Swee’pea: The Story of Lloyd Daniels and Other Playground Basketball Legends

“The con man had conned himself,” writes longtime New York Newsday reporter Valenti (with an assist from Naclerio, Lloyd Daniels’ mentor and friend) of NYC basketball prodigy Lloyd “Swee’pea” Daniels, who played briefly with the L.A. Lakers and five other NBA teams. In the 1980s, Daniels was a magician on the court. His otherworldly talents gave him numerous opportunities; he was able to play professionally without graduating high school. “Lloyd Daniels can do everything with a basketball except one—autograph it,” a high school coach observed. The tragedy of Daniels’s story runs deeper. As broken promises, drug abuse, and screw-ups accumulated, Daniels’ belief in his ability became delusional, even sad. Valenti is unsparing and critical of Daniels’s longtime squandering, but he’s also sympathetic. He explores the circumstances surrounding the young man’s struggle—the influence of drug dealers in certain neighborhoods, the way the NYC school system shuffled Daniels (an undiagnosed dyslexic) to the next grade, and the ability of decision-makers in the basketball world to dismiss personal issues when the talent for hoops glows bright. This rerelease of Valenti’s 1990 book, complete with an epilogue, unsparingly looks at how basketball serves as a salvation and a prison for kids in New York City’s poorer neighborhoods. The poignancy of Daniels’s story, and the stories of the other heroes profiled here, are heartbreaking, even when Valenti’s editorializing and hard-boiled prose take charge. Agent: Monika Taga, Taga Literary Works. [em](July) [/em]