“He was as amazing to his teammates off the court as he was on the court. Great attention was paid to his fussiness, his profound sense of order. He would hang up all of his clothes in his locker, even his socks. Who hangs up socks? He would arrange all his toiletries by height. Who arranges toiletries by height? He would take care of the bill at all team dinners. No, he wouldn’t pay the bill. He would go down the list, making sure each player would contribute for that extra glass of wine or that more expensive entrée. Who cuts up the check like that in modern-day sports? ‘Well, back then, nobody was making the big money,’ Mal Graham, a Celtic for two championship teams, says. ‘These were the cheapest guys you’d ever meet.’
So are we talking about a fastidious #16 BCIL? Or perhaps an over-controlling #7 FEIL? No, in this case, we’re talking about a well-raised #2 BEAR who also happened to be a really talented NBA basketball player. John Havlicek, an 8-time champion with the Boston Celtics, died last week at the age of 79. As a boy, his mother said he was always running everywhere, “running, running, always involved in games of some kind, always running.” He also wasn’t naturally smart, but studied extremely hard, “Jerry Lucas was my roommate,” he once said. “It would be finals week, and I’d be sitting there with all my notes, a line of No. 2 pencils all sharpened, all my books, doing an all-nighter. Jerry’d come in, turn on the radio and read for half an hour and go to bed. I’d be up all night. He’d get the A. I’d be fighting for that C.”
And what was/ is Lucas’ Brain Type? Big Jerry possesses #15 DNA (FCIL), the opposite of Havlicek’s #2 design. In Lucas’ heyday, Jon Niednagel not only watched many of Jerry’s college and pro games, but he had a chance to speak with Jerry as well. Niednagel says Lucas has been a consummate #15 who pushed his Brain Type to the limit. Jerry even memorized the entire New York City phone-book!
As a player, Havlicek was naturally talented, a smooth #2 sailor who had a coordinated shot (even from distance) and a keen eye on the court. Still, he always attributed his success to grinding it out. “Whether I start or come off the bench makes no difference to me. My game has always been go as hard as I can as long as I can.” And that he did, typical of many other #2s who last long in their respective sports. As one author put it, “He had some extra lubrication, some kind of Pennzoil of the body, or something that made the parts work just a little bit better than everyone else’s parts. How else to explain what he did? He could keep going and going and going. He never had to stop. For 16 seasons, in a game played by the best athletes in any professional sport, he could wear down anyone and everyone.”
It wasn’t Pennzoil. It was good genetics, and it was Brain Type.
Written by: Staff
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