knock guys down," Daniels said in "Loose Balls" (1990). "When you went to the boards, you did it with your elbows out. If there was a fight, it wasn't just one-on-one, it was 12-on-12. The fine for fighting was $25. That wasn't going to stop any fights." "Mel was the anchor," Pacers teammate and best friend Bob Netolicky said of Daniels. "Had Mel not came to this team, I can guarantee you 100 percent we wouldn't be sitting down at (Bankers Life Fieldhouse). Had we not had the success we had, they would’ve folded the team. The thing I hope people understand, they have no idea how important this guy was to the city (of Indianapolis)." Daniels is the ABA's all-time leader with 9,494 rebounds and is second in ABA history with an average of 15.1 rebounds per game. He is fourth in ABA total points, with 11,739, ninth with 628 games, fourth with 22,340 minutes and 10th with 351 ABA blocked shots. Overall, in his ABA and NBA career, Daniels averaged a double-double of 18.4 points and 14.9 rebounds in 639 career games. In 109 playoff games, he averaged 17.4 points and 14.9 rebounds. Coaching and front office career After retiring as a player, Daniels joined the coaching staff of his college coach, Bob King, at Indiana State University. There he coached future Hall of Famer Larry Bird and helped the Sycamores reach the 1979 NCAA Final, where they were defeated by Magic Johnson and Michigan State ending an undefeated season. After his tenure at Indiana State, Daniels joined the Indiana Pacers coaching staff in 1986. After seven seasons an assistant coach, he moved to scouting and eventually the front office and was the team's Director of Player Personnel until October 2009. Daniels had a 0–2 record as interim coach of the Pacers in 1988–89. He replaced Jack Ramsay, who was fired after an 0–7 start. George Irvine and later Dick Versace were the head coaches who followed. ABA and NBA statistics Regular season |- | style="text-align:left; | | style="text-align:left;"| Minnesota (ABA) | 78 || – || 37.7 || .408 || .200 || .575 || style="background:#CFECEC"| 15.6* || 1.4 || – || – || 22.2 |- | style="text-align:left" | | style="text-align:left;"| Indiana (ABA) | 76 || – || 38.6 || .476 || .000 || .604 || style="background:#CFECEC"| 16.5* || 1.5 || – || – || 24.0 |- | style="text-align:left;"|