After averaging 27.6 points and 13.8 rebounds per game in three seasons at Western Kentucky University, Jim McDaniels began his professional basketball career during the 1971-72 season with the Carolina Cougars of the American Basketball Association (ABA). In 58 games with them he averaged 26.8 points and 14 rebounds per game, but jumped to the NBA to finish the season after the Seattle SuperSonics took him in the 1971 draft.
In the NBA, the 6-foot-11 big man was a decent contributor who mostly came off the bench. The Lakers signed him just before the 1975-76 season, and he scored 2.6 points and 2.1 rebounds in 6.9 minutes per game with them before they released him at the end of the season.
He would play for the Buffalo Braves during the 1977-78 campaign before retiring from basketball.