Former tennis superstar and current cranky Knicks fan John McEnroe put his foot directly into his mouth this weekend when he spoke with NPR and praised Serena Williams as “incredible” and the “best female player ever,” before clarifying that she was not the best tennis player ever because “if she played the men’s circuit she’d be like 700 in the world.”
Yeah. That doesn’t mean I don’t think Serena is an incredible player. I do, but the reality of what would happen would be I think something that perhaps it’d be a little higher, perhaps it’d be a little lower. And on a given day, Serena could beat some players. I believe because she’s so incredibly strong mentally that she could overcome some situations where players would choke ‘cause she’s been in it so many times, so many situations at Wimbledon, The U.S. Open, etc. But if she had to just play the circuit — the men’s circuit — that would be an entirely different story.
This afternoon, Williams told him to can it.
“Please keep me out of your statements that are not factually based” is a wonderful phrase and we can now officially declare John McEnroe owned.