Former NHL player analyzes Serena vs Wang

Never heard of this clown. Serena won 23 Grand Slams. Michael Jordan is about as big a jerk on and off court as there could be. Anyone can google his Hall of Fame Induction speech and see what kind of POS he is. Yet everyone fawns over Jordan.

Larry Bird treated his kids and wife like crap…everyone fawns over him. Kobe Bryant was a jerk to his teammates and cheated on his wife many times.

John McEnroe? Treated people like crap, acted like a total jerk on court. Now, beloved.

So many of the all time greats were and are a holes. So?

Interesting that he picked Serena out for his wrath. Imagine that….a 58 year old white guy, and all the total jerks great athletes he has seen over his long life….and the black lady is the one who draws his fire.

Never heard Larry Bird was a tyrant to his wife and kids. And I covered both Bird and Jordan and Jordan while he definitely competed hard, he was a good if not great sportsman. He played under Dean Smith in college. Smith would not have let him be a bad one.

But I agree, hockey player, great diversity in that sport. Serena has has had her boorish moments on and off the court in pressers, but she’s 38, she’s had a kid, she;s one of the greatest female competitors in any sport. She;s still the no. 1 player most fans want to watch play and that’s because she’s a great champion and overall, seemingly a great person and she’s gone through a lot in her life from growing up in an impoverished area; being thrust full-force into a sport with very few black players; to Indian Wells debacle, to her parents’ divorce, to losing a sister. The list goes on and on, but she’s still competing hard and never talks about anything but going for slam championships.

Dan, Jordan was a total jerk. Not only did he push off on both his biggest game winners, his hall of fame speech had the audience cringing. Plenty of examples of him treating people like garbage and being a jerk are out there.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1943095-top-10-stories-of-michael-jordan-being-the-greatest-jerk-of-all-time#slide2

Jordan and Bird did commit heinous crimes…took the heart out of Knick fans for 15 years.

Birds dad committed suicide..Jordan’s dad murdered….these guys went through crazy stuff..why am I supposed to automatically believe Birds daughter, don’t know both
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Dan becoming SW’s biggest fan is quite the 360. If I remember back in the day, not so much

I’m not a big Serena Williams fan. I’ve said many times that she is an exciting player to watch at times because of her strokes and power and emotion, but her game is not diverse or very artistic. As for her personality, I’ve also said she’s a diva which doesn’t really appeal to me, but she’s got a lot of charisma and I just think both Venus and her have done something no one 30 years ago could’ve imagined two black girls from Compton who’s parents had no experience with tennis to say nothing about high-level tennis, could ever have done> I mean this is tennis, a very exclusive sport, the most exclusive of any major spectator sport I’d think.

Look I have as little interest in hockey as I do in soccer. Probably less with hockey. I’m not criticizing the sport, I never played it, it just bores me. As for its diversity, it has little of it. At least basketball has the European leagues and college where a lot of the players are white.its true, white American are a dying breed in NBA basketball. They either don’t think they have a cjance to make the NBA anymore because it’s a game predicated more on athleticism or they become fringe players like a Kyle Korver. Kevin Love and Gordon Hayward are the only semi-white American stars in the NBA today.

Am I shocked a white European hockey player doesn’t like Serena? No. Once Serena is gone and only Gauff is a great black American player, there won’t be as much dissent as all the ova’s will take over again with their thin legs and braided blond hair and things will be back to order. Serena’s rocked the boat in more ways than on the court and her outrageous father tipped it over. There are no Chris Evert’s becoming no. 1 anymore, but at least white European’s will be happy with a Halek or Kerber gaining the top spot again or their successors.

I’m a white European and I don’t care what colour a person is who occupies the top spot in tennis and I’m sure plenty of other white Europeans share my views. But I dislike Serena’s downgrading of her opponents when they win – eg saying Halep and Kerber’s Wimbledons ‘don’t count’, and dismissing Wang at the AO. It’s unnecessary.

Serena is as much of a jerk as Jordan was for sure. Both are beloved but yes, they are both big-time jerks. In any case, to the victor goes the spoils and in life many, many classless people succeed. I think you all know what I mean.

To Kent Carlson, nice to have you on Tennis-Prose, please contribute more of your opinions. Scoop, I love it when you say the media protectsSerena. It seems to me she gets her share of criticism from the media especially two years ago with the Osaka match.

Jeff is right. If Serena won only a handful of slams; if she wasn’t still a big story in the game at age 38 and after all the Capriati’s, Hingis’, and Clinsters’ and Henin’s have long since our their racquets down, she wouldn’t get a pass for her boorish behavior in not praising opponents who deserve it.

Love of the game; building the game’s popularity; iconic figure; Saturday night US Open women’s final prime-time; this is all mostly because of Serena. It’s not like we haven’t seen Federer also not praise opponent’s in defeat too. So please, a lot of it is about race. Stay in your place Black Woman. You may be the GOAT, but you never got the endorsements of a Maria Sharapova who couldn’t compete with you and also was caught taking PED’s. Can you imagine the outpouring of clamor if it was Serena and Venus who got caught with PED’s? I’m sorry, Venus and Serena aren’t perfect, but they’ve been very good examples of how to balance long successful careers along with becoming mostly exemplary human beings.

John McEnroe’s poor behavior, awwww, lets make a cute commercial about it. Serena’s poor behavior, see, she is a terrible person. Enough said.

Jon – that’s simplistic. Maybe because I’m not American I don’t see things the same way. I thought some of Mac’s behaviour indicated that at the time he pretty much was a terrible person and plenty of people felt free to say so. I really don’t care about Serena’s colour but I care that in disparaging her opponents she’s insulting them as competitors and taking away their pride in accomplishment. Not that I imagine Halep or Kerber, in the case of Wimbledon, would be bothered about it. They know Serena. But it’s unsporting and selfish of her and deserves criticism.

Connors was cruel sometimes, too. Then people loved him. But he was a first class jerk.

So what do you take away? First, great competitor and great player. Never say die. Knew the crowd was part of the match, brilliant stuff.

And, don’t do what he did. Don’t be mean. Don’t put your opponent down like Connors did after playing Courier and Courier iced him for the final against Edberg at the US Open in 1991. Courier seriously believed he was a contender and wouldn’t give a scintilla of credit to Courier, and it was ugly to see that.

So you can love Connors for his competitiveness. But you can dislike him for it, too.

Scoop,

You make good points about Serena dodgy PED evasion tactics. She’s not a great sportswoman and that’s important to me. My son just got awarded the 2019 USTA Eastern Sportsmanship Award and was given four tickets to the Feb.15th NY Open semis where he’ll be honored. So Callum does display good sportsmanship and I told him it’s rare for the no. Player in a section’s age group to also receive the Sportsmanship Award and that shines very well on him.

To Kent Carlson, I’m sorry I thought you were European like the Dane player I used to like, the lefty Kenneth Carlsson.

Andrew – Margaret Court is an old lady now and says a lot of odd stuff but when she was a player she was always courteous to her opponents – at least I never heard otherwise. Certainly not spiteful or boastful. That wasn’t the Australian way.

Yeah, a stain on the M. Court legacy. So be it.

How great that Callum won the Sportsmanship award – very impressive!

Uh ok, Scoop. Whatever, man! No, please, no one celebrate Margaret Court’s opinion. She’s entitled to it. But it’s a mess. It is as offensive to her peers as a player as it is to the world at large.

She will always be a great champion. But greatness on the court isn’t the same as grace off it. Her views off it aren’t charitable. And they do end up taking away from her achievements, especially given her competitors end up being the targets of them. Which is too bad.

It is what it is. They don’t take away slams for what people think. She earned those. As well as the scorn afterwards for saying some things that don’t check out.

Sandgren’s showing at slams is impressive. The guy is a big match player. I thought he had a lot in the tank on the challengers. He should be an inspiration to other challenger players. I don’t know if any are wise enough to ask him how he has performed like this on big stages.

He said he likes playing for few as much as for tons of people, so he is a gamer. I appreciate the gamers out there. I hope other players get inspired to put up these results. I have to believe at some level that Sandgren lives for tennis. With his two QF slam showing he becomes one of the best U.S. men on the biggest stages since Roddick’s retirement. Only Querrey and Isner have more QF appearances among active U.S. men.

He has put to shame all the young U.S. men, though some have shown some promise and some potential and desire to do well at these events. It will be interesting if any are curious enough to try to do what Sandgren has done, and live for the big events.

Kent is right. Serena should be admired for her tennis but her sportsmanship is about as bad as it gets. And yes, too many people enable such behavior – threatening a lineswoman, yelling I am a mother. I am not a fan nor do I root against her but her act is worn out.

I also disagree that she gets more abuse than others. Federer fans constantly abuse both Novak and Rafa. I am certain Novak gets more hate than anyone since the Rafa fans pile it on him as well. Not like Sharapova has fans to go after Serena and what would they say anyway, my player can’t beat yours?

Sandgren should be getting more due as the last American left. It speaks well for the Challenger tour. If he can beat Fed, Novak and Rafa to win the tournament, it would be the greatest story in sports history. I think he can knock off Fed and am confident he will win at least one set.