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 Pulling no punches McEnroe, Evert don't mind 'rustling some egos'
Posted: Friday June 26, 1998 04:47 PM
LONDON (Reuters) -- John McEnroe and Chris Evert believe in bluntly telling today's tennis stars where they are going wrong. See, the heroes of yesteryear now working as television commentators for NBC Sports pull no punches when dissecting a player's performance. "I think it probably rustles some egos," said McEnroe, who freely admits that criticism used to enrage him when his fiery skills took him to the top. "I know deep down that sometimes the truth hurts," conceded Evert who finds it easier to criticize objectively the longer she has been away from the game. McEnroe, famed for screaming "You cannot be serious" at an umpire with whom he disagreed, has no mercy for players who fail to give 100 percent all the time, those he considers "the pits of the earth." "We are not there to criticize the players unless they are in my opinion 'tanking.' That is the one thing I cannot stand," said the man once known as "Superbrat." "I mean, they are at Wimbledon so it shouldn't be difficult to give 110 percent," he said in an NBC panel discussion on their tell-it-like-it-is commentaries. The feisty New Yorker said he hoped the players would understand that he was not just trying to cut them down to size on television. "Listen, I was criticized. You get pissed off but ultimately sometimes the people that are criticizing you are right. I think they should listen to it," he said. Evert, the Ice Maiden who never gave away her emotions on court, said, "It is getting easier for me to be critical as I move away from the game. It was always tough that first and second year after I retired." She said she faced tough times saying honestly what she thought of Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf, two great champions she had been battling for 15 years. And she knows how much the truth can hurt. "My second last year before I retired, I remember listening to [commentator] Mary Carillo say 'Chrissie should retire, she will never win a major,' and I was very hurt by that," she said.
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