AUBURN, Ala. – Marquis Daniels played 10 seasons in the NBA. He played against some of the game's greatest players on some of the biggest stages, and yet when it came time to walk at his graduation last month, the former Auburn star was nervous.
"Why am I nervous?" he asked himself.
This wasn't the first time Daniels had walked across that stage. Sixteen years prior, as a student-athlete at Auburn, he graduated in three-and-a-half years and earned a degree in sociology. This time was different, though. For one, he was receiving a graduate degree. But more importantly, he better understood the sacrifice it took the second time around.
"It's a blessing in disguise to come back and have to go through that process again," Daniels said. "This time, you appreciate it a little bit more because as a younger kid, you're just thinking basketball. I just want to play basketball. But now it's just understanding the importance of what this piece of paper and having that extra knowledge can do for you."
The opportunity to return to Auburn arose when Bruce Pearl asked Daniels to join his basketball staff as a graduate assistant following the 2017-18 season.
From a basketball perspective, it was a no-brainer. It was the chance to return to his alma mater and work for a program that was on the rise, coming off an appearance in the NCAA Tournament. But going back to school meant learning how to study again, working in groups, staying on top of projects and assignments.
"It was like being a student-athlete again but on the coaching side," Daniels said. "It was challenging at first, but after a while, I kind of got in a better of groove of understanding everything."
There was also little to no room for error the second time around because unlike the first time, Daniels now had a wife at home supporting him and two kids looking up to him. That became clear one night when talking to his 13-year-old daughter.
"I know that if I want to make it, I have to work hard," she told her dad.
"What makes you think that?" Daniels asked.
"I see how hard you work every day," she responded.
"It just shows that you might think they're not watching, but they're watching," Daniels said. "They're paying attention to everything that you're doing."
There's a roster full of basketball players at Auburn who are also paying attention to what Daniels is doing. If he slacked off in any way in school, it gave them an excuse to do the same. But he didn't let that happen. Instead, he was an example of what they should be doing. He was a role model.
"There were times I didn't want to do some stuff," Daniels said. "But that helped me to be able to come back to them and say, 'Look man, I know this is not what you want to go do, but to get where you want to go, you have to be able to do this so that way when this ball does stop bouncing, you have your paper you can fall back on.'"
After graduating last month, Daniels is living out his advice. His playing days are over, but he now has two degrees from Auburn that will help him achieve his next dream – coaching.
"It's going to keep me in that field whether it's coaching college, NBA, high school, middle school, whatever the case may be – it keeps me interacting with those kids," Daniels said. "I just like to give back and I like to try to help our youth continue to grow and be better."
"You talk about a great father, a great person, who's been through a great deal in his life, overcome lots of adversity, was a great teammate," Pearl said. "That's who I want around my players."
"He's becoming a better coach because he wanted to come and learn," the Auburn head coach added. "He loves our kids. They trust him. And he does as good a job as any former player I've ever known or worked with at having the balance between supporting them and their goals and their dreams, understanding what makes them tick, and then seeing where within the framework of what we do or what I do can they be successful."
This coming season, Daniels will have more time on his hands now that he's through with school. But for him, that just means more time dedicated to studying basketball, watching film and becoming a better coach on and off the floor for Auburn.
"There are some things that I don't know that I'm still trying to learn," Daniels said. "I learn from our managers. I learn from our GAs. I learn from our coaches. You can ask any one of them, and they will tell you I'm always talking to them. I'm always trying to learn."