The recent passing of Indiana Pacers legend Mel Daniels brought back a lot of memories of an outstanding career in the American Basketball Association.
Daniels played nine seasons of professional basketball with six of them as a member of the Pacers. He was drafted by two teams in 1967 out of the University of New Mexico.
The Cincinnati Royals selected him in the first round of the National Basketball Association draft, while he was the top pick by the Minnesota Muskies of the ABA.
The 6-9 Daniels chose Minnesota and was eventually named the ABA’s Rookie of the Year for the 1967-1968 season. He scored 22.2 points per game and topped the league in rebounding at 15.6 a contest.
Despite their success on the court and making the playoffs, the Muskies only were in Minnesota for one year and the club sold Daniels to the Pacers.
Daniels would blossom with the Pacers as would the organization. In his first season with Indiana, Daniels was selected as the ABA’s Most Valuable Player finishing with a career-high 24.0 points per game and league-leading 16.5 rebounds an outing.
During the 1969-1970 season, the Pacers would win their first of three ABA championships as Daniels scored 18.7 points per game.
After the 1970-1971 season, Daniels earned his second ABA MVP honor, but the Pacers lost in the first round of the playoffs.
Mel Daniels featured in Indiana Pacers 1972-73 Yearbook
However over the next two seasons, the Pacers would win their second and third titles in the ABA.
Daniels would play his last season with the Pacers in 1973-1974 before ending his ABA career with the Memphis Sounds the following year.
After the ABA and NBA merged, Daniels was with the New York Nets for 11 games during the 1976-1977 season before he retired. He is the top rebounder in ABA history with 9,494.
A seven-time ABA all-star, Daniels worked in the front office for the Pacers for over two decades and he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012.
The basketball card featured with this story is from the 1973-1974 Topps set.
It represents the last ABA championship by the Pacers with Daniels and 2011 Hall of Fame inductee Artis Gilmore, who was playing for the Kentucky Colonels.
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