press, he met with Kalkstein, and—coincidence or not— proceeded to hit a home run and a double and walk twice in a victory over Texas (Boston Globe, August 15, 2009). Much of the time, Kalkstein just finds himself observing. He


is particularly intrigued by undersized second baseman Dustin pedroia, whose mental approach he deems “mind-boggling.” He says that “what goes on internally inside of the engine fascinates me.” Kalkstein chafes at terming pedroia or anyone else


an “overachiever.” Instead, he says, the second baseman just comes closer than most to realizing his full potential, through “self-talk that is just ridiculously positive,” and an “inner voice that doesn’t stumble with ‘can’ts,’ and wishes.’” **


kALkSTEin’S work wiTh ThE rEd Sox is not his only professional involvement. He has had considerable dealings with another sport with which people are somewhat familiar at Springfield College. For most of the 11 years that Mark Cuban has owned the


Dallas Mavericks, Kalkstein has worked for the team under three coaches: Don nelson, Avery Johnson, and Rick Carlisle. Those have been, in one sense, tremendously successful years, with the team winning more than 60 percent of its games each season (on the heels of 10 straight losing seasons before Cuban took over). For all that success, the Mavs were a team that had always


faded at critical junctures, wilting at winning time in the playoffs. Their inability to win the proverbial big one was demonstrated in the most painful fashion in 2006 when star player Dirk nowitzki led the Mavs to a 2-0 series lead in the nBA Finals against the Miami Heat. In Game 3, the Mavs were up by 13 points midway through the fourth quarter, then collapsed. The Heat won the contest and the next three to take the title. The Mavericks were a team with a fractured psyche. In


March 2007, a New York Times story about the Mavs read in part, “But can they finish? The question will continue to haunt the Mavericks until they win a title, much as it once did for Michael Jordan and the Bulls and peyton Manning and the Colts.” Despite a league-best 67-15 record that year, the Mavs


flamed out in the first round of the playoffs, and Kalkstein— at the urging of coach Avery Johnson—was dismissed. “Avery didn’t like him around,” Cuban said in a 2010 piece


by Ian Thomsen in Sports Illustrated. Cuban clearly did not share the assessment. In 2008, after another first-round exit, Cuban fired Johnson. When Rick Carlisle was brought in to coach, Cuban rehired Kalkstein and was able to get him on a full-time basis—largely because Kalkstein wanted to spend more time with his family. Kalkstein’s style in basketball is no different than the one he employs in baseball. He shows up to practice in team-


TRIANGLE 3 Vol .Vol. 83


issued shorts and sneakers. He rebounds free throws, throws entry passes into the post, shoots the breeze and the occasion- al jump shot. When the time is right, he talks to players individually. He has availed himself increasingly of technology. players


say he texts them every morning. He keeps an active Twitter feed: @think2win. But that’s as far as it goes. “I don’t have a website,” says Kalkstein. “I have no Facebook…I don’t sell tapes. I don’t sell CDs. I don’t have booklets. I don’t have any of that. I feel uncomfortable trying to put a fishing pole out there with bait on it.” What he feels comfortable with is building relationships,


and doing so with a clear policy around confidentiality. He tells players, “What we talk about stays between us.” And while his bosses might question him about general issues, they know he won’t break the gate. Sometimes he tells them, “I’m not at liberty to discuss if I’ve even talked to that particular player.” Cuban has no problem with the arrangement. In the 2010


Sports Illustrated story, he said, “I won’t ask him what he tells them or what he asks them, because I want them to know that it’s private.” At the same time, Cuban said he has relied on Kalkstein’s


advice about identifying draft picks that fit the team’s makeup. This past year it all came together. A veteran Mavericks team


began a memorable playoff run by sweeping the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers. When the Mavs advanced to the Western Conference finals for the first time in five years, ESpnDallas.com did a big story about the team’s new mental toughness. The article credited Kalkstein. Team leader Jason Terry said, “I talk to Don every day. I make it a point to go through him.” not surprisingly, the article says Kalkstein “declined an


interview for this story.” A few weeks later, Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News


wrote about the flight back to Dallas after the Mavs had defeated the Heat in the nBA Finals. The article shows Cuban sitting next to the championship trophy. It describes nowitzki sitting in the first row looking a bit glazed. Toward the end it says, “As the jet floated down and wheels touched concrete at Love Field, applause erupted spontaneously and the team’s psychologist, Don Kalkstein yelled out: ‘The world champions have landed.’” The strength coach for the brain prefers to work behind the


scenes. But those scenes—the highest level of achievement in sports—are so impressive that at a certain point it is no longer possible to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.


Marty Dobrow is an associate professor of communications and the author of Knocking on Heaven’s Door: Six Minor Leaguers in Search of the Baseball Dream (University of Massachusetts Press, 2010).1


83, No.No. 1


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