Daniels was born on September 4, 1967, to Lloyd and Judy Daniels.[1] His mother contracted uterine cancer shortly after his birth and died when Daniels was aged three.[1] His father subsequently turned to alcohol and disappeared from Daniels' life.[1] Daniels was raised by his two grandmothers who lived in Hollis, Queens, and Brooklyn.[1]
Daniels struggled with undiagnosed dyslexia, transferred high schools multiple times and played little prep basketball because of academic troubles.[1] He honed his skills in playground games.[1] Approaching his junior year of high school, Daniels became a national name when he was named the most outstanding player at the Five-Star Camp in 1985.[1]Howard Garfinkel, the director of the Five-Star Camp, called Daniels "the best junior alive, dead, or yet unborn."[1] John Valenti and Ron Naclerio wrote that Daniels was known for combining passing and shooting abilities.[2]
Daniels played for an entire season at Andrew Jackson High School as a junior when he averaged 31.2 points, 12.3 rebounds and 10.3 assists per game.[1] He was selected as a Parade All-American.[1] Daniels received comparisons to Connie Hawkins and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar while being hailed by sportswriters as the best high school basketball player from New York City in two decades.[3] Daniels dropped out of high school the day after his junior season ended.[1]
On February 9, 1987, Daniels was arrested for buying crack cocaine from an undercover policeman.[4][5] Although Tarkanian was known for taking in troubled players, this incident was too much even for him, and Tarkanian announced that Daniels would never play for UNLV.[4] It later emerged that Daniels had first been led to UNLV by Richard Perry, who had been convicted twice for sports bribery.[6] Perry's involvement resulted in an NCAA investigation that ultimately forced Tarkanian to resign.[7][8][9]
Later one of Tarkanian's assistants, Mark Warkentien, became Daniels' legal guardian.[10]
After recovering from a 1989 shooting that nearly killed him, Daniels returned to playing basketball in 1991 with the Miami Tropics of the United States Basketball League (USBL).[1] The team was led by John Lucas II and doubled as a rehabilitation program for players with addictions.[1] After a successful stint in the USBL and the Global Basketball Association (GBA),[12] Daniels was invited to the San Antonio Spurs training camp in 1992 by new head coach Tarkanian.[1] On July 21, 1992, Daniels signed a two-year contract with the Spurs.[13]
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