareem Abdul Jabbar as
well as the heir apparent to Magic Johnson was thought by many to have had a
career end before it started, when in reality his story was just beginning.
Daniels managed to overcome all of those obstacles, and with
remnants of bullets still in his body, and with years of crack addiction behind
him eventually made it to the NBA, playing through the Continental Basketball
Association and the USBL before embarking on a seven year NBA run and an
overall professional career that took him from Italy and Turkey to New Zealand
and China during a mythical 20 year run.
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