Interesting Mutombo Tidbit

[SFHoya99]

Don't know if you guys have ever heard of Johnathon Niednagel, but he's the brain doctor that Danny Ainge, Kevin McHale and Kiki Vandeweghe consult when acquiring/drafting players. He does a personality evaluation based on interviews with players, and matches them to a personality type. Then based upon on players with that grouping, he predicts success.

His big win was suggesting Ryan Leaf was to be a bust and he just evaluated Eli Manning, saying he is not the personality type to be an all-time great (being different than Peyton, who falls into the Montana-Elway-Namath-Favre-Unitas-Marino personality type) but more in a second group which includes Warren Moon and McNair but also Jeff Rutledge and Tony Banks.

Anyway, at the end of the article, they comment that "Dikembe Mutombo is the only NBA player who shares the same brain type with Albert Einstein."

Not that I'm really surprised.

www.signonsandiego.com/sports/chargers/20040505-9999-lz1s5glry.html

[SSHoya]

Seems to me the Brain Doctor is simply applying Jung-Meyer Briggs approach to personality typology, but extrapolating from external, observable factors (as opposed to taking the written inventory).

[nychoya3]

Ah yes. Simply.

[Madgesdiq]

At the risk of veering off-topic, this made me laugh.

www.thebrushback.com/manning_full.htm

[SSHoya]

To eludcidate further. INTPs (Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking Perceiving -- Einstein, and apparently Mutombo's personality type) value knowledge above all else. Their minds are constantly working to generate new theories, or to prove or disprove existing theories. They approach problems and theories with enthusiasm and skepticism, ignoring existing rules and opinions and defining their own approach to the resolution. They seek patterns and logical explanations for anything that interests them. They're usually extremely bright, and able to be objectively critical in their analysis. They love new ideas, and become very excited over abstractions and theories. They love to discuss these concepts with others. They may seem "dreamy" and distant to others, because they spend a lot of time inside their minds musing over theories. They hate to work on routine things - they would much prefer to build complex theoretical solutions, and leave the implementation of the system to others. They are intensely interested in theory, and will put forth tremendous amounts of time and energy into finding a solution to a problem with has piqued their interest.

INTPs do not like to lead or control people. They're very tolerant and flexible in most situations, unless one of their firmly held beliefs has been violated or challenged, in which case they may take a very rigid stance. The INTP is likely to be very shy when it comes to meeting new people. On the other hand, the INTP is very self-confident and gregarious around people they know well, or when discussing theories which they fully understand. INTPs are autonomous, curious, detached, inquisitive, logical, original, skeptical, and theoretical individuals.

[KHoyaNYC]

How about ESTJs? Aren't most pro athletes ESTJs? or ESTPs?

[SFHoya99]

KHoyaNYC said:

How about ESTJs? Aren't most pro athletes ESTJs? or ESTPs?

Article says most great QBs were ESTPs.

[EasyEd]

What a bunch of doo-doo.

[SSHoya]

"What a bunch of doo-doo."

Of course it's "doo doo." I work in an office where a bunch of us voluntarily submitted ourselves to the written inventory (it is available on-line) to assess our various personality types as it relates to the work place and working relationships. It was hilarious, and certainly worth it for the amusement value, if nothing else. Certainly, our esteemed management had no idea how it was relevant to their (mis)management of my office.

[TrueHoyaBlue]

Here's a link to an online version of the Myers-Briggs analysis...

www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm

[NightWing]

Did Einstein like strip clubs too? ba-dump-bump!

[Boz]

As a fellow INTP (no, not making that up), I can certify tht strip clubs are very high on our list of best forms of entertainment. It is a forum in which seeming dreamy and distant is, well, not really all that out of place.

What is NOT characteristic of INTP is shouting -- in the middle of a crowd of drunken people -- "Who wants to sex Dikembe tonight!!!" I think Mr. Mutombo needs to be re-tested.

Can't believe I haven't commented in this thread yet. Must've been too shy. Or too busy challenging the theory of, "Wow, I think that naked, drugged-up dancer really likes me!"

[nychoya3]

Hehe...Did anyone actually witness that Dikembe story? It still makes the rounds on campus today, but I always figured it was apocryphal. Funny though.

Oh, and there's no shame in strip clubs. You're a slave to your brain chemistry. Just tell that to your significant other when the subject arises. I mean, if it was good enough for Dikembe Mutombo (oh, and Albert Einstein), then it's good enough for me!

[SSHoya]

Speaking of strip clubs, of course everyone knows the Good Guys, but who on the board is old enough to remember Clancy's on Wisconisin Avenue? (always our second choice to the GGs merely because it was close).

[TrueHoyaBlue]

Is that now JP's (next to Grog and Tankard, and kind of across the street from Good Guys)? Or someplace different?

[SSHoya]

No, it wasn't the predecessor to JPs.

Clancy's was a stand alone building just north of where the Holiday Inn is now -- I believe it is now retail/office complex. It was painted a hideous green -- I guess they were an Irish strip club? The strippers usually had a thousand yard stare (our guess, drug-induced) and has a dessicated look about them. In my day (SFS '77), GGs was the place to be. And they serve a good hamburger, no kidding!

[stafford72]

Clancy's Beef Palace was on the same side of the street as The Good Guys, but closer in. I think it disappeared before 1980. It was larger and better lit than The Good Guys, but did not have the blue collar raunch to match.
At least, that is what I can remember from my distant past.

[Loyal Hoya]

I took Simon Battestini's French Speaking Africa: Language, Literature, and Culture with Dikembe (maybe in Spring semester 1988??). The class had about 6 people, and I was the only idiot who had never spent at least a year in a French-speaking country.

Anyway, my recollection of Dikembe was that he was extremely friendly and outgoing. Every time I ran into him on campus he would shout hi and slap me on the back. He seemed much more integrated with the rest of the student body than the rest of the basketball team (though I also remember Jaren to be pretty friendly) and far from "introverted."

What was nice about Dikembe (JT said this) was that he did not grow up thinking of himself as some great jock. He also sat out his first year and made friends with people who were not basketball players.

[DFW HOYA]

Loyal said:

What was nice about Dikembe (JT said this) was that he did not grow up thinking of himself as some great jock. He also sat out his first year and made friends with people who were not basketball players.

Dean Smith, who has promoted freshman ineligibility in the past, has said much the same thing--that a year away from competitive athletics provides a more well rounded college experience for athletes...which is especially true at larger schools where there is the danger of losing a scholarship if the player does not meet expectations.

It also allows them to get more involved in campus life than they can right now. Simply put, Matt Causey, Ashanti Cook, et al. can't do very much in campus organizations because their time commitments for practice demand otherwise. It's a long way removed from when a Paul Tagliabue could not only be a three year letterman, but be senior class president, a member of the Student-Faculty Relations Committee, help organize an intercollegiate jazz festival and be a two year freshman advisor (information courtesy of the 1962 Ye Domesday Booke, by the way.)

The problem with freshman ineligibility is that it must be applied across all sports, not just basketball, and there are costs with this. Maybe one option is a five year commitment, where the player gets financial aid for the first year, and scholarship support four more years, with the awariding of a scholarship contingent upon a year of suitable grades and performance. It might make a few of the top recruits and/or marginal qualifiers think about the NBA instead...but they are already doing that, anyway!

Also, Dikembe (and John Turner) were maybe part of the best intramural team in GU history in the spring of 1988.

[Loyal Hoya]

As I recall Dikembe's team lost in the finals because he missed the game due to a competing commitment acting in a play (I think he played God in the play).

One thing Georgetown could do (short of making freshman ineligible) is to house freshman players in freshman dorms. When I was a freshman (85-86), several of the players lived in First New South. However, by the time Alonzo Mourning arrived, I believe players were housed in on-campus apartments as freshman. I don't know what the situation is these days.

I thought that living in a freshman dorm was an important part of my Georgetown experience. Almost 20 years after I was a freshman at Gtown, many of my closest friends are still people that I met on my freshman floor.

Maybe we need to offer nicer on-campus apartments to attract recruits, but - if freshman players are, in fact, not housed with their classmates - I can't help but think that they are losing an opportunity much more valuable than a nice apartment.