Shakur Daniel: The next product of Canada's basketball blueprint
LAS VEGAS — By the time Andrew Wiggins shook commissioner Adam Silver's hand at June's NBA draft, the creation of the next Andrew Wiggins was already well underway.
It began in early summer of 2012, as the Canadian Wiggins garnered attention that would make him the most touted amateur player in a decade. A Toronto man named Ro Russell, an influential and polarizing summer-league powerbroker who boasts of training Wiggins in middle school, sat down with a 12-year-old and his dad.
"Here is the Andrew Wiggins blueprint," Russell told the spindly adolescent, Shakur Daniel, and his father before explaining in exhaustive detail how Daniel could follow in the footsteps of a teen-ager who was virtually unrivaled in athleticism and hype. "Shak, I'm not talking about you being the next random high-major college player. Wiggins will be the number one pick and will go down in Canadian history — you can be the same.
"Are you ready to sacrifice your friends and girls and time? Are you ready to listen and be that guy because your life is not going to be the same? You are not going to have a regular life that everybody else has."
Regardless of how Daniel's career unfolds, his story illustrates the extent to which some influencers go to try to re-create not only a phenom but also a phenomenon. The ingredients: the guiding hand of a controversial summer-league coach, a father's leap of faith on a secondary school whose courses currently lack NCAA approval and a teen-ager's conflicting desires to be both extraordinary and ordinary.
It also represents the inevitable next step for a country in the midst of a basketball boom. Already home to the past two number one NBA draft picks — Anthony Bennett in 2013; Wiggins in 2014 — and three of the top 18 picks in June's draft, Canada is now mimicking America's basketball world in another respect: engaging in the often-elusive chase for the next homegrown prodigy.
"Trying to be a number one draft pick is a great idea, but the path to get there is always tougher than people think," says Melvin Ejim, the former Iowa State standout who played for the Canadian national team at the 2013 World University Games. "You have to do it reasonably. The reality and weight on your shoulders have to be realistic."
With an uneven (at best) track record, Americans have long tried to anoint the next transcendent basketball star, those quests littered with cautionary tales. For Canada, where amateur basketball has flourished in recent years, here is a prospect in Daniel — now 15 and considered among the top players in the high school class of 2018 — who has been placed on a regimen to try to follow a once-in-a-generation high school talent in lockstep.
Just as Wiggins did when he attended Huntington Prep (W.Va.), the 6-foot-4 Daniel, a combo guard proficient in fundamentals, plans to play high school basketball in the United States to benefit from the best competition and most exposure. His father, Clive Daniel, is so committed to that plan that he left his job in Toronto more than a year ago to move — without a full-salaried job — to the Phoenix area, where his son plans to join a fledgling basketball program, Elite 1 Academy for Academics & Athletics, beginning in the fall of 2015.
Elite 1-affiliated players take classes at a three-year-old charter school, The Odyssey Institute for Advanced and International Studies. Odyssey is "fully accredited," says Russell, who later adds that he is unaware if the school's courses have already been approved by the NCAA.
But Odyssey has not even created an account with the NCAA Eligibility Center to begin a review process that will determine which of its courses are approved, NCAA spokeswoman Meghan Durham says. Without completing approved courses, aspiring college athletes enrolled there now would be ineligible to compete in college.
"That's pretty unusual" for the school not to create an account, Durham says. If the courses are ultimately approved, they will be retroactively green-lighted for students taking them now, but Durham says it is a risk to take any course that has yet to be approved.
"It's obviously not something we would advise the student-athlete to take a chance on," she says. "We advise them, if they are planning to play sports in college, to make sure they are taking classes that have already been approved by the Eligibility Center."
And Clive Daniel has entrusted much of the direction of his son's career in the hands of Russell, who calls himself an unpaid Toronto-based consultant for Elite 1. Some view Russell's multistep plan to make Daniel "at least" as talented and celebrated as Wiggins was in high school as a shrewd attempt by a veteran summer-league coach to reclaim credibility after his image was tarnished two years ago by allegations made in a high-profile documentary.
"It is a good sales pitch," says Alex Kline, a national recruiting analyst. " 'I worked with Andrew Wiggins, so you can be the next Andrew Wiggins. I will train you the same way. We will put you on the same diet, we'll put you in his shoes.' The blueprint. It is genius, until you actually do your research … It's not healthy at all for the player."
Adds Wayne Dawkins, who co-founded the Grassroots Canada Elite summer-league program with Russell some 15 years ago before the two had a falling out last year: "You know who has the Andrew Wiggins blueprint? God has the blueprint. What made Andrew so special was something nobody can claim but God. Shakur does not possess the genetic blessing like Andrew. Andrew is a freak athlete. You market him, you can't lose."
But someone else praises the blueprint: Wiggins himself. When told that Shakur Daniel is attempting to follow Wiggins' almost preordained step-by-step march to the NBA, Wiggins smiled and paused.
"Yeah, that is realistic," Wiggins says. "If you believe in it, you have to believe it yourself or no one else can believe it. So if he believes it, I am sure he can do it. I think it is a good path for you. You cannot go wrong with that path."
Talent is there
Daniel's coaches know one thing: If he is going to follow the blueprint, the first requisite is talent.
Alex Johnson, a former North Carolina State guard who coaches Daniel's 14-U summer-league team, says Daniel could become at least as good as Wiggins because, though he lacks Wiggins' almost freakish athletic ability, he is more fundamentally sound at the same age.
In a couple years, Johnson says, "Everybody is going to want him. He is going to be like Wiggins. It will open doors, it will be wild. He doesn't know yet. He just thinks, 'Okay, I'll just go to Kentucky and it will be the end of it.'"
The 14-U Las Vegas Live tournament this July was awash in incongruous images. One teary-eyed child, only a forehead taller than his mom's waist, said he hated fast breaks because he always gets scared about shooting uncontested layups. Then there was Daniel, who, Russell says, is training a minimum of six days per week and creating attention-grabbing mix tapes to follow the Wiggins master plan.
Russell likened adhering to the Wiggins blueprint to architects designing the next Bellagio casino. The next version will not be a precise facsimile, he says, but will feature its own distinguishable hallmarks. Aside from the obvious difference in athleticism, Wiggins and Daniel had different skill sets at 15.
In Las Vegas, Daniel didn't single-handedly dominate any game statistically. But he also never made a single ill-advised pass or poor basketball decision. Not nearly as athletic as Wiggins was in high school — few players are — Daniel exhibited few visible weaknesses other than his build (155 pounds) and tendency to defer too much.
At the beginning of this year, Clive Daniel recalls, he realized, "Wow, this kid has it. He truly has it. He can make it to the league. Really, he is that good." But displaying extraordinary skill at 15 is one thing. Remaining on course to blossom into the next Wiggins, who was so celebrated in high school he once received a congratulatory tweet from Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper, is another.
Calling Daniel an eventual surefire high-major college player, Dawkins says, "Skill-wise, maybe Shakur is ahead of Andrew. But I can probably name 50 kids who were ahead of Andrew skill-wise. There's an athleticism that Andrew possessed at 12 that was world-class."
Starting when his son played with a Tony the Tiger hoop in his crib, Daniel has long recognized that his son possessed unusual basketball talent. He didn't sign him up for a recreation league until he was 10 because he wanted him honing fundamentals rather than risk anyone "tampering" with his game.
When he was 12, the elder Daniel hooked up with Russell, who has played a central role in Canada's rise in basketball over the past two decades. He helped send hundreds of players to college. Two of his more well-known talents — Tristan Thompson and Cory Joseph — were first-round NBA draft picks in 2011 after both spent just one season in college.
"He's been incredibly important" to the rise of Canadian basketball, Jay Triano, the Canadian national team head coach, says of Russell. "He took players to the States on a regular basis so they could play good competition. He'd pile guys into a van and drive all over the place. That was huge."
But Russell acknowledges he has been a magnet for criticism — "Americans hate me," he says — because his pipeline has caused promising Canadian prospects to take scholarships from players in the States.
In 2012, a 45-minute documentary by CBC's Fifth Estate — Canada's version of 60 Minutes — alleged that parents were misled and paid him directly so their children could attend Christian Faith Center Academy in Creedmoor, N.C. Just days after the report aired, Russell stepped down as the academy's basketball coach.
Citing "a couple disgruntled kids," Russell acknowledges mistakes in making "too many assumptions" related to certification issues. But he says he always had kids' best interests at heart.
"At end of the day, I never did anything criminally wrong, I have never been sued over anything, no one got killed or whatever," Russell says. "Trust me, I'm not Jesus Christ, I'm no Martin Luther King, but people hated on Jesus Christ, people hated on Martin Luther King. No one is going to have all great things said about him."
Given his son's potential, Clive Daniel could enlist virtually any acclaimed youth coach in Canada or the States to help steward his son's career. Why choose a polarizing one?
Four weeks after the documentary aired, Daniel says, he spoke with Russell, asked questions and emerged satisfied with Russell's answers.
"He has gained my trust," Daniel says. "I've seen what he does with kids for 25 years. I have seen that really outweigh everything else based on that one incident."
Russell's plan has always entailed elite Canadian players matriculating to the States for high school. Nik Stauskas, who was picked eighth overall by the Sacramento Kings in June, played for Russell for more than three years and credits him for infusing him with confidence and maximizing his exposure.
"There was Steve Nash," Stauskas says. "But he didn't really have that path of going to prep school in America. We paved the way for the Canadians trying to make that move. … There's always a new guy coming up. Let's hope (Shakur Daniel) takes the same path."
Wiggins briefly attended Russell's North Carolina school before returning to Canada and ultimately parting ways with Russell. Wiggins is quick to praise the Canadian trailblazers who created easier opportunities for him and for younger players such as Daniel, adding "they really opened doors for younger people watching, for us to grow up and believe we can do the same they have done. Tristan, Cory, Denham Brown, Phil Dixon, Steve Nash, Jamaal Magloire, guys like that, they have really paved the way for young guys like me and even younger guys who are coming."
Leap of faith
Clive Daniel wants his son to be one of them. So in the summer of 2013, while living a "comfortable life" working for a Toronto-based wireless company, he gave it all up to move to Phoenix to gauge whether a new basketball academy — very much still in the construction stage, literally and figuratively — was the best route for his son.
He says he continues to work as the academy's director of operations, ensuring that everything from meals to basketball activities to academic procedures run smoothly. Among the myriad issues: salary.
"Salary?" Daniel says, "Right now a lot of it is just what I saved up. I don't get any salary base right now. No, we are not there right now. It's not any full salary … I grew up in the ghetto. I know how to make it through with a couple dollars."
Daniel says he earns little more than $300 per week, has no other job and gets some financial help from his Toronto-based girlfriend.
The academy itself still needs to be physically constructed. Hopefully soon. "Not soon enough at all," Daniel says, half-jokingly.
His son was originally slated to attend the academy this school year. But the family — the younger Daniel's mother lives in the Toronto area — decided in August that he will play one more season at Bill Crothers Secondary School in the Toronto area before moving to Elite 1 next year.
Does Clive Daniel's move to uproot from Toronto — and to bring his son next year — represent a sizeable leap of faith considering many of the details with the academy remain cloudy?
"Yes, it is," Clive Daniel says. "It is a leap of faith in terms of believing."
During his full year working at the academy, what helped ease his mind about it?
"I don't know if my mind is eased," Daniel says. "It is a lot of work. As long as it is organized and has everything structured, I think it can be successful. And as long as they have the best interests of the child at heart."
Daniel cites several benefits of the academy: Several out-of-state players live in a home of more than 4,000-square-feet — where the elder Daniel also lives — complete with swimming pool and spa. A chef was expected to cook meals.
Daniel, who says has heard numerous stories about flawed, basketball-centric schools in the States, said this summer that it was imperative that a potential school for his son included academics that were approved by the NCAA.
George Edwards, whose 11th-grade son Michael currently attends Elite 1 and Odyssey, says he was guaranteed that the school's academic status was sufficient for his son, who aspires to play college basketball, when he visited the school this summer. When a USA TODAY Sports reporter told him this week that Odyssey had yet to begin an NCAA Eligibility Center review to determine which courses were approved, he was taken aback.
"What?" Edwards says. "I'm going to call the principal and ask him about this because this is a red flag … Man, you have my heart racing fast. That was one of the first questions I asked them."
When asked about the absence of an account with the NCAA Eligibility Center, Stephanie Crawford, Odyssey's communication director, initially told USA TODAY Sports this week, "I don't know what the NCAA is looking for in their accreditations. I didn't know that was a layer to it."
She later emailed USA TODAY Sports to say that the school is now in the process of compiling necessary information for the NCAA and that "we have the utmost confidence the NCAA will approve our application."
The Web site for Elite 1 claims Stauskas, Dwight Powell, Joseph and Thompson as alums even though those Canadians attended different schools.
Dawkins, who created another Phoenix-area academy, Phase 1, wanted to make clear that his academy has no affiliation with the Elite 1 Academy linked to Russell because, "I don't want to be associated with whatever they are trying to do, or people will assume that my school is not above-board, and it's 100% above board."
When asked about the integrity of the Elite 1 academy and the affiliated school, Russell says: "There is no scheme. It's not a Ro Russell production … I don't want to put a lot of emphasis on that (school) because I don't want anyone to try to sabotage or hurt what we are trying to do because it is new. I don't want people calling in and asking questions and trying to bring negativity."
Russell cites the elder Daniel's one-year commitment to the academy as a sign of its credibility, adding, "No one is going to sit in crap for a long time and then say, 'Okay, I'm going to put my son in crap.' They are going to say no."
Then there's the issue of pressure. The elder Daniel does not subscribe to the theory that following Wiggins' blueprint is more a burden than a benefit.
"If you want to be a doctor, how does a doctor reach that level?" he says. "You've got to take certain steps. They are laying out a path. It's great to mimic someone. Look at Kobe, he copied Jordan's game head to toe."
Still a boy
Sitting inside a Circus Circus hotel room and swimming inside his oversized basketball jersey, Shakur Daniel gazes at his size-13 Jordan sneakers and measures the question: How does he feel about some calling him the next Andrew Wiggins?
He signed his first autograph at 12. He has yet to shave his face. He knows if he didn't play basketball, no one would know him. Doctors have told his parents that his growth plates indicate he should grow to 6-foot-8. The elder Daniel uses a laptop power cord to measure his son's wingspan, which was longer than his height.
Regarding the Wiggins comparisons, the 15-year-old remains conflicted.
"I'm grateful for it," Daniel says. "I just want to be known as Shakur Daniel sometimes. It is nice to be known, and that I can be the next Andrew Wiggins. But sometimes I just want to create my own name. It's not like every kid gets to be known like, 'Oh you are the next Andrew Wiggins.' It's something cool. I can have memories of it."
He wants to play in the NBA. It's his dream, he says. Making the NBA, he says, is important so he can one day wake up and say, "Oh, I'm here and I can do something I've been working hard for."
The elder Daniel says he wants the best for his son and acknowledges that he is still learning about high-stakes amateur basketball, still learning who to trust and the potholes that may lurk ahead.
While in Las Vegas, the elder Daniel spent time with Stauskas and his father at their hotel, getting some advice he feels will help his son's journey. Daniel also shared a late-night meal with Wiggins and his father, the former NBA player Mitchell Wiggins.
Whether his son becomes the next Wiggins remains to be seen. But as Daniel repeats, "We have been following that blueprint."
During the Las Vegas tournament, someone tweeted that "Shak and Company are 2-0 in Vegas." A teammate saw it and said, "Hey, I'm not company!" So Daniel responded by crediting every player on his team in a tweet. He tries to remain humble, normal. He likes going to the movies with friends, shopping for clothes and shoes. He enjoyed his business tech class in school.
Adds Daniel: "I like being a regular kid sometimes, too."