Transcripts For CSPAN2 Ways Of Grace 20171001

Time . A little strange, three days earlier, i have a website and i know i am still a dinosaur. Before twitter and facebook and instagram but i still have a website and the person that runs it for me send me a lot of emails he thinks i will be interested in and a friend of mine from high school i was talking about, he said playfully beat me up, much bigger than me. One of the seniors i knew very well, lost touch with him, wrote into the website, it has been 20 years but i want to let you know, some wrestlers are catching up and got to talking about you, hope everything is going well hummed hopefully run when to you again. Nice message. Three days later, someone with shaved head kind of muscular, just like my friend from high school, comes running towards me. I am thinking, if you watch the video which you dont need to watch, it doesnt get any better. I am actually smiling because i think what are the odds this guy found me . I dont have time for it to sink in before i am on the ground. That is not the way we used to joke and wrestling high school. I realized how serious this was because i am on the ground, pretty scared, he has his knee in my back, putting cuffs on me saying dont say a word. My mind immediately shift to what i have seen in the media with misunderstandings or perceived misunderstandings with Police Officers and what could happen, how it could end tragedy. The first words out of my mouth, i am complying 100 , whatever you say i will do. Even though he never said officer or nypd or you are under arrest, he had his knee in my back, putting handcuffs on me. I had a feeling being in the middle of midtown manhattan i didnt think he was brazen enough to mug me in front of this many people. He walked me away and i said you made a mistake, i have my u. S. Open credentialed in my back pocket, please take that as evidence im not involved in whatever it is you think i am doing. He said we will see. Eventually the fifth officer on the scene identified me and said they made a mistake. It was pretty shocking. Funny how life works. I dont know if i thought that person was coming at me with dangerous intentions, my instinct would have been to put up my arms and defend myself and had i done that i have a feeling from all the Police Officers i talked to since then the results would have been worse. I wouldnt have had a bruise on my elbow and my side, i would have had a lot worse and my head might have been slammed to the ground as might have been put in the cop car and i said what would have happened if my brother was there or my family or my friends. Since he never had officer, if i had a friend there, friends are crazy, they dont attack me, they will attack him and i dont know what would have happened. I think ill lucky i am i was there by myself. The others would have approached this with rage. Why didnt you . I try to be calm and collected and think of the best solution. Sometimes it works well for me, sometimes my wife says it doesnt work well and i need to be more emotional. This time i was trying to think being an athlete, being a guy, the way i was raised, i can take this. I am not going to complain or say anything until i spoke to my wife and she says was if this happened to me . Immediately it brought tears to my eyes and i thought what would happen if it happened to her or my brother or someone i really cared about and they didnt have the same voice i do. At that moment i decided it did actually spur on a little bit of rage. I can take this but a lot of people cant and shouldnt, no one should have to take this. It made me think i need to act which i decided to go to the press, find a way to do something, before i knew there was a video. Everything about this changed with the fact there was a video. If there wasnt a video it would have been my word against five Police Officers and before they knew there was a video the comments they made, they were investigating, i wasnt in handcuffs, the whole encounter was less then two minutes. That would have been their story. I dont blame the superior officers, that is what these officers told him, no reason for them not to believe those arresting officers but they were flat out lying. Having the video made it, my story was corroborated. How do sports bring us together . I always felt sports can bridge gaps, language barriers, religious barriers, any sort of wealth inequality. It can be such an equal playing field, you can get to the u. S. Open so many ways, you can get to the super bowl or Major League Baseball in so many ways, but having respect for each other, the tennis locker room, i may not agree with a lot of the people in their, something that might be political or cultural or religious but i have a ton of respect for how they got there. I know much hard work went into getting there and how much they sacrificed to get there. There is that bond with sports and from a basic early age, my kids are 5, and 3. My 5yearold can be shy and not know someone but then do hopscotch together or play something together and immediately have a bond, she opens up and becomes more personable. Sports in general, for me it was tennis, sports in general can create that friendship, that partnership. Most team sports you get that camaraderie, a feeling of working together, so many lessons you can learn, sportsmanship, honor, calling penalties on your self, it is a way to teach you a lot about life. On the flipside, as the number one us ranked tennis player, what is it athletes responsibility to the community . I borrowed that title for a little while from andy roddick. The responsibility, i said this, tennis is such an individual sport, the responsibility is to be true to yourself, it would shine through and be disingenuous to see examples and like andre argosy being a showman, you have to be yourself on the court. I respect people who are themselves. I talk about in the book, something really does push you, burns you and it is a passion for you then yes, speak out and you have a voice. Understand what that means and the effect you will have on people. If you dont have that passion, something that makes you feel you want to speak out you dont need to do it just to do it. You shouldnt feel the need to speak out for some cause if you are uneducated on that cause. I dont think it is any athletes job to do it but there right to do it and they should feel empowered to do it and should recognize they have more of a voice than most people do. Especially nowadays, the sixth engine player on the warriors you have 1 million followers on twitter. With 140 characters you can make a strong statement and have an effect on a lot of people. Serena and venus williams, the journey has been so hard for equal pay. Takes a while for us men to catch up and listen to the smart women we should be listening to. Equal pay, such a big step forward, Billie Jean King talked about that. I learned more about it for this book. That was a big step forward for tennis in general and people dont want to give credit to the fact that Billie Jean King made a big difference, she had so many millions of eyeballs on that match the got them into the sport of tennis so we should all be paying her a debt of gratitude. Venus and serena took it a step further, venus was the first female to win wimbledon and get paid the same as roger fetter or. It is Society Needs to catch up to the quality. I credit the people who are fighting for that and there is still equality to be had in so many other areas but females are hopefully catching up, they should be catching up quicker, i wish they were but it takes a little while to recognize. Even if you take serena and Maria Sharapova, why does Maria Sharapova make so much more than serena . Good question. You should ask nike. That is something that is always frustrating to me. Serena is the best athlete of our generation without qualifiers, without saying male, female, black, white. She has won three times as many majors. She is a strong powerful role model. If my daughters grow up and watch her and want to be like her, she should be the highest paid female athlete in the world but she isnt and that is something madison avenue decides, not something i decide. I wish i was pulling the strings and had the ability to write those checks and sign those checks. What do you think madison avenue is thinking . Maria sharapova has the look they are looking for. She has been marketable, sold a lot of cars, watches, clothes, shoes, whatever she is endorsing she sold a lot of them. I also dont want to seem i am begrudging her because she deserves everything she gets but serena deserves even more than she gets and had to fight hard to get what she has gotten. Why do you think there are so few africanamerican tennis players, the total percentage . Serena, venus, madison, sloan, and a couple others. Why are there so few . For one, it still has the stigma of being a country club sport. It is not often the coolest sport to be playing as a kid. Cant say it got me a ton of streak read when i showed up at school with my racket bag. It is fighting that stigma a little bit and then there is the issue, you want to have role models, look at the effects serena and venus have had, females following them and now hopefully a ton of success to inspire Young Players, to see someone they want to be like. It could up a basketball and wants to be Stephan Kerry or lebron james, he sees that and a role model, someone having success. For Young African American Kids he is not seeing a ton of that on tv. On the men app side, the womens i there is serena and venus having incredible success. That is another topic, how amazing they are. If you dont have those role models it is hard to say i want to be like them. If you have a few like that, you will see that trickle down of players, Young Players wanting to be like him growing up and having the challenge and work ethic. Does it bother you when people label you as an africanamerican tennis player instead of a tennis player . They dont say roughly on the doll caucasian tennis player. If you are africanamerican they give you the title africanamerican, does it bother you and did it bother you on the tour . It didnt bother me. I thought of it as a challenge. People find their own ways to challenge themselves. For me i took it as i want to be good enough to talk about tennis. That was why i cut my hair. I was the crazy kid with the wacky hair and dreadlocks, pretty abnormal in the sport of tennis. I want to succeed and want him to talk about my tennis. The first africanamerican to do this, since arthur ash, i wanted them to have results, he is the first to do this or the only american to do this and not always have to qualify with africanamerican come a challenge for me to do something where they dont have to put that into qualify how i am doing it or how well i am doing it. I made it a personal goal. You were ranked number one in the united states. What does it take to be ranked number one in the world . Number one in the state, there was my best year ever, 2006, won five titles, went by in a blur. Two years after my father passed away, a broken neck in the span of three months. Thinking about coming back to play tennis at all seemed like a monumental task. Two years later the perspective i had, how happy i was just to be playing, in as good shape as i possibly could, it still took luck and good scheduling and it still took great matches that big moments. Not an easy task. Youd had ranking of number four in the world. To hit number one, what do you think the difference between numb burr number one is . It is bigger than it seems. Than three spots. Kind of like in golf to get from 18 handicap to scratch handicap is easier to do get from a scratch to a pro to get from 100 in the world to 50 in the world is tough. 50 to four to one was impossible. Some guy named roger kept hogging all titles. Amount it took me to be consistent to be number four in the world, how much consistency to be in number one in the world. You cant have a bad couple months. You cant be injured and you have to put up result after result after result. You have to play best in all the masters and grand slams. The other part, you have a target on your back entire year. Every single match you play, andre agassi said it when i was coming up, how do soandso play bad against me. They play the best every time. They have nothing to lose. They want to beat you. They will be able to tell their grandkids they beat andre agassi. That is the way everyone felt playing roger, for the last 15 years. To match that intensity every single day it is very, very difficult. A lot of People Struggle first time they get in the top 10. First time any success on tour they take it for granted how hard they worked and how hungry they were to get there. They fall back a little bit. These guys passed me, theyre just as hungry and roger to sustain that as long as he did, it is not an easy task. It take aspects person. In 2011, some people say you broke the laws of physics, you hit a ball a, forehand 125 miles an hour. Yeah. How is that possible . Most people cant serve, even a lot of pros cant serve is 25 miles an hour. How did you hit a ball, a forehand at 125 . Many of the top players if they hit 9 miles an hour they are blown away. Did you eat your wheaties beforehand . Close your ice and hope it goes in. Forehand is always my weapon. I remember that point, match point. Get a special thrill playing u. S. Open. I grew up close to here. All my friend were there. All my friend would see me. My family would be there. So i had tons of adrenaline throughout the u. S. Open t was match point, pretty much, just like a pitcher and batter, batter sitting on 30 pitch waiting for it to be right in that one spot. I had a feeling it was going to serve and where it was going to be. He happened to serve exactly as i was looking. I swung as hard as i could, the ball was three feet from him, he didnt move to get it. He walked up to the net to shake my hand. It was exciting and fun. That is definitely one of the most endings of a match for me, how excited i was to be in new york and that crowd going crazy at the end is the feeling, people ask if i miss playing tennis. I dont miss a lot of hard work went into it. Travel i dont miss, but that feeling at end of the match and crowd appreciation, that is something i will always cherish. Tell me about the u. S. Open and feeling. Why do you think you never won a major . Everybody said, all betting people said james is not only going to win a major, he will win many majors. You had a phenomenal career. You made quarters of majors. Why do you think you never won a major . Is it because of somebody by the name of roger . Yes. I thought so. 2005, it would have been kind of a story book. That was when i came back from shingles, breaking my neck. Played andre in the quarters. Would have gotten a chance to play in the semis who i had a pretty good record against. He was playing great. Even if i hadnt gotten there the way i was playing, i couldnt say i had no choice, it would be a complete long shot against roger in the finals. Next year i thought id that a chance. 2006 i bet andy roddick in one of warmups. Playing great dentist. I played in finals in cincinnati. Tennis magazine picked me to win the open. I never look that far advance in a draw, look who im playing, what could happen. The way i was playing, all i dont want to do and dont want to play roger. The earliest i would play roger i knew i seeded quarterfinals. Dont have roger in my quarterfinals. Play anyone else in the world. Roger is in quarterfinals. I played him in the quarterfinals. Got a set off him. Played pretty well. That match, that tournament if i played anyone else in the world i thought i could win and i thought i would win the match but roger, only guy in the world when i played my best tennis, when i was at my best, he found a different gear, a different level, showed me i wasnt as good as i thought i was or didnt have that level that he had at that time. He went on to win the tournament pretty easily. That was my best opportunity. After that, 2008, and on my knee started bothering me. I never felt quite the same on the court as i did in 05, 06, 07. One thing for you to hit a forehand at 125, impressive on any standard. Talk about being on receiving end. In 2013 you retire. Your knees are acting up and retired after playing carlo very much. He is playing 150. Take me in the mind of james blake, what is it like constantly pounded and have 150 mileanhour serve coming at you . You probably have less than a split second to move. It is frustrating. I think they clock, less than half a second you have from the time he hits to the time you hit it. So it is, even quicker than someone throwing a pitcher throwing a 95 mileperhour fastball. It gets on you quicker. How to decide to hit it, forehand or back hand to get it in the court. When you break it down scientifically it is impossible. Usa today did a article on toughest things in sports, hitting a curve and returning a serve. You have to in the half a second, is this kicking, is it going straight, is it sliding . Where do i need to put the racket. Are they coming into the net . Do i need to get it done. All calculations go through your head, muscle memory. You have to do it a million times or you pretty much have no chance. You physically cant think that much in that short of a time. Seeing that much from karlovich over five sets, by end of it youre mentally tired. You have this person standing across net from you. He is looks like a giant. He is six 10. He claims he is people say he is aller than six 10. What does it look like . Sit wink of an eye . Is it a flash, what . Unfortunately i had to see tons of him and tons of andy roddick hitting 140, 150. All you do is react. No time to think at all. Youre completely guessing. At times it is so frustrating because they can take the racket out of your hand. You dont get to play tennis. You play two, three great points in a row. Even if you guess right, sometimes they hit serves in the right spot where you cant get close. You ace, ace, you played well. Never had a chance to swing. It can be frustrating. That is part of the game. A lot of people said there has to be some regulations. There has to be a way to fix this, not even like tennis. I feel like it always goes in cycles. Balances it out. People figured out how to return those serves. Maybe the game gets bigger. When i started on tour i was relatively tall. I dont think i shrunk but everyone else got bigger. I was one of the short guys. John isner at six 10. Karlovich at six 10. People are bigger, faster stronger. I dont know if i belong on tour anymore. In the book, ways of grace. Talk about incredible way of grace you dealt with such a hard challenge, diversity, from the age of 13 to 18 was severe scoliosis. I told you before, i was talking earlier. I thought it was normal. I think that happens to a lot of kids that go through something that they dont know any different. I didnt know any different besides wearing a back brace for 18 hours a day. That was normal for me. I knew no one else in high school was doing it. This is what i have to do. Why i dont fit in. Every high schoolkid feels like they dont fit in. That was the reason i didnt. It was what i was going through. I brought my bag to take it off for jim class. Put it back on. I dont know, it was something i didnt think about until much later i realize, everyone else din have to to through that. They didnt have to be excited to get a brace off to play tennis for a few hours a day. From a young age to gave me perspective. To get braces i had to go to Shriners Hospital for crippled children. I was one of the few kid that could walk out of there or few kids that could play a sport or anything active. I pretty quickly appreciated the ability to do that. When i did take the brace off for six hours a day, i really, really felt lucky, to be doing that. To be able to play tennis, anything i could. A lot of kids take so much for granted. At some point in their life they learn life lessons. They should appreciate what they have. I got the lesson a little earlier. It definitely taught me a lot. It taught me a lot about appreciates all the things i do have. Do you regret leaving harvard during your sophomore year to pursue tennis full time . No, not at all. I had a great experience at harvard. Two years there was amazing. I learned probably more out of the classroom than i did in the classroom just growing up. I just dont think i was ready for the tour at 17 when i went off to college physically or emotionally. I needed growing up to do. And then, i put on probably 10pound while i was there as well. I was still about 155pound when i went to school. I definitely needed it. I wouldnt survive a year on tour at that weight. I was still growing. I learned a lot. It was a ton of fun. My freshman year, going through normal stuff, getting guys gatorades, carrying bags on road trips. Sleeping on floor when three guys in a room for road trips. Doing all stuff freshman is supposed to do. You took a lot of risk at that time. There was no guarranty of success in tennis. Comes up to the individual. There are thousands of people that are trying. There is one of thousands, millions of people that are trying to be one of the 128 top tennis players in the world. You took a huge decision. Yeah. Why at that time decided to do it . Well, i went back for the sophomore year, with it in my head. I said im going to really put tennis as priority this year. And i backed off of some of my academics. You have to take four classes every semester there to be on track to graduate on time. I took three classes one semesters, to put more focus on my tennis. I said i would see how i do and how successful i think i can be right away. If i dont think i have it in me, im not going to look back. Maybe even go to Summer School to make up classes. I will graduate. I was not going three years. I would go two or four. That year i had a lot of success. The decision was made on my christmas break. I went down to play nine nor league level, future level event in orlando. I won the event. These guys are trying to play for a living. Guys really trying to make it for young guys. Been on tour for years. My brother was in the event. He turned pro. To win for the event, studying on christmas break for finals. I will now take the next step. Youre right. It was a risk. At first my parents werent thrilled with it. They definitely stressed education. My dad was definitely unhappy at first until he realizes this is something i want to do, i 100 commit to doing this. Did complete 180 supported me. Youre not allowed to agent or be in on the negotiations. Being out of the tennis world growing up, i was not involved in the pro circuit in any way. I didnt know if, when i signed with an agent it would mean i would get a contract, get free clothes. Here you go. If it was a Million Dollars in cash, spend it and buy yourself stupid cars and jewelry and everything. I really had no idea. So i was taking a big risk not knowing if i would have any sort of income at the beginning. I was fortunate enough that i did get more than free clothes. Not quite a Million Dollars but enough to get me started, to get my travels going. To take that risk. A risk that paid off. Luckily harvard also takes you back anytime. So i knew even if i didnt make it, my goal was to athlete make enough money to afford to go back, way prices are going for education i dont know if i could afford it now. I dont know if i could go back with how much it costs these days. That was always my goal. Even if i didnt make i wanted to go back to finish my degree. Watch me two early james blake matches. Two 2002 andre agassi and 2005 against nadal. Nadal for hand, his topspin has about 4,000 rpms, more than anybody on the tour. It is off the charts. How do you beat him . He is one of the best players, possibly best player, him, roger at the time . I think he was number 2 in the world. He just won the french open. That was a year i was off the tour. I didnt get to see his ascent up close. I was on the sidelines watching this new young stud come up and racing through the game, winning french open first time playing it. Went out there to play with him. First ball i hit in warmup, he rifle ad forehand right down the middle. I said, im in for a long day. This would be tough. I had nothing to lose. I was attacking his back hand a lot more, keeping away from the forehand. For some reason i felt he was playing tentative. He hadnt seen me whole time coming up. I was off the tour. He hadnt seen me. He was feeling me out. I was doing best to take advantage to as aggressive as i could. Some reason i was much more calm. Won the first set. Lost the second set. He always shows so much emotion. Pumping his fist getting excited, remember feeling calm, one set all. Nothing to get down. I would turn it around and win the next set. I won the third set. Seemed to me like he got a little detroited, i was dictating, controlling play. In the fourth set, telling myself, get in front, get ahead this time. I remember thinking this would be so tough. He would make this impossible. Number two in the world. Just won the french open much brimming in confidence. No way he lets me get into the finish line without me doing spectacular. I put one foot in front of the other. Played one point at a time. I couldnt believe how it went from third set to me winning the match. I didnt think at all about the finish line. I was thinking about this one point, this one point, i was shock when he missed last ball. I was raising my arms and i had beaten him. Andre agassi 2002. Andre is known as one of the best returners, him and djokovic, best returners during the game. What happens in the match . He wins eight majors, playing him at this time, you shock everybody . That was early was my first title i ever won. I played him in the semis, definitely expected to lose. You know, everyone probably would have assumed i wouldnt have. Of a chance. Another time where i was just absolutely going for broke, winning first set. Playing great. Second set, there is no way this is going to continue. At some point your level will drop. He will raise his level. He get in the match, another time it happened to fast, im playing so well, it was going quickly. We both played quickly in between points. It was a short match in terms of actual duration. I was hitting winner and after winner, i remember trying to serve out the match. No way he let you serve out the match. He is one of the greatest returners of all time. I was going aggressive. Everything i hit was just out of reach and good enough. I remember being shocked at end of it. It was one tournament my coach wasnt at. He was attending his sisters wedding. He told me at beginning of the year, my sister is getting married, im missing this i remember thinking how amazing i was doing it without my coach. It was a running joke maybe i was better off without him. Clearly, clearly not true. It was definitely a joke. He was so happy and proud. I couldnt believe i got a win over andre agassi, someone i looked up to when i was a kid. Remember so many of his famous matches. I got to stand across the net from him to earn his respect. He later said, he didnt lose that match. I went out and won it. I was proud didnt make an excuse say he was hurting. Yeah, he beat me that day. I give him ton of credit for that having enough confidence to admit it. How many times a week do you play tennis now . Less than one. If im doing average, it is not often. I who could you even, who could you even play with and get a workout or exercise . Is there any enjoyment in it . Who do you play with . The enjoyment i get, i live in san diego now. Taylor fritz is living there. He was a junior, making transition to the pro tour. He lives 15 or 20 minutes from me. I get enjoyment hitting with someone young. They have a question what life was like on tour. What i went through, at that age, anything like that. To me that is fun. Im usually in a corner running them. I do all the hard work. I relax a little bit. That to me is a lot of fun. Going out hitting, Mark Phillippoussis is out there, hit with him a while. He has a son. I have two daughters. If we have time from the kids, should we play golf . Little easier on the body. For him he wants to go surfing all the time. We get away from the tennis court. I play, seven, eight, nine, exhibitions a year. I will always hit couple times before those so i dont embarass myself. If i dont play for too long, for a month or something, im really, people still dont believe me im not very good at all. I need to hit. When i did retire i actually, i took real time off. I probably took three months off, not picking up a racket. I felt i worked so hard for 14 years, really 30 years before that. I wanted to take a break and put the rackets in a closet, not look at them for a while. Same coach. Got junior player at club. Getting a little cocky. Beating a lot of kids. Can you come out beat up on the kid . Yeah, no problem. Dust off the racquets. I barely, barely beat him. Im sorry. I made his attitude worse. Im really trying. This is just how bad i am right now. 16 i dontyearold, pretty Good High School player. I was having trouble beating him. I practiced a little bit. Come over to my house. We hit some. It came back to me. I did my best to put him in his place. Im not really very good if i dont play a long time. James, last question before we open up to a lot of audience questions, when you were growing up in fairfield, a good friend of yours took very different path from you. He different pick up tennis racquet. He picked up a microphone you have now. Could you share his name. He attended your wedding. You are very good friend. When will he do a song about you . I have a funny story and how i met and got to be pretty good friends with john mayer. He, him and his family, his younger brother and my age, my grade. My older brother is his age and he is right in the middle. They lived to close to the school to get bused. Both his parents were teachers. They went off to work earlier. They wanted their kids on the bus to get them to school. What they did, they dropped them off because his older brother is friend with my brother. His younger brother is friend with me. Can we just drop the kids off before at your house before end. They can take the bus with your kids and pick them up after school . Carl was on his own. Walk. John through middle school, elementary school, him an younger brother ben rode the bus with me. He was kind of one left out because he was middle child. I was always playing with ben. My brother was hanging out with carl. Then he just, i think around 7th or 8th grade, he picked up the guitar and started playing it. It was, he jokes it was down in my basement, would be there every single day after school, he would bring his guitar. He would sit there playing. I have a racquet in my hand, twirling it, hitting against the wall. We were both kind of obsessed. We both had obsessions. A few years later, you know, we obviously both made a career out of it. I watched him perform at Madison Square garden. He watched me at wimbledon. It is crazy were in my basement hanging out doing what we loved. Later on we got paid for doing what we loved. It was pretty crazy. We lost touch a little bit after i went off to college and he went was starting to make it in the music scene. We were playing davis cup, first time playing davis cup. It was myself and andy roddick, todd martin, jim courier. There were arguments what music we would listen in the locker room. A little more rap from andy and myself. A little more older, not so great music in my opinion from todd and jim. Jim is on cutting edge after the love music, especially in new york. I got something we all listen to. He put in a cd. This is good, i like it. I said who is it . He is john mayer. That is weird. I went to high school with a kid john mayer, really good musician. Can i see the cover . That was the john mayer i went to high school with him. I called him pretty soon after finished davis cup. I said, i wouldnt believe it. This was a jawdropping moment how successful you are. I did same thing couple months ago looking through the New York Times and i was on the cover with my lleyton hewitt. It is 2001, reading paper, i start my day, this is picture of you. This is amazing our paths cross again. What we had been doing always, now were getting paid for it. It is pretty crazy. A fun ride. He has been so nice to me. First time i had my Charity Event in virginia i asked him to perform. Before i even got the question out, he said tell me where, when. I will be there. He has always been a tremendous supporter of my and my foundation. Really wonderful. We start with some questions. Please. Gentleman there. Hold on one second. Microphone there. I can hear you. [inaudible] the question, just repeat the question. The question, what effect did Althea Gibson have on the sport of tennis . She was tremendous athlete. She was great at so many sports but she obviously excelled most at tennis. For her to, to be the precursor even to arthur ashe. Arthur ashe gets tons of credit, deservedly so but al thea doesnt get credit for breaking color barrier. Especially the gender bias going on, billie jean said, women werent allowed to have a credit card without being cosigned by their husband until middle of 1970s. She was winning wimbledon without having a credit card. Adversities she faced were absolutely tremendous. I dont know if she gets enough credit how impressive it was winwin wimbledon, really no one wanted her there. I wouldnt imagine facing those odds. I cant imagine couple people not your friend in the locker room, but having whole locker room against you. I cant imagine having that feeling, going out there, turning that rage into success. So few people play well angry. I dont know how she was able to do that. But for her to do that, it opened doors for myself. It opened doors for arthur ashe, for myself, donald young, mel washington, and williams sisters. Not an exaggeration to say without her i dont know that the williams sisters would be what question know today. Give the microphone to the gentleman. Yes, you. You know, when i watched you play, i was a fan of yours, not just because of your tennis but i got a quality from you very different from most tennis players. I really felt that, on some level, you were evolved in a certain way as a human being, that i picked up on. Thank you. Therefore i want to is you a personal question. Okay. This is regarding your, evolvement, in a couple of parts. One, do you feel that tennis helped you evolve . Do you feel that distracted you from being really how wanted to be . Do you feel like, for example, when, lets say when you lost, and you got down, and you really got down on yourself, did it affect your sense of who you were, in relation to other men, to the world . And do you feel now that youre not playing tennis, are you comfortable with who you are now and with your accomplishments, or do you feel now youre looking for Something Else to make you feel that wonderful high that you got, that a lot of people use drugs to get but you got in that way . That is detailed question. I will do my best to answer it. Thank you, i appreciate the compliment that i was a little different. I may have felt different at times based on path i chose, going to college, going to Public Schools growing up, playing on High School Tennis team, being different than players focused on tennis their whole lives, not having as much outside of tennis. The losses did affect me, especially early on. When i first got on tour, i had a tough time. I was losing way more than i ever did. In juniors i won a lot. In college i won a lot. You get to the pros you lose a lot. That take as toll on you. That is a big jump for any player. Early on in my career, as i think a lot of Young Players do, they put part of or all of their selfworth in the number next to their name. Im ranked 32 this week. So im 32nd best player in the world. That is what my value is in this this world. When i was 19, 20, 2 is years 21 years old, i put too much stock. I gained perspective going to the Shriners Hospital i still felt prey to that trap. As i got older i realized one of the things absolute best things that happened to me i was injured, ill, home a lot, me taking time to appreciate my friend and family. And for so long, tennis tour is almost never ending. Traveling from january to november. Get a couple weeks off. Youre right back to training. So i had a lot of friends, but i still didnt know what their daytoday life was. I would check in back home a little bit. When i was home and saw what they did every day at work, i knew, soandso at work was being a jerk. Copying machine was broken. Whatever was going on in their life, the minute minutia of the. I was excited to see them when they came home, hang out, go out for a beer or dinner. I realized friend down there cooking me dinner, taking me out there for a beer, getting me to smile. Didnt matter when i won a tennis match they would be my friend. That made a huge difference in my life, rest of my career, i would still get down in a loss. Im extremely competitive. I still want to win pretty much everything i do, which bothers my wife a little bit. That is a whole another story. I really do want to win. But much shorter win downed feeling. I have it in the back of my mind, i have enough people that care about me if i forget a hit a forehand tomorrow, i have a group to be around and close with. I care about them. That meant a lot to me. That is part of the reason why i may have seemed a little different. There is a lot of tennis players dont have that support. They have people they play tennis with, people through tennis, thats it. Maybe sponsors. Maybe tournament directors. That is about it. I had friends since i know nine, 10 years old, care about me. Some joked they didnt follow the tennis season, rankings, anything. Ask me most what basic questions, didnt know what tournament i was at. I loved that feeling. I stopped putting so much cell worth in my ranking. That sort of segues when i retired. When i am now, i dont have the high. I dont have 20,000 people screaming my name at u. S. Open. Im perfectly comfortable with it. My transition was so much easier. When i retired i had one daughter and another was on the way. So my wife had been so good when i was traveling, she did lions share of the work with our first daughter. The day after i retired, she said, here you go. So i became more of a involved parent day i retired, ever since then that fills any void i could ever imagine. Makes me more tired than at end of the day, than six hours of tennis court could have been of the fulfills me with so much more of a rewarding day, than any tournament i won, any trophy i won. So it is easiest transition i could imagine. The other stuff filled my days, whether commentating, whether working with small businesses, whether coaching a few kids here and there, doing everything i do to fill my days aside from the kids, it has been wonderful. It has been great to have time to figure out what i like, what i enjoy, but the kids are what make it so easy to have that transition and not miss tennis at all because i am much happier watching them play tennis or run around the backyard. Transition isnt as difficult. I dont worry about it as much anymore. Before we get to the next question, how many more majors does roger have in the tank, same thing for serena, if you had to take a fest . Roger, i would set overunder at two. Serena before we get to serena, why are you setting it at two . Because i think i think he is favorite for wimbledon this year. I think he can win that. I think he can win one more, whether u. S. Open this year, wimbledon next year. Why do you think more than two . Father time has ever lost. If someone beats, roger will. He is 35, about to be 36. Eventually he loses half a step. It will be slower. Injury takes longer for him to come back from. I think it is just numbers. And serena . As many as she wants a number. I dont know. It is crazy to think of. A lot of people counted her out at times. Would i say, i cant speak from experience what it is like to have a baby then come back and be successful athletically. Kim cleiseterk, won u. S. Open a year after had birth. Serena, wouldnt put it past here. Father time. She is 35, to think she could play at 38, 39. She is greatest of all time, i think that is pushing it physically. Have you hit with her. I played hoffman cup with her and couple times out in l. A. We happened to be there for the espys. I hit with her a few types. How does she play against her . She is the most competitive person i have ever known. That including michael jordan. All the stories true about how competitive he is, she is exactly the same. She doesnt want to lose, no matter what. Middle of summer, in l. A. , it was hot. I was working out for three out of five at u. S. Open. Serena, weve been hitting, great, i will do extra running drills. I will do it too. Serena, you dont have to do it. No i will do it. Anything you do i do the drill too. Doesnt make sense the way you play. He will do everything you do. She did it. She didnt complain about it. If we did everything, hitting my forehand hard, bring it on. She did want to do everything i was doing and did not want to lose anything. I was so impressed with her. To this day im impressed with her to watch her pray. Amazing compliment, mentally she is stronger than many of the other women. In my opinion toughest mentally and toughest physically. That made her the best of all time. Next question. Lady back here. Next two rose. I can speak loudly. Need it for cspan,. Absolutely. That is little bit after segue what you were just saying. I wanted to ask you, what in your opinion makes for hand faster . What helpses us win . You were prepared to lose toking aing agassi and nadal, do you feel when there is something we dont have to lose we win or perform our best . What is your opinion from an athlete for personal perspective. Just to clarify, i didnt prepare to lose. Oh, okay. [laughter]. I knew it was a possibility. Maybe whether we accept we might or letting go. You have to accept you may lose every time. Two people walk on the court every time. One of them is going home unhappy. That is the way it is. You think about that every single draw. 128 start, 64 gone on the first day. Something we have role lies and be realistic about. Idea of having nothing to lose is definitely a mental trick you can play on yourself. I havent spoken personally, roger nadal, they have a way to trick themselves into being hungry. I had to do that at four in the world or top 10 in the world for part of my career, a lot of them are pushing wanting to be there. You have the one pressure on. I would have to trick myself, i want to show i could beat this guy even ranged 50 in the world, i want to prove to the world i belong where i am, even higher. I would force myself to have that attitude. I think it means a lot. It can help you. When youre protecting, something athletes talk about, playing not to lose, that is a curse. Youre going to end up playing a little too tentative. For an athlete to be tentative. Youre reacting in half a second. Reacting to 150 mileanhour serves. You cant play tentatively. You cant guess and secondguess yourself, not be sure an confident. You have to have confidence. That is part of reason athletes get fair or unfair treatment being called arrogant. You have to go out there to be confident. You have to feel like you can hit this point and hit gamewinning shot. If you dont feel like that, with you will get weeded out pretty quickly. If you play not to lose, you will lose. If we have a question over there please to the lady. To you. As the mic is passing back, martina navratilova, have you ever hit with martina before getting on air, have you ever hit with march martina. I played team tennis with her long time ago. What is that like . 58 majors, mixed doubles and significance gels. Some people call her greatest next to serena. She is very special person as well. What does she like to play . You see her now, i dont know old she is. 58. I dont want to get it wrong. Whatever age she at, she still plays, plays with a passion. Played in senior champions, whatever they call it for the french open. She was upset she lost in the finals. She really takes it that seriously. She is a bit of a perfectionist. She is still out there to prove something. You could see, i was never around her at height of her career but you can see what was burning inside of her. The passion she had for the game. Still does. As commentator you sense how much she really loves a match that keeps going longer. Some commentators might not want to be there for a really long match she enjoys that feeling and talking about tennis and enjoys the battle and seeing great tennis. Yes. Thank you. I had go questions. One i wanted to know what questions you were, if you had a backup plan and studying at harvard . I also wanted to know from your experience being assaulted and wrongfully detained if you have or are doing any future activism for students in schools and teaching people how to avoid being shot or further assaulted . James, leadin into that, maybe talk about, that is basically how this book, one of the ways this book came about. I will talk about this and about the book. My backup plan at harvard was studying economics, and i actually dont know if i would have stuck with that. I was taking it because, well, my brother was there. He was taking economics. He told me it was best way, he was way smarter than me. It was much easier for him. I had to work hard at it but did okay, but i didnt really enjoy it a ton. I dont know how many people enjoy economics. Some that do, they become extremely successful. Theyre the ones that write check, write those checks that all athletes are cashing. But i, i think i would have switched to sociology or africanamerican studies. If i do go back and finish, that is most likely what it will be, that is what im more interested in than economics. My backup plan would have been possibly go to business school, possibly advertising, possibly marketing, Something Like that. I thought about being an agent. Seeing how hard my agent works and how hard a time i gave him, i shouldnt have done that. Im glad my forehand kept getting better. I didnt have a set plan, if i could i wanted to be involved in sports, maybe marketing. The other question about, yeah, after my incident, i have, we started a fellowship announced last week. Fellowship with new york city, civilian Complaint Review board. There will be a fellow for the next six years, two years at a time. Totally involved in the types of cases that i had where there is minor injuries, not, not death, not severe injuries but over 50 last year were not seen to completion. People were just, seemed like the city or Police Department is waiting them out, waiting them out. They went away for lack of interest or not enough resources to pay for a lawyer to help them. There will be a fellow on staff to handle those kind of cases. That is their exclusive job. Theyre not beholden to the ccrb. Theyre not trying to climb the corporate ladder. They have a twoyear fellowship. Start career as lawyer after that. I hope that resolves a lot of cases. Helps in terms of police accountability. In terms of activism, i want to speak out much more of accountability for our police because i think it is something that will do a service to society and also to the Police Officers that do the job the right way. I always hated, i dont like using word hate, i teach my kids not to use that, i shouldnt either. I always disliked people that would call me a hero. That would call other athletes heroes for doing something they love. I do use that term to talk about firemen, policemen, military service, that do the job the right way. And i think the ones that do it the wrong way, one using the badge as a shield protecting them, allowing them to be bullies, allowing them to act inappropriately, that takes away from ones doing it the right way. It erode trust community should have with them. I do want to speak about them being held accountable. It really rising up, entire police force, rising up our trust as a community with them. I want to speak out with them. And i hope to speak to families of victims of police brutality. My first goal, ask them what i can do to help . I know my reach is only so far. But, anything i can do, whether it just be shoulder to cry on or someone to talk to about the experiences, that is all it will be. Standing at a protest trying to get laws enacted or changed, i will do that. I know transparency laws are ones are a big fight. Kind of a big issue with the city right now because i still dont know what punishment the officer that did that to me received because, it is called 50a. It is an amendment saying that they dont have to release disciplinary hearings or the discipline of Police Officers, even to the people involved. So he could have gotten one vacation day taken off. And i dont know. That is something i think should be changed. I think as society you deserve to know what Police Officers have done in terms of that kind of discipline, if they have a past history. If this is a pattern that theyre dealing with. I want to fight to help to make things more transparent, more accountability. That is what led me to the book. Having that that experience, wanting to speak out more. Wanting to help. Made me realize a lot of athletes do that, use the voice for fight for quality, for civil justice. For equal pay. For lgbt issues, im proud of athletes that have done that i want to exemplify those, positive stories in sport as opposed to negative headlines in sports and too often sensationalized. That sells papers. I would rather sell a book about a positive ways athletes made in society. I feel like they have. They have a special connection with their fans. They have ability to enact change in society. That started the talk about this book. Are you going to be using a civil remedy . So i dropped myself case to enact the fellowship. That was the agreement. I was also amazed, being in new york now, when it happened, how many new yorkers came up to me, said i hope you sue them, get tons of all i could think of. Youre a new yorker. That is coming out of your tax money, right . If you want to give me 10 say i did it. I didnt ever want to do that. Ive been extremely fortunate in my life. Extremely lucky. I got paid to do what i love. So i didnt want to take anything that i didnt feel like i deserved or i earned. I would rather use that to help others this. Is at citys dime, theyre paying 65 or 75 a thousand dollars a year salary out of law school, all full benefits. In the end it will cost the city well over 600,000 for them to fund the fellowship. I would much rather see money going to someone working on behalf of those that dont have voice that i have, then it going for me to have a extra golf trip or something that i dont need. I wasnt thinking of civil remedy as more punishing somebody who did up for natalie the city unfortunately the city paid out those civil settlements. It doesnt translate to punishment for the officer. The officer in question that did that to me has had two settlements already paid out. He is still on the force. He received no actual discipline from the force for those. So i didnt, i didnt see it as a real punishment. And i dont think by that pattern doesnt seem like he has learned his lesson so. Thank you. Rain, on that note, james has kindly agreed to sign everyones books. I believe there are extra books outside. Its a phenomenal book, if you want to purchase for family or friends, i urge you to. Please, join me in thanking james for being so honest and brilliant. Thank you. [applause] here is look authors recently featured on booktvs after words, our weekly author program. Suzie hanson weighed in on americas global standing. David osborne examined the Charter School movement. Offered his out look for future of public education. Harvard university professor, Danielle Allen discusses how mass incarceration impacted her family. In coming weeks on after words, former radio host, msnbc contributor Charles Sykes will provide his thoughts on the conservative movement in america. Craig shirley discusses life an political career of newt gingrich. Judge john newman will share challenges he faced in 45year career on the bench. Art levine reports on the men tall health industry. I opened my initial story with a person let out of a facility over the objection of the psychiatrist but the facility wanted to save money. He had a dream he wanted to send his father to heaven by killing him with a baseball bat. I profiled this example of the untreated. Then, then i learned, this is all in the same time frame. Then i learned through the good offices of one of the countrys great reformers, judge stephen lifeman, who really changed. I know him well. Judge lifeman gave me tour of modern day hell, the ninth floor of the Miamidade County jail. It is, my original article had photos but the photos, even narrative feature writing simply does not do justice to the horror of what you saw. So it is my view, it is not even 19th century mental health. It is bedlam Second Quarter cat 1700s. There were mostly minorities. Mostly untreated, refusing their medication or not treated properly, who were naked, surrounded by blue cloth they couldnt use to rip or kill themselves. They were spouting gibber risch or locked gibberish or behind mental cells with rusted beds. Judge lifeman told me at the time, makes you wonder who is crazier . Are we crazy or the system crazy this is existing. After words airs on booktv every saturday at 10 00 p. M. , and sunday 9 00 p. M. Eastern. You can watch all previous after words programs on our website, booktv booktv. Org. They had this idea, where they would, they did a marketing gimmick, created fictitious serials, and pitched themselves as air bed and breakfast. They obama os, for obama and they were cheeky and funny and quirky and sold them for 40 a box as collectors editions. They seeded them to the press. They thought the press would like that. They were right, the press ate it up. They ended up making 30 from the cereal. That didnt turn the company around. Brians mother called him at one point, i dont get i, are you a Cereal Company now . He didnt know how to answer that question. And that was the most depressing thing. Technically they were making a lot more money on cereals than on the business. But ultimately one of their advisors said you twice have to apply for ycompenator, a company in silicon valley. Were launched. We dont need to go to them. He looked a them, michael sibell you guys are dying. Going to ycome minute nate tore. Because paal gram who ran it at time, was tough critic. He didnt think it was a good idea. What is wrong with people . They stay in peoples homes . That is crazy. On the way out they mentioned they sold all this cereal. He said what . If you can convince people to buy cereal for 40 a box, you can convince to slime in other peoples air mattresses. Advice he gave them, which was, go to your users, shower them with love. They didnt have many users. But ones they have were all here in new york. They didnt think about doing that, coming to visit their users. They sat with them hours on end, watched them use the product. They didnt know how to post photos very well. They didnt know how to write listings in a way that made them appealing. They sat with them helped them merchandise their listings in better way, dressed them up, gussied them up a little bit. Doing that, they saw numbers in few weeks, double, double from very low base. That turned numbers around. From there it was long journey. That is when the turning point hit. Cspan where history unfolds daily. In 1979 cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies. And it is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider