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Poster for The Legend of Swee Pea

The Legend of Swee Pea

Director: Benjamin May Run Time: 80 min. Format: DCP Rating: NR Release Year: 2015

Starring: Avery Johnson, David Robinson, Howard Garfinkel, John Lucas, Ron Naclario, Tarkanian, Tom Konchalski

Nitehawk’s LOCAL COLOR presents a one nite screening of the doc about basketball player, Lloyd Daniels (aka Swee Pea). Q&A with director Benjamin May.

Nicknamed for the son of the legendary cartoon character Popeye, Lloyd 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 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.