Mel Daniels

Melvin Joe Daniels (July 20, 1944 – October 30, 2015) was an American professional basketball player whose career was spent primarily in the American Basketball Association. Born in Detroit, Michigan, he was the son of Maceo and Bernice Daniels; the family had returned to Detroit from Lincoln, North Carolina, when Daniels was a toddler. His father worked in an automobile parts factory. Daniels grew up alongside two sisters, and, encouraged by his mother's reading of poetry, began writing poems by the age of eight and continued to do so throughout his life.

In the ABA, Daniels played for the Minnesota Muskies, the Indiana Pacers, and the Memphis Sounds, and he also appeared in the National Basketball Association with the New York Nets. He was a two-time ABA Most Valuable Player, a seven-time ABA All-Star, and a member of three ABA championship teams. He finished his career as the ABA's all-time rebounding leader, and in 1997 he was a unanimous selection to the ABA All-Time Team.

Daniels was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012.