Marquis Daniels rebounds from major scare

Born with an unusually narrow spinal canal, Marquis Daniels was told before he ever played an NBA game that occasional twinges and numbness would be a routine part of the experience.

The former Celtics [team stats] swingman just never thought this condition, known as spinal stenosis, would force him to question his future in basketball. But the prospects all changed just over four minutes into a Feb. 6 game against Orlando. Daniels collided with the shoulder of Gilbert Arenas and pitched forward onto the floor.

He had experienced numbness in his extremities before, but never to what suddenly felt like a paralytic level.

“Yeah, I questioned if I would play again, that night when I was laying on the floor,” Daniels said this week from his home in Orlando, Fla., where he is awaiting the next step, a June 28 meeting with doctors, who are expected to clear the mellow, soft-spoken Floridian for full workouts and a return to the NBA.

“They said there was a good chance they could correct it, but I also had to wait,” Daniels said of the prognosis. “That was the tough part. A lot of things went through my mind. But I just had to wait it out.”

Though the surgery he underwent March 31 to open space in his spinal canal was considered a success, he looks upon the June 28 meeting as passage back to his career, a signal that he can resume workouts that aren’t limited to an elliptical machine. Daniels hasn’t experienced any numbness since the surgery.

Only the anxiety leading up to that meeting remains. It helps that the Celtics haven’t stopped being like family. Daniels, who had the surgery performed in Atlanta, had unexpected visitors the day after the procedure.

“They had a game in Atlanta that day, and they came up to the hospital,” said Daniels, caught off guard when Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce [stats], Rajon Rondo [stats], Avery Bradley and assistant coaches Mike Longabardi and Tyronn Lue all waked through the door. “I didn’t know what to say. That was kind of a surprise.”