To Ainge, doctor's system is a real brainstorm

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

To Ainge, doctor's system is a real brainstorm


By Peter May, Globe Staff, 5/18/2003

''You can take Red Auerbach, Jerry West, Phil Jackson. I'd take Jon
Niednagel.''



-Danny Ainge, July 21, 2002



He's called, simply, The Brain Doctor. He's well-known around the NBA and in
other sports as well. He has advised Kevin McHale, Kiki Vandeweghe, and John
Gabriel among NBA general managers. New Celtics basketball boss Danny Ainge
swears by him.

''The guy has more credibility in my eyes than anyone I've been around in the
world of sports in terms of talent evaluation,'' Ainge said. ''He has a unique
talent.''

The brain doc is Jonathan Niednagel. He runs the Brain Typing Institute in
Thornhill, Mo., and he has been brain-typing athletes as to their future
success for some time. His biggest claim to fame: He strongly advised the San
Diego Chargers not to select Ryan Leaf in the NFL draft, because his
observations of Leaf pointed to a man headed for a meltdown.

This past Wednesday, while Ainge was coming out in support of Antoine Walker
and Jim O'Brien, Niednagel was right there with him in Boston. Ainge said the
two converse on a weekly basis.

''I don't know if I can afford him, but I'd like to have him come work for the
Celtics,'' said Ainge.

That isn't likely to happen soon because Niednagel is employed, exclusively,
by the Denver Nuggets.

''He works for us,'' Denver GM Vandeweghe said Friday.

Niednagel has spent more than three decades studying what he calls ''brain
types,'' of which he says there are 16. He can do this by simply watching an
athlete, either in person, on tape, or both. Each brain type is based on four
psychological criteria. Michael Jordan's type, for instance, is ''ISTP''
(Intuitive, Sensing, Thinking, Perceiving). That, according to Neidnagel, is
the best type to have, the total package, for an NBA player.

Undeniably, Niednagel has had a big influence on Ainge since the two met some
14 years ago. Ainge admits he was skeptical when he first heard Niednagel's
theories.

''It was like, `Come on, give me a break,''' Ainge said. ''I didn't buy into
it and I was teasing him.''

Only when he started coaching did Ainge start seeing some of the things that
Niednagel and he had discussed. When he took over the Suns' head job, he hired
Niednagel.

''He was absolutely fantastic,'' Ainge said.

Some in the Phoenix organization might disagree. They still feel Ainge relied
too heavily on Niednagel. One story circulating is that Antonio McDyess
decided to leave Phoenix for Denver as a free agent in part because of playing
time issues he felt were dictated by Niednagel. Ainge said that is a crock.

''The single biggest lie, ever,'' he said. ''The people in Phoenix who say
that should look internally. When no one in the organization could reach
Antonio during that period, the one phone call he did return was to Jon.''

There are a number of testimonials to Niednagel's work on his website, ranging
from Ainge to Cincinnati Reds general manager Jim Bowden to Sammy Sosa to
49ers boss Terry Donahue. His work also led the Suns to select Steve Nash in
the first round of the 1996 draft. (The Suns traded him to Dallas for three
players and a draft pick, which Phoenix used to take Shawn Marion.)

''It's a full step beyond what you may be looking at it,'' reported Gabriel,
the general manager of the Orlando Magic. He is listed on the testimonials
page as well, although he said last week that he hasn't used Niednagel for a
while because the doc got too expensive. (Niednagel said his fee was in ''six
figures'' when asked about it on ESPN's ''Outside the Lines'' last summer.)

''He looked at [Tracy] McGrady coming out of high school and identified him as
a must-get guy,'' Gabriel said. ''We used that as part of our process when we
were going after T-Mac in free agency.''

Then there's Larry Bird's thoughts about it, as explained in his book, ''Bird
Watching.'':

''Danny has this guy he hired for his Phoenix team that can look at your
facial expressions and your brain waves and tell you what kind of person you
are. It's this formula that determines if you have leadership potential or
not. Danny is really into it and he was telling me about it. I'm sitting here
listening and thinking, `This guy has lost his mind.' I was laughing my butt
off. He said, `Larry, you are an intense, high-personality guy. A lot of
serial killers have the same profile as you.' I said, `Yeah, Danny, I ought to
kill you for saying that.'''

Bird said he relies on his gut to evaluate players.

A clinical psychologist in Davis, Calif., Dr. Terry Sandbek, was also on the
''Outside The Lines'' show and he said Niednagel's system was based on ''hype
and hope - no science at all.''

Niednagel, who declined to be interviewed for this report, believes
executives, too, can be ''wired,'' which is his word for having everything in
place from a brain-typing perspective. In last fall's NBA preview, ESPN The
Magazine went to Niednagel for his advice on which general manager was the
closest to Jerry West. His response: Vandeweghe (which might explain why he's
under contract to them; as Vandeweghe said, ''flattery will get you a good
job'').

At Ainge's urging, McHale consulted with Niednagel prior to last year's draft,
when the Timberwolves had only a second-round pick. The pick, Marcus Taylor of
Michigan State, didn't pan out.

Vandeweghe said he uses Niednagel not so much from a judgment standpoint but
from an improvement standpoint.

''I think when he was in Phoenix, it was, `OK, tell us about the player. Does
he perform well under pressure?' To me, it's much more,'' Vandeweghe said.
''It's, `How can I help the player to be better? What's the best way to get
through to him?' It goes a bit beyond basketball.''

Ainge said after leaving the Suns that if he ever headed up a sports
organization, as he is now, that Niednagel would be his first hire. That won't
happen as long as the Nuggets have him under contract. But, as Ainge noted,
''Somewhere down the line, I'd like to have him working for the Celtics. Maybe
not this year, but hopefully soon. He really has a gift.''

Sweet win for Spurs

When San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich showed up for work Friday, he said he
was surprised he had to go into a meeting. ''I didn't know we had to play some
more rounds,'' he cracked. ''I thought if you beat the Lakers, it was over,
they give you a trophy and you go on vacation.'' It was poetic justice that
the Spurs became the team to finally dethrone the Lakers, although you could
make a case that a healthy Sacramento would have relished the job as well. But
for the Spurs, it had to be proud payback Thursday night when they not only
beat the Lakers but pounded them into submission in front of their own fans.
The Lakers had eliminated the Spurs each of the last two seasons, sweeping
them in 2002 and taking them out in five games last year. You may recall that
windbag Lakers coach Phil Jackson said the Spurs' 1999 title should have an
asterisk attached because it came during the lockout year. Shaquille O'Neal,
who played his high school ball in San Antonio, also belittled the Spurs.
Virtually no one gave the Spurs a chance in Game 6, especially after the
remarkable LA comeback in Game 5 (from 25 points), which would have been one
for the ages had the Lakers won. ''After that game ended, we were all in
shock,'' said Popovich. ''It was like, did we just win or did we just lose?
But as a coaching staff, we were happy it ended like that. If we had stayed up
by 20 and won, it would have been just like Game 3 for us [a blowout loss in
LA] and we would have felt a little too satisfied. Instead, their comeback
gave us the appropriate amount of fear. It was the perfect way to go in there.
We also talked about the fact that Game 7 was like fool's gold. We had to go
in with the attitude that we had to close it out then and there. That this has
got to be the game.'' And that they did ... As for the Lakers, we may well
have seen the last of Robert Horry in purple and gold. The team has the option
on his contract for next season at around $5 million, and Horry doesn't expect
them to pick it up. He didn't exactly make a strong statement for returning
with his shooting in the playoffs, especially from international waters.
Horry, long regarded (and justifiably so) for his clutch 3-point shooting, was
an astonishing 2 of 38 in the postseason from 3-point territory, missing his
last 24 attempts. One of those was the one at the end of Game 5 that could
have won the game for the Lakers and changed the complexion of the series.

A rave for Dave

It would be a dereliction of duty to let the recent passing of Dave
DeBusschere go by without an observation. He was before my time as a writer,
but even as a spectator, you couldn't miss what he brought to the game in
general and to the Knicks in particular. You could even make the case that had
the Knicks not acquired DeBusschere in December 1968 for Walt Bellamy and
Butch Komives, there might be two fewer championship banners hanging from the
rafters at Madison Square Garden. He was the cherry on the sundae, tying it
all together for a team whose forwards (DeBusschere and Bill Bradley) had
better outside shooting range than the guards ( Walt Frazier, Dick Barnett ,
and later Earl Monroe). You shudder to think what those guys, along with Jerry
Lucas, would have done had there been a 3-point line in those days.
DeBusschere was only 6-6, but he was a true power forward in that time and the
Celtics had no answer for him until they brought in Paul Silas. The Knicks won
titles in 1970 and 1973 with him, but by 1974, he was gone. Back in those
days, there really was an intense rivalry between the Celtics and Knicks. They
met in the postseason in 1969, 1972, 1973, and 1974, with each team winning
twice. During the season, they had the now unimaginable schedule of playing in
New York on Saturday night and then catching the last Eastern shuttle to
Boston to play in the Garden on Sunday afternoon. Back then, the teams took
the same flight. The Knicks always sat in first class ... Here's Magic
Johnson's take on LA buddy Paul Pierce, who Jim O'Brien believes should take
it easy for a while: ''The only problem is, that is not Paul Pierce,'' Johnson
said on TNT. ''Paul plays in about two different summer leagues to really work
on his game. The reason Paul is where he is is because he plays and works out
in the summer. Jim knows his players better than anybody, but I know Paul
Pierce very well. Paul has learned how to attack the basket and post up and
shoot the turnaround jumper - in the summer. I don't know how he's going to
balance that he is a player who likes to work out in the summer and doing what
his coach wants him to do.'' ... A record number of foreign players - 31 -
have filed as early-entry candidates for next month's NBA draft. That
represents the total of foreign players from the previous two years. There are
also six high school candidates, starting with the vaunted LeBron James, who
is the consensus No. 1 choice. Also on the list is Alabama high school star
James Lang, who had been Rick Pitino's prize recruit at Louisville.

Thanks,

Steve
sb@maine.rr.com