For coaches looking to teach their athletes about the importance of sportsmanship, this weekend was a major step backward. Serena Williams lost her cool at the U.S. Open on Saturday, then on Monday Roger Federer did the same. Michael Jordan left a lasting blemish by speaking ill of former basketball players and executives in his Hall of Fame speech. Even the music world got in on the act with Kanye West dissing MTV Award-winner Taylor Swift.
Of all of these, Jordan’s was the most glaring. The tennis outbursts were poor signs of passion and frustration; West’s self-righteous reaction was much of the same. But Jordan clearly planned this out. He had the bully pulpit and he wanted to smack down people who had “dissed” him. It was supposed to be a positive celebration of one of the greatest players of all time, yet it will be forever remembered as a bitter speech by a man who could never have enough. It was an unfortunate decision by Jordan.
on Sep 14th, 2009 at 10:01 PM
Holy crap! WTF was going on this weekend. I just got in from a 4 day weekend backpacking trip and come home to all this! Wow, very disappointed in Michael. WTF was he thinking?
on Sep 14th, 2009 at 10:07 PM
Gimme a break–you can’t lump Federer in with the rest of these examples. He had one blip during a hotly contested 4-hour-plus tennis match in the final of a Grand Slam, then gave all due credit to his opponent after losing. A bad sport he certainly is not.
on Sep 14th, 2009 at 10:18 PM
oh please, Federer is the biggest douche of them all. from his tacky “15″ tracksuit at Wimbledon to his sobbing like a lil bitch whenever Rafa takes him to the woodshed I’d say old smashed faced Fed is among the worst of these offenders.
on Sep 14th, 2009 at 10:22 PM
and can we just put the whole “Federer is so classy” meme to bed already? Just because he is European or the darling of certain announcers and gay bloggers *cough Cyd* doesn’t make it true.
on Sep 14th, 2009 at 11:10 PM
Well DruggyBear, no worries about anyone calling you classy …
on Sep 15th, 2009 at 5:15 AM
Never liked MJ – always knew he was a pompous ass underneath that fake humility. Nice to know that “Hot Air Jordan” is finally showing the right side of his face. Thanks for proving me right, Mikey. Love you, mean it.
on Sep 15th, 2009 at 6:04 AM
Federer is a bit of a pretentious jerk.
on Sep 15th, 2009 at 6:40 AM
Federer is a classy dude. As far as I can tell his critics just have a bug up their
and can’t scratch it any other way.
As for Jordan, I only hope that he has spent as much money on building basketball stadiums in the “hoods” of this country as he cried about losing in some of the worlds biggest casinos:
http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/story/jordans-gambling-shame Smashing the famous is easy. The poor? NOT.
He obviously has enough ‘f#@k you’ money to cry crocodile tears.
on Sep 15th, 2009 at 7:33 AM
These so-called celebrities and star athletes merely mirror the public that adores them (i.e., read the comments excusing them).
on Sep 15th, 2009 at 8:56 PM
LMFAO…I love that President Obama called Kanye a “Jackass” today!!! So true!
on Sep 15th, 2009 at 9:30 PM
These outbursts are starting to look a bit like a pattern of childish misdirected anger and frustration – like the “birthers”.
Other than Federer – whose behavior I think frankly doesn’t deserve to be put in the same category of intensity – all of the perpetrators – Kanye West, Michael Jordan and Serena Williams – are celebrity African Americans who are reasonably intelligent.
On the eve of the unprecedented disrespect shown to the first African American president it certainly seems like odd coincidence.