Re: Ainge, Game 2 and stuff...

[Ryan W <ubiquitous_am_i@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- Kestutis Kveraga <Kestutis.Kveraga@dartmouth.edu>
wrote:
> --- You wrote:
> Danny Ainge, besides being one of my favorite
> players
> from my childhood years, is also one of the smartest
> minds when it comes to talent evaluation.  I
> remember
> (and it was a long time ago, so details are going to
> be sketchy) seeing a behind-the-scenes look at the
> scouting operation he had implemented while working
> for the Phoenix Suns.  It was built on concepts
> concerning specific brain types.  Apparently, from
> what I remember, there are 16 specifically different
> brain types.  One of these brains types is common to
> great players, such as Micheal Jordan, Larry Bird,
> etc...  Anyway, using some scientist (again the
> memory
> is hazy), the Phoenix Suns identified this brain
> type
> and for that particular year used their top draft
> pick
> on a player that was determined to have this
> specific
> brain type that fosters success in basketball.  That
> player?  Steve Nash.  
> --- end of quote ---
> 
> That's the first time I've heard of it and it sounds
> really quacky to me. When
> someone starts talking about N brain types, I see
> "charlatan" written all over
> it. As anyone who has studied real brains either
> anatomically or through the
> various imaging techniques knows, brains are
> incredibly variable in size and
> morphology, and there is no relationship (aside from
> brains with clear
> pathology) between these variables and function. It
> sounds like some mixture of
> phrenology and pop psychology. 
> If you want to talk about personality variables,
> sure, people with high scores
> on certain measures (say, drive to succeed, or
> intelligence) will do tend to do
> better at some things. If they evaluate players in
> some personality trait test
> and find that it correlates with achievement in the
> NBA, then fine. But somehow
> I doubt these people did scientific testing on lots
> of  past and present NBA
> players, including Jordan and Bird. Most likely,
> they're just talking through
> their hat. That the Suns picked Nash, who later
> became a successful NBA player,
> means nothing. One can pick up decent players by
> chance (the probability in a
> decent draft is not that low, although Wallace
> managed to elude that with not
> one, but 3 fairly high picks).  Or they could pick
> successfully because of some
> other judgment criteria. 
> I sometimes wonder what I could sell to an NBA team,
> if I were a slick-enough
> salesman. These people 1) usually know next to
> nothing about science and
> statistics; 2) are desperate to gain an edge on the
> competition; and 3) have
> money to burn. The better GMs probably go by "gut
> feeling", which is another
> way of saying they have no idea why they feel that
> way about a player or a
> deal, but they "know" it's right - and they're right
> more often than not. The
> crappy ones....it's too painful to contemplate. 
> Kestas

I wasn't too clear on the original post.  Let me try
again.  It wasn't anything about brain per se.  It was
about brain type.  So it's not like they mapped the
brain structure of every player in the draft. 
Instead, by looking at game tape of a player, they
were able to intuit what "type" of brain they
had....in other words, how it functioned in reality. 
Some categories (if I can remember) involved
leadership, risk taking, timidness, confidence....like
I said, I wish I could remember what I saw originally
(too many fat chronic blunts between then and
now---but I'm sure the rest of this list can relate to
that *smile*) but I only have bits and pieces.

This all said, if Ainge is hired (and its sounds, via
Fox Sports New England that he is), then I bet this
all will come to light (assuming of course, that Ainge
thinks it works and that that particular consultant
that helped the Suns is available).  

But, since neurology is your thing, I'll assume you
know what you're talking about ;)  But from what
little I do know (from the internet), I remember
taking tests that would rank personality/brain
types....with some sort of four letter combination
like LTCS or something like that....does that sound
familiar?  Cause this perhaps is what I could be
talking about....

Ryan

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