The Xavier McDaniel Interview

By: Michael D. McClellan | The menacing scowl, shaved head, and ripped physique are all part of the package, one that ushers in a new, physical breed of player into the NBA. He predates the baggy shorts era but plays his way into it, his swagger at home in a league that grows increasingly connected to the worlds of hip-hop and fashion. McDaniel’s game is built on an old school code that has been officiated out of today’s NBA. There are no flagrant 1s or 2s when McDaniel enters the league, just hard fouls that morph into muggings come playoff time. A series of unruly events—McHale’s clothesline of Kurt Rambis in the ’84 Finals, the Jordan Rules employed by the Pistons to slow down His Airness, and “Malice at the Palace” to name a few—prompts the league to change its rules, killing the post-game and turning the quick three into the weapon du jour.

The player known as “X-Man” is the prototype NBA small forward for his era, a bruising player with a deft touch and a nice offensive game. Rewind to college, and he becomes the first player to lead the nation in scoring and rebounding in the same season. Back it up to the beginning and McDaniel, the oldest of six siblings, grows up like most kids in the football-crazed state of South Carolina.

“I didn’t play organized basketball until the seventh grade,” McDaniel says. “Up until then it was always pickup games in the street. It was just something to do. Baseball was my first love. I pitched, caught, and played first base. I hit for power and average. And when I wasn’t playing baseball, I was playing football. Down here, you had to play football. South Carolina went 0–11 in Lou Holtz’s first year here, and there would be 83,000 people at the game. Every game.”

McDaniel attends A.C. Flora High School in Columbia.

“I wasn’t doing my schoolwork and the things necessary to be a student-athlete,” McDaniel says. “Half of the time I didn’t go to class. I started on the basketball team as a sophomore, but I didn’t play during my junior year because of poor grades. My coach told me that if I wanted to play on his basketball team, then I had to do my schoolwork.”

Eligible as a senior, McDaniel starts alongside Tyrone Corbin, who also goes on to enjoy a long NBA career. After an 0–3 start, A.C. Flora goes 22–0 and wins the state championship. McDaniel averages 18 points and 14 rebounds while often only playing in the first and third quarters. He’s suddenly a major college prospect.

“I was set to sign with South Carolina, and then one day I opened up the newspaper and saw where USC had signed six guys. The coaches at USC knew my situation. I had a 1.9 GPA at the beginning of my senior year, and a 2.4 GPA by the time I graduated. They said that if I went straight to USC that I would probably flunk out, so they wanted me to go to prep school and get my grades up first. They didn’t shoot straight with me, so I decided to go in another direction.”

For reasons unknown even to himself, McDaniel signs with Wichita State and plays his college ball halfway across the country. He stays there four years, finishing his career as a Consensus All-American.

“I made history becoming the first player to lead the nation in scoring and rebounding in the same season. I scored more than 2,000 points and had over 1,000 rebounds in college. I finished second only to Wes Unseld as the all-time leading rebounder in college basketball history. I won a Missouri Valley Conference championship, and a conference tournament championship. Those things are great, but my college career wasn’t complete because I didn’t win a national championship.”

The NBA institutes the Draft Lottery in 1985. The player every GM wants is Georgetown’s Patrick Ewing, the singular can’t-miss prospect in a draft loaded with talent. New York wins the lottery and picks Ewing, who is followed in short order by Wayman Tisdale and Benoit Benjamin. McDaniel’s name is called next.

“I was just happy, man,” McDaniel says. “Our chairs were placed together in Madison Square Garden, and Patrick’s name was called first. We all went in order. When David Stern called my name I was just thankful.”

For McDaniel and Ewing, the draft marks the beginning of a lasting friendship.

“We’re like brothers,” McDaniel says, smiling. “He was the guy I turned to for advice when I signed my contract with Boston.”

McDaniel’s game is decidedly old school. A student of the game, he grows up idolizing guys like Bob Dandridge, Wes Unseld, Elvin Hayes, and Bobby Jones.

“As a player, I took a little something from all of those guys,” he says. “Dandridge had the turnaround jump shot. Elvin Hayes, too. The Big E [Hayes] was unstoppable on the block. People made a big deal out of Michael Jordan shooting that turnaround jumper late in his career, but I was shooting that shot in college. I saw guys like Dandridge and the Big E do it, and I wanted to do it, too.”

McDaniel’s shaved head and menacing scowl injects an attitude missing from the Sonics’ DNA. A few days into his first training camp, McDaniel trades punches with Reggie King. When the season starts, there are scuffles with heavyweights such as Cliff “Tree Top” Robinson, Kevin “T-Rex” Willis, and Calvin “Pit Bull” Natt. McDaniel quickly becomes a fan favorite.

“If I had backed down my rookie year, guys would have tried to push me around. I wanted to make sure that everyone knew I was worth the rookie contract. I wasn’t going to take a cheap shot and turn the other cheek. I wasn’t a dirty player. I played hard and clean, but I wasn’t going to take shit from anyone.”

The Sonics expect big things from its brash rookie, and McDaniel impresses from the start. He averages 17 points and eight rebounds. Like his pal Ewing, the recognition comes quickly.

“I was the Basketball Digest co-Rookie of the Year, along with Karl Malone. I won the Seagram’s NBA Rookie of the Year Award outright,” McDaniel says. “Patrick won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. He only played 50 games that year, and I played the whole season, so I tell him that they gave the award to the wrong guy, and that he should do the right thing and give me my damn trophy back [laughs]. He’ll come back with something like, ‘Well, I put up numbers.’ And I’ll say, ‘Yeah, but you only did it for 50 games; I did it for 82 games, and that means I had 32 more chances to mess up.’ Patrick deserved the award, but one of these day I’m gonna pay him a visit and steal that trophy.”

McDaniel enters the league with Bird and Magic in their primes, and a young Michael Jordan on the rise. Going up against the game’s superstars is a master class in NBA readiness.

“I’d already played against Michael Jordan in the Pan-Am tryouts, so I was more afraid of Bird and Dr. J,” McDaniel says. “When I went to Philadelphia that first time, I was like, ‘Man, that’s Doc!’ I asked the ball boy to go get his autograph. Then, in the game, Doc goes up over me for an alley-oop dunk. He was probably a 15-year veteran at that point in his career, but he could still jump.

“When I went up against Larry Legend that first year, I said to myself, ‘Well, he can’t do anything more to me than he’s done to everybody else.’ Sure enough, he went out and torched me, too [laughs]. There was a game before Larry started having all of those back problems, and he was going up against Shawn Kemp. Larry went 40–15–15. He told Shawn Kemp, ‘I’m the best fucking player to ever play this game.’ And then he shot a three-pointer right in Shawn Kemp’s face. And I looked at Larry and thought, ‘You conceited bastard.’ But I looked forward to playing against guys like Larry Bird, and James Worthy, because they forced you to be on top of your game. If you weren’t, then they were going to embarrass you.”

The Sonics’ future is built on McDaniel, sharpshooter Dale Ellis, and the versatile Tom Chambers. All three players average more than 20 points during that 1986–87 season, a feat that they duplicate a year later. While McDaniel continues to produce over the next several seasons, the Sonics struggle to take the next step as a title contender. McDaniel’s role changes from starter to Sixth Man to starter again, but the Sonics continue to spin their wheels. Chambers is eventually traded to Phoenix, and Shawn Kemp is selected in the first round of the 1989 NBA Draft. Convinced that Kemp is the future, the Sonics ship McDaniel to the Suns fifteen games into the 1990–91 season.

“Phoenix wasn’t a good fit. They put me out there and told me to shoot jump shots. The rest of the time it was Tom and Kevin Johnson running screen-and-rolls. If you watch tape of the games back then you see Tom and Kevin doing their thing, Mark West slashing to the basket, and Jeff Hornacek shooting up top. I’m standing in the corner shooting jumpers. That wasn’t my game. I wasn’t a spot-up shooter. I was more of a slashing rebounder. They didn’t want me to get the rebound and take my man to the hoop. They wanted me to kick it to Kevin Johnson and let him go one-on-one.”

After one season in Phoenix, McDaniel is traded to the Knicks. With a bruising frontline of Ewing, McDaniel, and Charles Oakley, the Knicks win 51 games before meeting the Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. The series goes the distance, with Michael Jordan prevailing in seven games.

“It was a war,” McDaniel says. “There weren’t very many games that I couldn’t get up and walk away from, but my body was beat up after every game. Patrick played an unbelievable series. I felt like we had championship potential, but we didn’t get the job done.”

A contract dispute ends McDaniel’s stay in New York after one season.

“I got caught up in a contract squabble in January of that 1991–92 regular season, and the team basically stopped playing me. We had a twelve game lead on Boston at that point, and management was sure that we were going to win the Atlantic Division. There was just over twenty games left, and I think Boston won 15 of their last 16 games. The Celtics and Knicks finished tied, but Boston won the division because they beat us 3–2 during the season. I felt we should have won the division hands down, but Ernie Grunfeld and Dave Checkett let my contract get in the way.”
McDaniel signs with Boston ahead of the 1992–93 regular season, the first following the retirement of Larry Bird. Boston finishes 48–34, and loses in the first round to the young, hungry Charlotte Hornets. Tragedy strikes later that summer, when Reggie Lewis passes away.

“Reggie was a great leader and my advocate,” McDaniel says. “When Chris Ford moved me to the bench, Reggie lobbied to get me back into the starting lineup. That meant a lot, because it was my first year with the Boston Celtics and I was the new kid on the block. Reggie and I worked well together; we had a play we called ‘Two-Turnover-Three.’ If he went over the top I’d look to get him the ball, or if he went to the bottom I’d feed it to him, or he’d fade to the corner. It was something that the two of us ran.
“Reggie was a beautiful person . . . He was a community-minded guy. If there was a worthy cause going down, Reggie would be right there in the middle of it. It hurt a whole lot when I heard the news that he had died. I sat in my room and cried for a long time.”

McDaniel plays three seasons for the Celtics. He develops a deep connection with its rabid fans.

“I loved the fans. They supported me like I was there my whole career. People say they’re spoiled with all of those championships, but I wish that I had been able to help them win another title. I’d go out to dinner, or go shopping on Newbury Street, and the fans would treat me like royalty. They’d know my situation. They’d say, ‘I don’t understand why you’re not playing, Mr. McDaniel. You work so hard!’ Or I’d go to a restaurant and they’d say, ‘Give Mr. McDaniel what he wants, and put it on my bill!’ It was like being a rock star!”

McDaniel remains a big Robert Parish fan.

“Man, I love Robert Parish. He’s a character, and fun to have around. People will ask why he’s so quiet, but that’s just his demeanor. He’s the nicest person that you could ever hope to meet. If you want to know where you stand with Robert, just go up to him and ask. If he thinks you’re an asshole, he’ll tell you that you’re an asshole. But if he likes you, he will sit down and talk to you for hours on end.”

McDaniel counts himself among the blessed to have known the great Red Auerbach. And like so many other players before him, he has a story to tell.

“I remember when I visited Boston as a free agent,” McDaniel says. “Red laid the numbers out on the table and showed me what they had. He said, ‘We know you’re worth more than this, but this is all we’ve got, Xavier. Being a Celtic is about more than money. And now that we have our offer on the table, you ain’t leaving this room until we have an answer.’ I asked him if I could make one phone call. I didn’t want to call my girlfriend. I didn’t want to call my momma. I called Patrick Ewing. I said, ‘Man, Red Auerbach has got me cornered in this room. If you tell me to talk to New York again, then I won’t sign this contract.’ Patrick said, ‘You need to do what’s right for you.’ So Red came back in and said, ‘What are you going to do?’ I told him that I still wasn’t sure, and he said, ‘Big Fella, you’re not leaving this room until we have an answer one way or the other.’ I thought about it for 10 or 15 minutes, and then I signed the contract. He shook my hand and said, ‘Welcome to the Celtics family. When you become a Celtic, you become a Celtic for life.’”

Michael McClellan
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