To Nuggets, Employing This Guy Is No-Brainer

If he hasn’t already, Carmelo Anthony will soon be meeting “the Brain Doctor.”

That’s not a disparaging shot at Anthony, who led Syracuse to the NCAA championship and is expected to be the Denver Nuggets’ choice as the third pick overall in the NBA draft.

It’s just that the Brain Doctor works for the Nuggets, and it’s his job to determine the future success of athletes.

The doc’s real name is Jonathan Niednagel, and new Boston Celtic boss Danny Ainge is among those who swear by him.

In his book “Bird Watching,” former Celtic star Larry Bird recalls listening to Ainge rave about Niednagel’s talent for evaluating potential based on factors such as facial expressions and brain waves.

Wrote Bird: “[Ainge] said, ‘Larry, you are an intense, high-personality guy. A lot of serial killers have the same profile as you.’ ”

To which Bird replied, “Yeah, Danny, I ought to kill you for saying that.”

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On target: Niednagel’s claim to fame, according to the Boston Globe, is that he strongly advised the San Diego Chargers against drafting Ryan Leaf, saying he believed the quarterback was headed for a meltdown.

Beat that for an accurate prognosis.

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Trivia time: Who holds the NBA record for most points in a seven-game playoff series?

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First amendment: LeBron James’ $90-million deal with Nike wouldn’t fly if ABC talk show host Jimmy Kimmel were in charge.

“When I am commissioner of the NBA,” he said on his show the other night, “any player drafted out of high school will not be allowed to sign endorsement deals that exceed the value of their actual high schools.”

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Speared: The New York Post is reporting that Britney Spears might lose a gig headlining a concert to kick off the NFL season in September if she doesn’t “settle down” from her “hard-partying” ways.

The newspaper’s unnamed source said the league didn’t want “anyone associated with any type of scandal.”

Wouldn’t want to ruin that squeaky-clean NFL image.

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For the birds: How’s this for corporate synergy? Disney guaranteed itself at least one win Monday.

At 5 p.m., the Disney-owned Mighty Ducks played the New Jersey Devils in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. At 8 p.m., the Disney Channel showed the movie “D3: The Mighty Ducks.”

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Am-Bushed: Comedian Argus Hamilton counts Saturday’s victory in the Belmont Stakes as “the fourth major win for Empire Maker, after previous victories over Al Gore, the Taliban and Iraq.”

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Trivia answer: Elgin Baylor, who scored 284 for the Lakers in their 1962 NBA Finals series against the Boston Celtics.

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And finally: On Sept. 19, 1999, Sammy Sosa hit his 61st home run of the season, a prodigious two-run blast against the Milwaukee Brewers that landed on the street outside Wrigley Field, hit a car windshield on the bounce and ended up in somebody’s front yard.

“It’s one of the farthest balls I’ve ever seen,” then-Brewer Manager Jim Lefebvre said afterward. “If I didn’t know Sammy, I’d think there was cork in the bat.”

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-- Mike Hiserman