As a youth, Cotton frequented the Los
Angelos public parks, honing his skills and
dominating pick-ip games. (far left) Photo
caption to come and will go into this space
and style
of a mountain of redemption. As the
documentary – directed by Eric “Ptah”
Herbert and co-written by Herbert and
Michael Landers –reveals, his suicidal
demons are defeated and regrets are in the
rear-view mirror.
far from the limelight on the minor league
circuit in towns like Cedar Rapids, Iowa. after being cut loose from a minor league
team called the Tulsa 66ers.
A ‘Humbling’ Process While there are differences in their stories,
the parallel between Daniels and Cotton
leads up to the present day. Not only are
documentaries about their battles making
the film-festival rounds, but both are
coaching kids – with plenty of first-hand
cautionary tales to tell – at the AAU level.
In the midst of a decade-long basketball
road trip wrought with detour signs, he
even found himself feeling rather foolish –
and in his deepest emotional funk -- as a
member of the Harlem Globetrotters.
“I wasn’t in a good place,” Cotton reflected
on the experience. “It was only for a month
or so. It was a show. It wasn’t basketball. It
was hard for me.”
Cotton’s competitive fire was still burning
through his team, as he was smarting over
a tough loss that left his 12-and- under
His prodigious skill set attracted
national attention and a feature
in Sports Illustrated.
Enduring what he termed a “humbling
process,” that began late in 2004 and ended
early the following year when he joined
the Darryl Dawkins-coached Pennsylvania
ValleyDawgs, which played its games in a
high school gym in Allentown that lacked
the excitement of the ones he’d lit up as
hoops prodigy. “I wanted to be someone
different, and be somewhere different,” said
Cotton, who did not return to an active
roster until 2008 for a team in Venezuela
photograph by Michael Angulo
squad, Manchild Elite, with two losses
in its first 17 outings and first loss in a
championship game.
“My dedication is to the youth,” he
said, adding that the completion of the
documentary has freed up more time. “I’m
a mentor now. “Today my life is more
simplified. I’m grounded.”
Cotton is in his native Southern
California, standing taller than ever atop
“I’ve seen it countless times,” said Cotton,
shortly after a showing at the Los Angeles
Film Festival and ahead of viewings at the
Calabasas Film Festival and Guangzhou
International Documentary Film Festival
in China. “It takes me back to that time in
my life, so I have mixed emotions.” Cotton
said constantly seeing his since-deceased
father on screen is a “bittersweet” reminder
of how long it took to get the project across
the finish line.
“I’m excited about where it’s headed,” he
said. “It was 10 years, in its entirety. I
scrapped the initial agreement, but I’m glad
I didn’t give up.” A large part of the reason
he is glad his documentary is in circulation
is b ecause basketball has come to be so
mystified in American culture that some
reality checks are required. In “The Legend
of Swee ’Pea,” a tearful Daniels says, “it’s
not about basketball, it’s about life.” That’s
a sentiment that Cotton – and others
like them, from Greg Odom to Kwame
Brown to Dajuan Wagner to the forgotten
scholastic stars who never survived the
college gauntlet – can understand.
“The game of basketball just needs more
stories that are real,” said Cotton, who
once played 37 straight high school games
with 37 different pairs of sneakers provided
by Nike. “I’ve been through it.
“I was the No. 1 player in the country. That
meant everything that comes with it. A lot
of things come easy. You’re 15-years- old
and on the cover of Sports Illustrated. It’s
a glass ceiling. “And there’s not a lot of
loyalty in this sport. When things don’t
Fall 2016
coachandplayer.com
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