Since my column written for Suite101.com back in the day is no
longer archived there, I am presenting a few of the articles here at
A Line A Day. Many of them were time sensitive so I’ll pass
on taking a stroll down memory lane with those.
But a few stand up pretty good in reprint despite the passage of years since they were written. I have
reprinted
IMAGINE here because athletes being busted for taking performance
enhancing drugs continues to be a plague on sports. More recently I reprinted
THE BLACK ATHLETE in response to the 2013-14
NFL season beginning with a record 9 African American men taking the field as starting
quarterback for their respective teams.
I happened to attend a game that featured two of them, with Geno Smith
of
my beloved New York Jets earning victory over Josh Freeman of the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers by the slimmest of margins. In
that post I also included a snippet from an article I wrote about the young
Michael Vick long before his legal difficulties and eventual comeback led me to write
about him a couple more times. The
article I am reprinting below was written about the Williams
sisters back in 2001 during the US Open. As I
predicted might happen, Venus ended up defending her title by defeating her
younger sister Serena. Fast forward
twelve years and once again the US Open champion is a Williams, only this time
around Serena was the victor and she did not need to go through any family
members to earn it. Serena merely had to
get over the fact that at age 31, her talent level is supposed to be in sharp decline. Instead she has never looked better on the
court. She’s looking pretty good off it
as well. So I decided to reprint this
article in her honor, and if a decade down the line she somehow is STILL
winning Majors, I’ll reprint it yet again.
Take a bow, Serena. You too,
Venus, even though your prime now appears to be in the rear view mirror. And shout out to Richard Williams who has been
keeping a relatively low profile of late, and has recently become a father
again in his 70’s. Will a third Williams
be hoisting up championship tennis trophies some day? I wouldn't bet against it.
Once upon a
time. No, let me be more precise. On June 11, 1978 an event took place that
would end up transforming the world of tennis, though not for many years to
come. It was on this day that Virginia Ruzici won the French Open women's
singles championship. A man who resided in California
was watching on television and he found himself amazed not so much by the skill
and effort displayed by Virginia
during the match, as by the size of the check she received at the end of it.
Over twenty thousand dollars for a day's work. Not bad at all. The man vowed
that any children his wife gave birth to in the following years would play
tennis. Since those children would need to be taught how to play, and he was by
no means a wealthy man who could provide them with top notch instructors, he
bought some books and videotapes and taught himself the game. Within three
years the man's family had grown by two daughters. They were named Venus and
Serena.
Their training ground would
be the less than pristine glass strewn public courts of Compton. Unlike a sport such as basketball
that requires no more than a single ball to be shared by everyone and a rim
attached to a backboard, the considerably pricier game of tennis rarely
generates its stars from ghetto neighborhoods. American phenoms in expensive
sports like golf and tennis tend to be white, and they almost always have the
advantage of elite training at top tier institutions. Neither was the case for
Venus and Serena. What they did have was a determined father with a master plan.
And since their starting point was not the conventional one, it stands to
reason that the steps taken along the way were radical as well. Eyebrows of
those who thought they knew it all were certainly raised when Richard Williams
pulled his daughters from the junior ranks, even though Venus by that point at
age 11 had earned national attention for her prowess. He relocated his family
to Fort Lauderdale
where for the next 3-1/2 years there would be no tournaments or competitive
match play for the Williams sisters. Even after the traditional route had
become an option, rather than following it, Richard arranged for his daughters
to practice, practice and practice some more with academy instructor Rick
Macci. Instead of going through the machinations usually employed to churn out
professional tennis players, Venus and Serena kept tennis as a focal point, but
not as the only thing in their lives. They earned high school diplomas with top
marks, developed outside interests such as their love of fashion. But all the
while, the eyes of Richard and his daughters remained on the prize. And now,
twenty three years after that fateful match won by Virginia Ruzici, the most
prevalent questions being asked in tennis circles are the following three. Will
Serena Williams once again reign as the US Open women's champion? Or will the
2001 version of this contest be won for the second time in a row by arguably
the best female player in the world - a gal named Venus? And lastly, wouldn't
it be something if they ended up playing each other for this honor in the
Final? It seems there was a method to Richard's madness.
Why then has the
extraordinary success of Venus and Serena been routinely accompanied by
controversy and flat out resentment? Why are these talented, intelligent, attractive
young ladies the least popular players on the tour? Was Venus' sudden
withdrawal before a match sufficient cause for Serena to be subjected to a
cascade of jeering rather than cheering as she earned a championship at Indian
Wells earlier this year? And even if the circumstances of that day were
somewhat suspicious, why was it reported that words far more offensive than
"boo" were yelled at Serena?
Some would blame the
perceived "unladylike" arrogance of the Williams sisters,
demonstrated by the fact that they rarely credit losses to superior play by
their opponents, and the audacity they showed in turning down lucrative
endorsements until the stakes grew sufficiently lofty. Others would cite envy
of Venus and Serena, who seem less dedicated than those they routinely
annihilate because they play in considerably less tournaments than their top
ten peers. There are those who are convinced that the outcome of matches
between Venus and Serena are fixed, depending on whose turn it has been
determined to be the victor. A few people probably had a problem with the beads
once worn in their hair, or the colorful form fitting outfits they don to
better exhibit their tall, lean, muscular physiques. Would someone be playing
the so called race card in claiming that the brown skin of Venus and Serena is
at the root of the troubles they find, or simply stating the obvious? There do
happen to be folks on the professional tennis circuit who have predominantly
positive comments to make about the Williams sisters. There actually are
players who do not form competitive alliances against them, such as was
admittedly done by Lindsey Davenport and Martina Hingis during last year's US
Open. But even the majority of these people cease to compliment and start
expressing disapproval towards the architect of the Williams master plan - Papa
Williams.
When Richard Williams
encounters racism, such as he said he did at Indian Wells, he is not shy about
bringing it up and shouting it down. When he merely suspects that he detects
it, such as when Irina Spirlea bumped into Venus during a changeover, he does
not hesitate to brand her "a big, tall, white turkey", nor to contend
that the incident was motivated by a broader racist attitude on the tour. He
did later apologize for insulting Spirlea, but he is never apologetic about
exposing racism, nor about exhibiting excessive pride to the point of gloating
over his daughters' accomplishments. Richard Williams has been blamed for and
accused of many things, but subtlety is not one of them. This is a man who has
attended matches sporting signs that read "It couldn't have happened to a
nicer family" and "I told you so". This is a man who once went
on to the court and performed a celebratory dance on behalf of Venus while her
vanquished opponent stormed off. Richard Williams has not chosen to hold his
tongue about additional fees he feels his daughters should receive due to the
greatly expanded fan base they are wholly responsible for bringing to tennis,
much as Tiger Woods has done in golf. Speaking of Tiger, it is natural to
compare his feats and impact to that of Venus and Serena. They do after all
share the ability to win virtually at will and often with great ease; a
plethora of lucrative endorsements; a Jackie Robinson like effect on the formerly
lily white sports they have come to dominate; and unique names that match the
flair of their playing styles. Yet even Earl Woods, father of Tiger, has been
critical about the antics of Richard Williams and how Venus and Serena's
behavior reflects poorly on their upbringing.
The more Richard Williams
shouts to be given his due, to have the near miracle he has accomplished be
properly acknowledged, the more scorn and derision he invites. And some of it
inevitably spills over on to his daughters whether they deserve it or not.
Instead of the genius who managed to put two of his children simultaneously in
the upper echelons of tennis, enabling them to earn fortune and fame, he is
cast in the villainous role of detriment to their brilliant and apparently limitless
careers. There will probably be no end to the stream of conspiracy theorists
and Martinas like Navratilova and Hingis who claim that rather than being held
down by race, Richard takes advantage of it in a politically correct climate to
get away with what others would be crucified for. And they probably do make
some valid points, even while mostly missing the point.
In rebuttal, I believe
Richard Williams would say to his detractors, and most likely stated far more
boldly than I will put it here - "Do you think you can do a better job
molding well rounded, well adjusted, one (make that two) of a kind
multi-millionaire athletes out of nothing but a ghetto dream inspired by a
memorable moment of television viewing? Let's see you try."
Being who he is, and his relationship with the media being what it is, even with his lower profile Richard Williams still manages to steal headlines away from his daughters from time to time. For example...
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