Posts Tagged ‘Wimbledon’

The World Cup, Africa, and Why I Wish Serena Would Not Bow

Saturday, June 30th, 2018

by Gus Griffin

gus

 

 

 

 

Super-Eagles-Celebrate

Even as a casual soccer fan, it is hard for me to watch the World Cup, the most popular sporting event worldwide, without wondering what could be for African Nations. Despite African-born or heritage players on many teams, especially European teams, no nation from Africa has ever won the cup. Despite the events’ widely acknowledged greatest player in its History, Brazil’s Pele, being himself of African descent and forecasting that an African nation would win the cup by 2000, none have even made it to the semi-finals.

But why?

Some will cite a structural reason that is clearly biased toward Europe.  There are 54 countries in Africa and yet it is only allocated five slots in the World Cup tournament. Conversely, Europe has 50 countries and gets 13 slots.

Still, others will cite the same ole dog whistle analysis to explain why African countries have not succeeded to the level of its enormous talent and resources; bad governance, undisciplined players…blah, blah, blah. I do not contend that none of those are factors. I actually would agree that bad governance compounds the issue. I only argue that they are not at the root. At the root are the same factors responsible for the continent’s underdevelopment in general and that is the exploitation by foreign interests, especially Europe.

For a point of reference, look at how U.S. baseball pillages Latin American baseball talent…compound that worldwide and that is what you have with European countries and the African soccer players.

To be fair, European countries are not the only culprits. Qatar has recently indulged as well, under the guise of humanitarian motivations with its Aspire Academy, which recruits young African soccer players to their country in their effort to build a World Cup contender.

However, my primary focus is Europe, due to its wider history of exploiting Africa for both human and material resources, and the wealth it accumulated as a result.

SWThat brings us to Serena Williams and the pending Wimbledon Tennis tournament. She has won this tournament seven times, and each time before being crowned is “required” by tradition to do some curtsy to the Queen of England. It strikes me as bowing and I have always had a serious problem with that practice.

The Industrial Revolution would have been impossible without the wealth generated by slave labor. Britain’s major ports, cities, and canals were built on invested slave money. Several banks, to include Barclays, as well the Church of England built their wealth on the slave trade of African free labor. In other words, the ancestors of Serena Williams.

Indeed, as the great scholar Eric Williams illustrates clearly in “Capitalism and Slavery”, you cannot speak of one without speaking of the other.

Please save the tired apologist responses such as, “We cannot rewrite history”. Rewriting history is not the issue. Collecting on the debt is. We validate this right for the decedents and survivors of the Holocaust, as well we should. However, when it comes to African people, we adapt the “let bygones be bygones” approach. This mindset was on blatant display when the British offered to “lend” Nigerian art back to Nigeria…art it stole during the colonial era.

Let that sink in for a moment.

That is like a crackhead carjacking you and then offering to lend you your own car.

I know that Serena refusing to bow to the Queen of England will not address the massive debt owed to African people by England. I just want the issue raised in the consciousness of the world and she would have the platform to do just that.

My thinking on this issue was greatly influenced by a dear friend and mentor who passed away last Saturday. Macheo Shabaka introduced me to the concept of Pan Africanism, which insist that we of African descent, regardless of where we were born, are still Africans, and obliged to act on her and her people’s behalf. If we don’t, who will? Were he still alive, he would agree with me when I say that Serena Williams should not bow to the Queen of England. In fact, the Queen and all of England should bow to her and all of Africa and her peoples.

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports

Anna vs. Jana: Style vs. Substance

Monday, December 4th, 2017

by Gus Griffin

gus

 

 

 

 

Jana Novotna (left) and Anna Kournikova (right)

Jana Novotna (left) and Anna Kournikova (right)

Recently, a friend and I got into a respectful debate over the accomplishments of former tennis player Anna Kournikova. My primary contention was and is that she largely had no individual tennis accomplishments, or certainly not enough to warrant her lucrative endorsements.

That cannot be said of Jana (pronounced Hana) Novotna, who died recently after a battle with cancer at the age of 49.

Novotna won 24 Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tournaments to include 1 major title.

Kournikova never won any WTA singles’ event.

Even with that, what Novotna is most remembered for is the 1993 Wimbledon finals when she had a 4-1 lead in the 3rd set over the great Steffi Graff, and had game point at 40-30 on her racquet. She would double fault, lose that game and eventually the match in one of the greatest collapses in tennis history.

I remember watching that match and how uncomfortable I felt for her. We all fail but few do so on a world stage as dramatically as she did that day. In sports, not being good enough is difficult but forgivable. The two things that are not forgivable are to quit or choke. Those two transgressions speak to the athlete’s character and mental toughness in the minds of fans and will not be tolerated.

That day, Jana Novotna choked.

She would get back to the Wimbledon final in 1997 only to lose a lead again, this time to Martina Hingis. Then, finally in 1998, she would reach the finals again of Wimbledon and after unspeakable disappointments over the years, would finally get over the hump and win the title.

For me, one of the most enjoyable things about sports is to observe that moment when the team or athlete better known for not being able to win the big one finally gets it done. Be it Ivan Lendl or Andy Murray finally breaking through to win major titles, or the 2016 Chicago Cubs, or Elway’s Denver Broncos. Unlike lottery winners or the rags to riches narratives we love to promote in America, that are often as much about luck than merit, winning in professional sports is never luck.  Also, unlike most of us who may routinely fail in our professions, athletes do so in the fishbowl that is professional sports.  Their every facial expression and inkling of body language is examined and psychoanalyzed by every Dr. Phil wannabe in the world.  In spite of this all, the professional athlete must continue to strive. So, while many will remember Novotna for her failure, she should be remembered for the fact that she got up off the mat and triumphed in the end.

As for Kournikova, I don’t fault her for exploiting her non-tennis marketability. I certainly hope that she lives longer than Novotna. The fact that she is better known than Novotna, in spite of dramatically less tennis accomplishments, says more about what we as a society value than it does either one of them.

So, thank you Jana Novotna for showing the sports world and beyond that one need not be forever defined by failure and how to come back and triumph.  Your public life showed a great deal more courage than any photo spread ever has.

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports

Ode to Venus Williams

Friday, July 14th, 2017

by Gus Griffin

gus

 

 

 

 

VW

Venus Williams is the single most underappreciated athlete in the world over the past 20 years!

The primary reason for this is understandable: when your little sister is on the short-list of greatest athletes of the last century, your accomplishments just might get a bit overlooked.

Just to summarize, Venus has won 7 Grand Slam titles and 49 tournaments overall.  Her lifetime record against top 10 opponents is 321-159, which amounts to a winning percentage of 67%.  Her lifetime record against the world’s number 1 ranked player is 10-5.  Even on clay, her worst surface, she has a winning percentage of 63%.  In Grand Slam finals, she is sub .500 at 7-8.  Seven of those eight losses have come to her little sister.  Simply put, Venus Williams has only lost one Grand Slam final to anyone not named Serena.

It is often noted if it were not for Venus, Serena would have even more Grand Slam titles.  But the opposite is true as well.  Without Serena in the picture, Venus could very well have 14 major titles.  That would have her in the G.O.A.T. conversation.

Those numbers alone are enough of a resume, but there is more.

It was Venus who was the most vocal active player in the fight for equal pay at Wimbledon for the women’s champion compared to the men’s champion.

In 2011, she was diagnosed with a rare ailment called Sjogren’s Syndrome.   Two of its symptoms are pain in the joints and fatigue; no small factors for a professional tennis player.    Being north of 30 and having already been a seven-time Grand Slam winner, it would have been understandable if she called it a career.  She did not, and as a result she is entering her second Grand Slam final of the year Saturday morning at Wimbledon, after having dominated up and coming Brit Johanna Konta in Thursday’s semi-final.   She is now 21-7 this year and will re-enter the world’s top 10, all at the age of 37 years old.   If she wins it will be her 6th Wimbledon title and she will become the oldest woman to win a Grand Slam event in tennis history!

Beating Garbine Muguruza for the Wimbledon title, a Grand Slam champion in her own right, will be a tall task.  I consider her to be the most likely to succeed Serena as the world’s undisputed best player.

But losing won’t take away from the fact that despite age, an ailment that would retire lesser competitors, some media that have been flaky at best to embrace one half of what is arguably the greatest story in the history of American sports, and the huge shadow of her little sister, VENUS IS RISING AGAIN.  We should not only notice, but we should show her the love and give her the standing ovation she so richly deserves.

 

Gus Griffin, for War Room Sports