Age 18 with a 67 cherry bright red VW Bus, friends affectionately calling it the blood-mobile. It was so red on top of red, people said laughingly that a Bloods gang member must drive this van.

The van was large enough to hold a bed in the back. Dads truly hate vans like this because they'll tell you upon picking up their daughter on a date, "If that van starts rockin, Imma come knockin."

It was more than a van, it was someone's home for a summer - a place to bounce a ball at 11 pm before you sack out with tears in your eyes because you parked 50 feet outside your family's house, able to smell the food from your kitchen but knowing you're not welcome inside.

Because you're homeless, you wish you could wish upon a star and have a home. But when you wake up every morning you accept that a 67 VW bus isn't a real home, it's just a van.

Is this Chris Daniels’ story you ask? No, if it's 1989, it's my story.

All these memories rushed to my brain in one single instant, the very moment I was interviewing and asking Glendale CC's 6-2 guard Chris Daniels one question: "What's the biggest thing you've ever overcome bro?"

“Being homeless." he said.

Wow, pow, a punch to my stomach, a flood of emotion filling my memory banks. Because even if I wear size 13, and Chris wears a size 11, I've walked in his shoes. 100.

Chris Daniels, he's that mellow guy, super cool 20 year old. The kind of dude you just wish was your brother because he's a chill good person, and as easy going in convo as his jumper is butter smooth on the court.

I'm watching C-Daniels do work on the Moorpark CC team. Jab step, back cut off a pick, splash from 3. There's a quiet confidence that emanates from him. Humble in speech, he chooses to do his talking in the game.

He tells of his goals, "When people sit down to watch our games, I just want to earn their respect, for them to say, 'that guy is a player.' I train 8 hours a day. Taylor Statham from Ball Out works me hard, but I want to ball at a place like Long Beach State.

“I'll always look at myself as an underdog but I've taken the weakest part of my game which was shooting and now that's my strength. That gives me confidence going forward. I'm proud to keep a 3.0 gpa. Good grades are important.

“I'm set to be a pre law major, on my way to be a lawyer. But my road is just starting. My goal is to just be a baller just like my dad. I owe him everything, he's always been there for me."

I tried to get Chris to tell me who he liked most in the NBA, which modern day player he modeled his game after. He told me, "My dad is where it starts and ends for me. I respect him that much, I just want to ball like him. 100%."

Jimmy Daniels, Drew League legend, Dorsey High, Glendale JC, and CSUN baller had serious game on the courts back in the day. Whereas C-Daniels cuts you up with his skill set, Jimmy Daniels would just take a step or two and use his 42 inch vertical to simply dunk you into oblivion.

Chris also admires his pops because he ran with all time greats like Casper Ware Sr. Talk to Jimmy Daniels enough, you see he's a no-nonsense guy. He has mad love for his son, never misses a game, and is always there to offer his advice.

For example Jimmy says, " I tell Chris to make your own destiny. I worked hard to get out of the neighborhood, it's tough to grow up in South LA. I'm glad Chris never had to beat those hard streets like I did. I always got on him because I care, I'm his biggest critic as he was growing up.

“Everyone will tell you you're so great, but I had to keep it real for him. Maybe I was too hard but he really has made me proud. He's 100% better in his footwork in the last 3 months alone, Chris is so mentally tough. Our games are completely different, but he can do things I wished I could have done at his age."

Hearing Chris had been homeless and bounced around as he was living with his mom at an early age and listening to him relate that he wasn't sure if he'd have a house to call his own at night, it touched me.

Hearing that brought me back to my 67 VW van, took me right back to my hoop dream that died in 1989.

Chris told me how his dad scooped him up when his mom wasn't able to function. That made me admire his dad for taking care of his son and providing stability as they settled in Palmdale. That's where the elder Daniels drives a bus for the city nowadays.

Iil Chris at age 9 was stuck on hard-luck and 3rd Street and his pops literally pulled up in a special one passenger bus line headed for "gravy and heaven." How great it must've been for Chris.

I asked the 53 year-old Jimmy Daniels about raising his son. He told me, " I just did what I was supposed to. I might have made mistakes in my youth because I didn't know better but I love seeing Chris have an easier time going to Highland High. He's made us all proud. He's living his college dream."

Chris actually went to Fresno CC out of high school and brought them to a California JC Final Four. He left there because it was a bad scene but Chris made his own grown man decision to transfer and pursue his goals closer to home.

Me, I'm a writer but I can only I wish I was baller like Chris because he's a skilled 6-2 guy that can play, 16 ppg, 7 boards, 6 assists. But what impresses me the most about Chris is how he channeled his frustration to power his dreams and overcome being homeless, something that doomed my shot at ballin' in ‘89.

How is that you ask?

Back in that VW bus in the summer of 1989, I'd wake up and just be mad at the world. I’d get up at 8 am, go to a public bathroom to freshen up, I'd put in my own 8 hours a day, never wanting to return to my van at night.

I'd sweat all day long on basketball courts. The concrete looked like someone had hosed them down from sun-up to twilight. I'd constantly be jumping higher and higher, as if I could jump myself out of this whole nightmare world of being homeless.

I dared myself to pull off death defying dunks, jumping over track and field hurdles that I placed near the free throw line to dunk away my frustration while launching my hand and ball at the top of the square to jam.

I thought that'd release my anger. That is until my own hubris and anger triggered my greatest fear and unexpected defeat one day.

Two weeks before JC tryouts in August, I went up for a windmill 360 dunk like my idol Dominique Wilkins, but upon touchdown I heard the crack. My ankle was fracturing in a twisted mesh of flesh and broken bones and my dream was broken along with it.

My family seeing me look pitiful in a cast was the catalyst of us all making up, I agreed to live under their rules, being invited back to the house.

A foot can heal in 3 months but no cast can remedy the pain of losing your hoop dream, even for a 46 year old like me.

Chris never broke his ankle, but he breaks ankles on the court. His dream is now well under way and I can only look back and wish I was as mature as him. If only I had channeled my rage better, like Chris did.

It's ironic that Chris's fav song is Drake's Star 67. Ironic that its lyric mentions someone named Jimmy. Or maybe that's just more props to his pops, that he picked that song:

"I knew when they didn't, I been had these visions

Of the life I'm livin' since I was Jimmy

All I just had to do was go and get it."

C-Daniels is going out and getting the respect to be the evolution of Jimmy Daniels, his dad 2.0 in his own way.

He's hungry for success. Each team he faces isn't a JC hoop squad to beat, they're a chance to devour respect. Each competition is Souplantation, Hometown Buffet time, Chris is trying eat all the basketball he can, until people simply recognize him as a baller.

As of now, he's only getting looks from D2s but that doesn't discourage him. He has that "Star 67 vision" to work hard enough to make the squad at a Big West school like his dad did. Chris has this inner drive that he will "will himself" to make that happen, to a D1.

Will his Star 67 dream come true? His attitude is so positive, his vision so pure, how can it not?

Even at the end of his Fresno CC days, for many weeks he was homeless along with two of his other teammates out of their car. Complain? Get angry like I did?

No, and this is what he said, "I hated going back to being without a place but it made me and my teammates closer. It just made me think if I could overcome this, I can overcome anything going forward. I will go the distance to being a lawyer. Nothing will stop that from happening, nothing."

Chris is one articulate and undaunted dude, the kind of person you root for. Nothing sidetracks his aspirations and that inspires me 100

Meeting Chris reminded me to accept that fate has a way of imposing itself on you, but if you're strong enough like a Chris Daniels, you can sometimes choose your own fate.

A college baller C-Daniels is fosho, but a survivor we both are. I clap for everyone who dreams big and overcomes obstacles in life.