Lloyd Daniels Story: The Legend of Swee' Pea

(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.

This film documents Daniels’ struggle to survive the perilous streets of New York, to navigate in the world of high stakes professional sports, and to overcome a lifetime of addiction. In addition, the film features one-on-one interviews with Tarkanian, David Robinson, John Lucas, and Avery Johnson, as well as Five Star Basketball founder Howard Garfinkel, legendary basketball talent evaluator Tom Konchalski, longtime  New York high school coach Ron Naclario and Newsday’s John Valenti. 

Yes, "AND1" ... it Counts

Nice piece in SI.com this week.  Please be sure to the Jon Wertheim penned story on the "story behind the AND1 Dunkers" -  A little snippet so see:

"So much so that it has spawned its own micro-economy. And1, of course, puts so much value in the appeal of the dunk that in the past it has devoted its marketing budget not to NBA endorser/players but to Hotsauce, The Professor, High Rizer and the other dunkers and ball-handling wizards who headlined the company's various streetball tours. Brandon Lacue, d/b/a Werm, for instance, was a marginal high school player in Florida who made a roster in a small Mexican league. But at 6-3 and endowed with the equivalent of Flubber, he became something of a cult hero as a dunker. He signed with And1 in 2009 and makes more than many professional players. In September, he performed at an event in Chicago to celebrate Derrick Rose's new shoe launch. ..... 

... If you're And1, for instance, you're not simply paying guys like Werm to take part in your Mix Tape Tours. You're paying them for the millions of downloads, views, shares, likes and retweets. It's also YouTube that has enabled dunkers to traffic internationally.

"I'm not saying I'm famous famous," Werm says, "but, yeah, I get recognized all the time. It's Werm! I seen you on YouTube!" (Sure enough, while Staples went undetected at the West Fourth Street court, the regulars immediately identified Werm.)

Read More: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/more/news/20131115/chris-staples-brandon-lacue-dunkers/#ixzz2kkQQcYiT

Boeheimian Rhapsody in ... Orange?

Jim Boeheim dealt us Marty Headd, Louis Orr and Roosevelt Bouie - the "Louis and Bouie Show," then he turned it over to Erik Santifer, then to Dwayne "Not the Pearl" Washington, then Derrick Coleman and they kept on coming and coming.  Through long, cold winter after winter, the Syracuse Orange just kept on keepin' on, winning game after game after game. Twenty win seasons, all of them.

Coach Jim Boeheim

How did he do it?

Never a blip on the screen for a recruiting violation.  Never a degree above 32 in the hottest of places in town, and that was from November through March 15th. Never a loss, only a missed free throw or two and a terribly thought-out mascot.

We made fun of the "Dome Ranger" as he ran around the Carrier Dome like a maniac ... we shook our heads with disgust as the fans dressed in Orange far outnumbered the fans in Red at Madison Square Garden for the "big" CBS Game of the Week. 

St John's faded like a cheap suit from Beijing while Georgetown and Syracuse looked like a $5G Burberry from Wall Street.  Syracuse had Bob Costas and the Newhouse School and David Falk ... and they had that zone.  Yes, that zone defense that caused every team in the BIG EAST nightmares fro decades on end.  The Redmen would practice and practice but they couldn't break the zone and Syracuse would win another.  And another.

Years after graduation, we still had to watch Boeheim come into the Garden, his team often limping in with a losing streak - but then - ZAPPO.  Big East Finals.  Gerry McNamara and all.

Six hundred wins (in about 2000-01) became 700 became 800 and now 900 ... err... make that 920.

All that, and the Dome Ranger and the stupid looking squashed Orange are all I can criticize? Well, yessss.  That and the fact, when I met Boeheim and his staff and his charming wife and the family, he was great. Yes it was the 2006-08 USA Basketball experience and he was.... well. Great.

Although very quiet at first, he would open up a little in (very) small groups.  Gradually, as he gained some comfort and surely a little behind the scenes resume or background checking, he would open up more. Witty, sarcastic as hell, funny.  Yes, funny.

Many people would say?  Boeheim?  Funny?  Huh? What?

But they didn't see him in quiet, closed quarters - maybe with an NBA veep of Red Wine presiding.  But, I saw it and I wondered aloud.

One day, with Carmelo Anthony in the prelims before the 2004 Olympics, I gave in and asked, " So, okay, why on earth did you go to Syracuse, freeze your ass off and play up there for Boeheim where you don;t see the sun between November and April?

Melo:  "He recruited me. and ...   no one else did."

When Boeheim and UConn coach Jim Calhoun were enshrined into the Basketball Hall of Fame, it was enough to make any St. John's or Georgetown follower's skin crawl - even though our coaches beat them to the honor. The player turnout for both Syracuse and UConn was OUT-standing.  They were all there.  Ray Allen to Coleman and tons and tons of BIG East fans. Busloads and busloads of 'em, just like on Eighth Ave. and 33rd Street. 

Damn Boeheim. Good luck in the ACC and don't let the door hit ch'ya on the way out.

Here's your Syracuse treat:

Amazing...

AND1 Steps Up to Help St. Francis de Sales in Rockaways

Every now and then, a blog post doesn't need much of an introduction. In this case, I'd like to just thank the people at AND1 apparel for their good deed and its future impact on the community of Belle Harbor (Rockaway peninsula in New York City). It's a place that all basketball-lovin' NYers hold close to their hearts and from the story below, you'll see why and what that means to Terence Mullin, a former St. John's guard, member of NYCs #1 basketball family, and Lenn Robbins, a NY Post columnist for college basketball.

Enjoy ... and try to drop a $20

See this:

By Lenn Robbins (New York Post college basketball columnist).

Basketball...The City Game

MARCH 9 - Basketball, the city game, has always struck me as being a cathartic sport. The drumming beat of a basketball being dribbled. The calming swish of a basketball licking the nets. A player can lose himself for hours in a school yard — just him, his ball and his dreams.

Sometimes dreams get wrecked and there’s nothing we can do about it. A knee gets blown out. A 6-foot-3 high school power forward doesn’t have another growth spurt. Only the good Lord determines who among us will be blessed with talent and drive to make a dream come true.

A lot of people’s faith were shaken in late October when Hurricane Sandy tore through the metropolitan area. There were deaths. There was destruction. But never did I see the death of hope.

I saw hope at places such as Saint Francis de Sales in Belle Harbor, one of the hardest hit areas. The parish and school became the epicenter of relief efforts on the Rockaway Peninsula.

Food, clothing and flashlights poured in, love, compassion and support flowed out.

Monsignor John Brown slept in a classroom on several nights with displaced families. The word, “No,” was never uttered at the neighborhood school on Beach 129th Street.

As the days and weeks went by, as debris was cleared, as homes were either torn down or attempts to rebuild began, St. Francis de Sales tried to return to some semblance of normalcy. The basketball court in the gym, which was badly damaged after being used as a supply center/shelter was covered by insurance and restored. But the outdoor courts, the uniforms, the socks were a total loss.

Those losses might sound trivial compared to the loss of life and home, but you have to understand what basketball means in Belle Harbor and Breezy Point. Every summer for the past 25 years, the St. Francis de Sales Summer Classic has become the Rockaway Peninsula’s focal point for residents.
On any given night hundreds of families gather to talk about their kids, their community, their jobs, their heartbreaks and their celebrations. The Summer Classic, which runs from mid-June to mid-August and provides organized ball for second-graders to greybeards, is the city version of summer camp.
“It’s kind of the focus and backbone of the community,’’ former St. John’s player Terence Mullin told The Post. “Every player down here either plays hoops and/or surfs. That’s what Rockaway is. I mean you look around the neighborhood, there’s four hoops, five hoops on every single street.’’

Players from Brooklyn, The Bronx, Westchester and other neighborhoods in Queens flock to St. Francis de Sales during the summer. Chris Mullin, Mark Jackson, Armond Hill, Kenny Anderson, Ernie Grunfeld are among the hundreds of NBA players that made this their summer home.

There might not be a home this summer. The four outdoor courts were torn up by the storm and the triage center it was used for. The rims hang sideways. The fence is Swiss cheese.

But there is hope. Terence bumped into Terry Lyons, another St. John’s grad and former NBA media relations guru during a 12-12-12 benefit at a local watering hole, and the two chatted about the storm’s devastation. Lyons thought Mullin still lived in Brooklyn. He was blown away by Mullin’s story of what had happened at St. Francis de Sales. (Blog Editor Note:  Lyons works with the good people at AND1 and is helping them re-launch their brand after company was purchased by a longtime NYC basketball loving family).

“I told him we’d been hit pretty bad and he said, ‘We’re going to get the courts fixed,’ ’’ said Mullin. “The next day he calls me and says ‘AND1’ is on board. It was amazing.’’

AND1, the sneaker and apparel company that turned out some of the coolest hoops videos ever, has pledged $5,000 to start a fund to help rebuild the courts that help rebuild a community that continues to rebuild.

It’s a generous start but Terence Mullin, who coaches and runs a camp at St. Francis de Sales, said it will take about $100,000 to finish the job and replace the uniforms, socks, headbands. It also will tell a community that felt somewhat abandoned after Hurricane Sandy that it has not been forgotten.

It certainly would nice to hear the sound of basketballs being dribbled and the swish of a ball going through the net at St. Francis de Sale this summer. If charity isn’t cathartic, what is?

Those wishing to donate can do so by going to: www.stfrancisdesales.kintera.org

Ohio State Band Amazing Halftime Performance

When cool autumn football Saturdays come along, it's always fun to see what the Harvard band has in store during halftime of the games.  This Saturday, we'll be there when Harvard faces Bucknell, just a few hours after a special college basketball tip-off event at 1:30pm.

You can always count on the Harvard band, along with Penn's marching band when they come to town, to entertain the crowd with a sarcastic take on current events or some other interesting topic or salute.

This past weekend, the Ohio State marching band took it to new heights with a tribute to the history of video gaming. I thought it was amazing and invite you to take a look: