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VETERAN coach Frankie Lim said it was a pleasure to manage a player like Sudan Daniel.
An excellent player on the court, the American center was a better person as his impact was felt beyond his years of playing at San Beda.
Daniel died on Saturday at the age of 33.
“Su is a player you want to have on your team. I think SBC is lucky to have a player like Sudan,” said Lim, who coached Daniel during his time at Mendiola.
“He works hard in practice and gives it his all in the game. He only averaged 22 minutes per game, but he will give you great numbers. I don’t think we could have made the sweep in 2010 without Su.”
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Daniel was the cornerstone of that Red Lions team that came out perfect in the 86th NCAA season in 2010, where he also garnered all the individual accolades from MVP of the season to MVP of the finals and Defensive Player of the Year. .
But that almost didn’t happen as Lim revealed that he was about to send Daniel home a year earlier.
“I almost sent him home in 2009,” the decorated mentor said without elaborating. “But since then, he worked hard day after day and proved he could do this.
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“The next thing you know, we swept everything and he had a complete change. He won the MVP and Defensive Player awards that year when he came off the bench and only played an average of 22 minutes per game.
“Ask anyone on the team, including me, we’ll go through hell and come back to Su again and again.”
What made Daniel love for the Bedan community was his down-to-earth nature. Lim said the foreign student athlete “was very sociable and got along with almost everyone.”
“He is also a very good example of a student-athlete. He teaches basketball to children and is also very well liked by them, not because he is a great teacher, but because he is teaching from experience,” Lim said.
The community loved Daniel too.
It was no surprise that Lim even considered Daniel her “adopted son”, and welcomed the huge center to her home with open arms.
“His was part of the family,” he said. “Su spent the holidays with us. He was the great Kuya at home and grew up with everyone. He was our adopted son. He was a constant figure not only at our celebrations, but also at regular lunches and dinners. He calls my wife mom, and He was an older brother to my daughter Miakka and my son Melo, who was her teammate, and Tyler, who she watched grow up. “
That is why one can only imagine the pain in the Lim house after Daniel’s passing last Saturday.
Daniel broke conventional norms for foreign student-athletes, showing that he is by no means a mercenary and showing that, more than anything, he loved the country that gave him this unique opportunity and embraced it as his own.
“He stayed in the Philippines after graduating because he loved being here,” Lim said. “He wanted to play here, finish his studies and work here. He was a blessing for many of us that we had the opportunity to meet him. He was very nice, had a good sense of reality and worked hard. He lit up every room he was in.” .
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Lim prided himself on the kind of person his former player became after his days at San Beda: much loved wherever he went.
“We are very proud of how Su lived his life, his first job, his daughter and his love life. We are very proud of the man he came to be. He took such good care of himself and those around him until the very end.” he said.
“Sudan’s passing is a tragedy for our family. This is very devastating for us as a family and personally for me, as he was like a son to me. Su always told us: ‘I support you’, but now, he is ours. time to have yours. “
His parting words to his ‘son’?
“Take care of us, Superman. We are so proud of you. You will never be forgotten.”
