The Faces of John McEnroe

The stories are far from all negative. John with his dad. Rest in peace, J.P. Sr.

Recently I had the chance to read a new book called "Facing McEnroe," by tennis writer Scoop Malinowski. It's a compilation of remembrances and stories about John from people from all parts of the game—players, coaches, reporters, celebrities, fans. It's the lastest book in a series Scoop has written including "Facing Federer," "Facing Nadal," and "Facing Hewitt."

Anyone who has had the experience of dealing with elite tennis players - or celebrities in any field - knows that they are just like everyone else in having multiple sides to their personalities. You might have a random encounter and decide someone with a "name" is a complete, narcissistic jerk, or that they are a down to earth human being as real as you or me, or somewhere in between, or both.

Certainly that is the case with John. Take two of my best friends who also work on Tennisplayer. They will remain nameless. One adores John and modeled his game (and I will say, in part, his on court personality) on him. The other absolutely cannot stand the mention of his name.

As for myself, I'm not objective. I've known John for 35 years. I respect him and admire him. He helped launch my career when we did the Winning Edge video in 1983. (Click Here to see one of my favorite segments from that video on the serve.)

I've worked with him doing video analysis on his own serve. (Click Here.) I've filmed players from his academy. (Click Here.) We've done some instructional articles together.

Peter Fleming couldn't imagine a better doubles partner.

The most obscure association was when I went on the road with him and a couple of film makers and his band on a swing through some cool California night clubs and produced what I am sure is his only music video: "Underground Hood." And yes you can see it right here on Tennisplayer in the music video section. (Click Here.)

So I read Scoop's book with interest. Most of the stories were new to me, but tended to resonate. And sure, there are plenty of negative ones. But since everything I ever done with John has been a win/win and he has been supportive of me, I am going to share some of the positive ones—ending with one from me that isn't in the book.

Peter Fleming:

"I was his doubles partner for 8 years and I couldn't imagine a better doubles partner to have. I don't think there was one time that he got upset with me during a match. He had that knack of making his partners play near their peak. Everyone remembers him as a guy who had a fiery temper and was difficult to get along with but on the doubles court he was just the opposite. He's got a heart of gold in a lot of scenarios."

Wally Masur:

"With John you never quite felt you were in the match, you were always scrambling to recover. He's very hard to read. He played with loose strings and short swings. And he served very accurately. You covered the T and he would go out wide. He'd ace you by big distances just by sheer accuracy. The most talent in his hands of any player I played."

Mats Wilander:

Eventually, John was calling Mats to appear at his charity event.

"He helps me out with my charity. He's come to my event maybe ten of the last fourteen years. The first two or three I called him. Then eventually he called me. He was playing in the Netherlands. "I packed my bags and I am going to head straight to the airport afterwards. Isn't your event tomorrow?"

Paul Goldstein:

"I was working a corporate job. John was in town for a day and he called coach Gould at Stanford and said, Coach, I am in town for a day, I want to hit with someone. Coach called me up and asked if I could meet John at 2pm. I told my boss John McEnroe wants to play and he said GO. It was just us, no one was watching. And he brought that same level of competitiveness to our practice set that he did in his tour matches. He did not want to lose that practice set. And he didn't... He just brings that same level of competitiveness I think to everything he does."

Andrea Temesvari:

"I was coaching Dalma Galfi when she was the number one junior in the world. We visited John's academy and he was very, very friendly. He opened his doors for us and we practiced there for 3 days. It really meant a lot because it was difficult to practice at the US Open at the time, they didn't allow the juniors in. Dalma was really touched by how he was."

John Yandell:

"I was in New York at the Open and was meeting John to discuss an event he was doing to help open a college facility in my old home town of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The event turned out to be a huge success and left everyone raving about him. John went out on the court and absolutely destroyed every player on both the men's and women's team - like one game each. He gave a couple of great speeches. He was totally charming.

A blast from 1984, when John and I realigned his serve.

But that's not the story. I doubt he even remembers it, but I do. As he was coming out of the stadium to meet me that day at the Open, a security guard spotted him: "John McEnroe! How are you doing?" The guard was a big dude and proceeded to put his arm around John—I mean really kind of wrapped him up. It was pretty uncomfortable and I remember wondering, "Wow, I wonder what is gonna happen now?"

John just turned and looked at the guy. He didn't even raise his voice and said: "I'll be doing a lot better when you let go of me." And that just completely deflated the guy. He dropped his arm, we walked off, and the guy was left him standing there, looking sheepish.

I didn't say one thing to John and he didn't say anything either, and we went back to talking about the event. But I couldn't help but wonder how often something similar to that happened to him. I was amazed at the grace he showed in defusing a minor incident and keeping it minor.