Een beetje onopgemerkt gebleven, maar Mel Daniels is gisteren overleden.
Hij was een Hall of Fame center, die zijn beste jaren in de ABA had.
Ik kan iedereen van harte Loose Balls aanbevelen, een schitterend boek over de oral history van de ABA.
Mel Daniels komt hier ook een aantal keer in naar voren, in honor of the man een paar quotes uit het boek:
Dave Craig: "Mel was from Detroit, but when he went to college in New Mexico, he got interested in horses. Then he bought a farm outside of Indianapolis and he had a bunch of the players out there, riding horses with him. Guys would come to practice all caked with dust and mud because they had been riding horses for a couple of hours.... They wore pistols and holsters like something out of Gunsmoke. There were nights when they went out riding and didn't come back until daylight."
Zelmo Beaty: "No doubt, Mel Daniels was the best center in the ABA's early years. He was the leagues MVP when I came to Utah in 1970, and I think the fact that I was a good player in the NBA who moved into his turf became an ego thing with Mel....
....It's nice to hear Mel say he felt I got the best of him, because he was truly a great player. If I did have an advantage, it wasn't by much, believe me."
Gene Littles: "We'd pay a ton of money to get a young Mel Daniels to play center for us. In his prime, Mel would start for most NBA teams today, and I don't want to hear he was only 6-foot-9 and would have to play forward. With his attitude, he could have been a modern day center."