Columnist Dean Juipe: Daniels needs to reconsider

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, June 2, 1999 | 10:40 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

As a kid growing up in New Orleans, Greedy Daniels had to believe he was NBA-bound.

By the time he completed high school, he was the city's Most Valuable Player, a Parade Magazine all-American and ranked as the 27th best senior in the country.

In the midst of building those credentials, certainly he envisioned himself as someday playing in the world's top league. Despite a lack of size, at 6-foot he had sufficient quickness and a nice enough outside shooting touch to allow himself those NBA dreams.

He figured to improve his skills and craft at UNLV, and he arrived in Las Vegas two years ago to considerable advance hype. Those who hadn't seen him play pictured a spirited, no-nonsense defender who also liked to run with the ball and could hit the 3-point shot.

The potential was there not only for him to blossom, but for fans of the Rebels to enjoy the coming-out party. Daniels, at 19, appeared to be a real catch for head coach Bill Bayno.

Now, two years later, Daniels is out of school and maybe out of luck. He has left UNLV and announced himself available for the NBA draft June 30, although he may be reconsidering and could yet transfer to another school.

Either way, he has not established himself as an upper-echelon player and there isn't any doubt the NBA will pass on him. A young man who once looked so promising is, instead, in the early stages of life as a basketball nomad.

Daniels, who isn't talking to the press about his plans, has until a week before the NBA draft to withdraw his name. If he does, he will look for a school -- such as Mississippi State, where he earlier said he would transfer -- that has some interest in him; he would have to sit out a season. If he does not withdraw his name and the NBA ignores him, his next step is to get a passport.

He'll be beating the bushes, playing in some foreign country for small change. While it could be fun to play in say, Italy or Spain or France, and maybe see the world, this is not what Daniels was anticipating either as a youngster in New Orleans or as a young adult in Las Vegas.

He has not developed as a basketball player and it's possible he hasn't developed as a responsible person. He couldn't beat out Mark Dickel for a starting berth with the Rebels and he was having academic problems in school.

In quick order this spring he quit the Rebels and put his scholastic pursuits on hold. If he is receiving advice, it has not been good advice.

Perhaps, like so many other young players, Daniels had more potential than firepower and that he was always a long shot to play in the NBA despite his press clippings. He isn't the first guy to come along and fizzle after a ballyhooed buildup.

But it's possible he has regressed as a player and suffered a lack of maturity in sorting out his personal affairs. Either way, with more than three dozen underclassmen coming out, the NBA will not be selecting a short guard who couldn't supplant Mark Dickel as a starter on a mediocre team.

It's no fun to see a young person's dreams unravel, but it appears as if that's what's happening with Daniels. Adversity slapped him in the face and then reality added a follow-up blow.

If he doesn't right himself and reconsider completing college, he will have made a mistake that may take forever to repay.