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McEnroe is finally running the show
Posted: Wednesday February 02, 2000 12:28 PM
By chance I was there in Santiago, Chile, 22 years ago when John McEnroe made his Davis Cup team debut, as a Stanford sophomore, last man on the squad. He was barely 20, with the freckles and curly Prince Valiant cut which served to conceal the wet behind his ears. I remember distinctly when the expense checks were handed out in the locker room and Harold Solomon, a cagey, old veteran of 26, dutifully showed the kid how to add "for deposit only" to his signature, to protect himself in the event that the check was stolen. I can see McEnroe now, intently taking in this advice, listening as if it was the received wisdom of the ages. But by that fall, McEnroe had led the United States to its first Davis Cup victory in six years. By then, too, he was already making a name for himself as a boor and a brat -- "McNasty," the British dubbed him -- and was on his way to becoming the most brilliant player ever to hold a racket. Would that he had only treated himself, mind and body, as sweetly as he stroked a fuzzy ball. But for all McEnroe's tiresome misbehavior, there was always another side of him -- the witty, intelligent grown-up that we hear doing tennis commentary so incisively. McEnroe is really a shy person, and -- never lacking for opinions -- he can be the most engaging company. Perhaps because he is so intense on the court, so inner-directed, he has always enjoyed the team aspect of sport most. It's a curious quality for such a great player in an individual sport, but McEnroe could only really relax on a team. Announcer Mary Carillo, who grew up with him, remembers that, even when little Johnny Mac was tiny, whatever the sport, everybody chose him first for their team. There is not much team in tennis, of course. Well, McEnroe was the finest doubles player who ever lived. He loved playing college for Stanford for two years. And from that time in Chile, he has always been absolutely devoted to Davis Cup -- which many other top American players have treated as an imposition. In fact, from the moment he stopped playing regularly almost a decade ago, McEnroe has been lobbying to be named our Davis Cup captain -- a position which translates more as coach or manager. The boss. Finally, the new head of the U.S. Tennis Association, Judy Levering, the first female president, has given the position to McEnroe. This has infuriated a great many people who find him unworthy of such an honor. Indeed, when McEnroe was on the team captained by Arthur Ashe, Ashe, of all people, used to get hate mail simply for playing the world's best player. "Shame on you, Arthur." "It is an insult to the American people for you to play that awful person." And now here McNasty is, designated to lead the 2000 U.S. Davis Cup team. As a player, too, McEnroe has hardly had any spiritual conversion. Playing the seniors tour, he can still be every bit as much a pain. The only difference is that now he's a 40-year-old brat. But he is a master strategist, and incredibly respected in the game. Both Pete Sampras -- who has since pulled out with an injury -- and Andre Agassi agreed to play for the U.S. team, as it begins the Davis Cup season this week in Zimbabwe. McEnroe's mother, Kay, told me once that, in grammar school, her son was only sent home once. It wasn't for being bad in any traditional, 10-year-old way. No, it was for arguing with the basketball coach about how he was coaching the team. Well, finally, this week Johnny Mac has, at last, the chance to be a coach himself ... and to act like a new man on the court. These commentaries, which appear each Wednesday on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, are posted weekly by CNNSI.com.
The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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