How basketball and strangers-turned-family saved Edmonton Stingers star Travis Daniels
I was the kid who used to be overlooked
On game day for the Edmonton Stingers, there are a lot of big men on the floor. But six-foot-seven power forward Travis Daniels stands out.
He is a force at both ends of the court and leads the team in scoring, averaging 17.9 points per game.
That Daniels is even playing pro basketball is a small miracle.
"I was the kid who used to be overlooked," said Daniels, in an interview on CBC Edmonton's Radio Active on Thursday.
How basketball and adoptive families kept Edmonton Stingers guard Travis Daniels from a life of drugs and gangs... 7:53Daniels, 27, was born in Eutaw, Alabama, a small city of about 2,600.
Rough start
He went to live with his grandmother shortly after he was born. His birth mother was dealing with mental health issues and was in and out of jail. His grandmother was also tasked with raising his six siblings.
Across the street from his grandma's house was a place known as the Big Park. Daniels would hang out with his older brothers when they went to play basketball.
"I used to be the tag-along guy. I was the young boy," said Daniels.
At 13, his grandmother was hospitalized for a year, so he went to live with a cousin. Basketball continued to play a major role in his life.
"I would say basketball has always been the only thing that kept me going," said Daniels.
"I always had that and school, but then, basketball was ... my therapy," he said.
He would talk to himself and pretend to be the NBA players he looked up to, like Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant.
Instead of being drawn to drugs and gangs in his town, he learned to hustle on the basketball court. Guys on the court would challenge him to hit three-pointers from anywhere on the court and he would do it. He started winning money and eventually started breaking curfew, so his cousin kicked him out.
House to house
He moved in with his older sister but that living arrangement was short-lived. After a couple of weeks, his social worker walked into his school and told counsellor Tamika Thompson that she wanted his transcripts and his clothes in a garbage bag, saying his sister couldn't look after him anymore: She had her own family to look after. In that moment, Thompson stepped in and said she would take him. So Daniels went to live with his school counsellor and her husband, Stan.
They weren't able to become his legal guardians, so he ended up being placed in an all boys group home. But the Thompsons always stayed in touch, said Daniels. Though Tamika is his godmother, Daniels thinks of her as his mother.
"They took me in and we just built the relationship from there," he said. "We talk all the time."
He started to grow taller while in the group home, from five foot nine in Grade 9, to six foot seven by Grade 11.
He helped his high school team reach the state semifinals. Off the court, he was adopted by Harlan and Linda Winston, despite them having three sons of their own.
"He's a good dude, a great man," said Daniels. "A great father … somebody I can talk to about anything."
He graduated high school and played two years at Shelton State Community College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and was eventually offered a full scholarship at Mississippi State, an NCAA Division 1 school.
"That was like surreal to me," said Daniels.
For the last three years, Daniels has played pro basketball, playing in Bulgaria, Greece and Edmonton.
Stingers coach Jermaine Small says Daniels's story is about the love of family and the positive things that can come from sport.
"He's a guy that doesn't take it for granted," said Small. "He comes in every day, is a true professional, and he works hard.
"I always remind him how lucky I feel to coach him," said Small.
The 7-4 Stingers are in Guelph to play the 3-8 Nighthawks on Saturday. They play the Nighthawks again in Edmonton next Thursday, July 11.