James, tell me to kick start it, what happens when youre standing outside the grand hyatt many front of the public in front of the public, and a Police Officer comes up to you out of the clear blue, slams you to the ground, handcuffs you and, luckily, it was recorded by a camera . What happened and what are you thinking at the time . Yeah. At the time its a little strange how life works. But about three days earlier, i have a web site, and i know im still a dinosaur, so its before twitter and facebook and instagram, but i still have a web site. And the person that runs it for me sends me a lot of the fan mail or emails that he thinks i would be entered in. A friend of mine from high school who i was just talking about, a wrestler freshman year in high school, and the seniors used to playfully beat me up. One of the guys that was a senior that i knew pretty well had written in. I hasnt i had lost touch with him. Wrote in to the web site, i know its been 20 years, but we were catching up and were talking about you and were proud of you. Hope everythings going well, hopefully one day well see you. I thought, oh, thats a nice message. Three days later standing in front of the grand hyatt and someone thats shaved head, kind of muscular just like my friend from high School Starts running towards me, and im thinking to myself and if you watch the video, because you dont need to go watch because ive seen it a million times, im actually smiling because im like what are the odds in this guy found me three days after he wrote in to me. And i dont even to have time for it to sink in before im on the ground. And i said thats not the way we used to joke and wrestle in high school. [laughter] i realized how serious this was because im now on the ground and pretty scared, and hes got his knee in my back and putting the cuffs on me and saying dont say a word. At that point then my mind immediately shifts to what id seen in the media, what id seen with misunderstandings or perceived misunderstandings with Police Officers and what could happen, how that could end tragically. So the first words out of my mouth were im complying 100 . Whatever you say to do, ill do. And even though he had never said officer, never said nypd, never said under arrest, nothing like that, he had his knee in my back and telling me to shut my mouth. I had a feeling this being noon in the middle of midtown manhattan, i didnt think he was brazen enough to mug me in front of this many people, so i did assume it was a Police Officer. He walked me away, and i said, look, youve made a mistake, i have my credentials in my back pocket. Please take that. Its evidence im not involved in whatever you think it is im doing. Just said well see, well see. Eventually, finally, the fifth officer on the scene was the one that identified me and said they had made a mistake. It was pretty shocking, and like i said, its funny how life works because i dont know what would have happened if i really thought that person was coming at me with dangerous intentions, because my instinct would have been to put up my arms, defend myself, and had i done that, the results would have been a lot worse. I wouldnt have had a bruise on my elbow or my side, my head might have been slammed into the ground, and then i think about what would have happened if my brother was there or my family or my friends. Since he never said officer, if i had a friend there, my friends are crazy. [laughter] if someone attacks me, theyre going to attack him. And i dont know what would have happened to them. So i think how lucky i am that i was there by myself. James, some others would have approached this with rage. Why didnt you . Well, i try to generally be calm and collected and think about the best solution. And it sometimes is, works well for me. Sometimes my wife says it doesnt work well, i need to be a little more emotional. And this time i was trying to think about, and being an athlete, being a guy, i think it was kind of the way i was raised maybe, okay, i can take this. It was something that happened to me, im not going to complain about it, im not going to say anything until i spoke to my wife, and she said what if this had happened to me. And immediately it kind of brought tears to my eyes, and i thought about what would happen if it happened to her, my brother, someone i really carried about and they didnt have the same voice that i do. So that moment i decided now i am going to do something about this. And it actually spurred on a little bit of rage because i said, you know, i can take this, but a lot of people cant and shouldnt. And no one should have the take this. It made me think i need to the act, and thats when i decided im going to go to the press. That was before i knew there was a video. And i think everything about this changed with the fact that there was a video. Because if there wasnt a video, it would have been my word against five Police Officer, and before they knew there was a video, the comments they made were they were investigating whether there was Excessive Force and i wasnt in handcuffs, and the whole encounter was less than two minutes. So that would have been their story. And i dont even blame their superior officers, because thats what these officers told them. There should be no reason for them not to believe those arresting officers. But they were flat out lying. So having the video made it so that my story was obviously corroborated, which was the truth. How could sports bring us together . Well, sports, ive always felt like, can bridge gaps. Language barriers, religious bare barriers, any sort of wealth inequality, it can be such an equal playing field. You can get the u. S. Open so many different ways. You can get to the super bowl or Major League Baseball in so many different ways, but you have a respect for each other oftentimes. I mean, the tennis locker room i may not agree with a lot of the people in there this something that might be political, something that might be cultural, something that might be religious, but i have a ton of respect for how they got there, because i know how much hard work went into getting there. I know how much they sacrificed to get there. So there is always that bond with sports. And then from a basic and early age, i see it in my kids already. My kids are 5 and 3. My 5yearold can be shy and not know someone, but then they do hopscotch together or play something together, and they immediately have a bond, and she openeds up and becomes opens up and becomes so much more personal. I think tennis, sports in general can just create that friendship, that partnership, and most sports, team sports, you get that camaraderie. You get a feeling of working together. Theres so many lessons you can learn. With golf you learn spotsmanship, honor sportsmanship, calling penalties on yourself. So i think it can teach you a lot about life. James, on the flip side, as the number one u. S. Ranked tennis player, what is an athletes responsibility to the community . Well, i mean, i only borrowed that title for a little while from andy roddick. I think the responsibility and ive said this a lot, tennis is such an individual sport. The responsibilitying is to be true to yourself. I think it would have shine through if you see pete sampras acting like, you know, andre agassi being a showman. I think you have to be yourself out on the court, and i always respect when people are themselves. And thats why i talk about in the booking if something really does push you and it burns you and its a passion for you. Then, yeah, speak out. And you have a voice. Understand what that means and what effect youre going to have on people. But if you dont have that passion, if you dont have something that, you know, makes you feel like you want to speak out, i dont think you need to do it just to do it. You shouldnt have to, you shouldnt feel the need to speak out for some cause if youre uneducated on that cause. If its not something that really meanses anything to you. And thats i dont think theres any athletes jobbed to do it, but i think its their right to do it, and i think they should feel empowered to do it, and i think they should recognize that they have more of a voice hand most people do. Than most people do. Especially nowadays if youre the sixth bench player on the warriors, youve got a million followers on twitter. Is with 140 characters, you can make a strong statement and have an effect on a lot of people that are following you. Why force serena and venus williams, the journey has been so hard for equal pay. It takes a while for us men to catch up, i think, and listen to the smart women that we should be listening to. You know, equal pay to such a big step forward with Billie Jean King, we talk about that in the book in 1973, her battle of the sexes with bobby riggs. And i learned more about it in speaking to her for this book. And that was a big step forward. It was a big step forward for tennis in general, and people a lot of times dont want to give credit to the fact that Billie Jean King made a huge difference in mens tennis as well because she had so many millions of eyeballs on that match, so we should all be paying her a debt of gratitude. Venus and serena took it a step further. Venus was the first to win wimbledon and get paid the same as Roger Federer when they won it. The i credit the people that are fighting for that, and theres still equality to be had in so many other areas, but females are hopefully catching up. They should with be catching up even quicker, i wish they were, but it takes us a little while to recognize their greatness. But even if you take serena and Maria Sharapova, why does Maria Sharapova make so much more than serena on sponsorship . Thats a good question. You should ask nike. Thats something thats always been frustrating to me. Serenas possibly the best athlete of our generation without qualifiers, without saying male, female, black, white, anything. Shes one of the best athletes of our time and shes won three times as many majors as and shes a strong, powerful role model. Im proud, if my daughters grow up and watch her and want to be like her, so i think she should be the highest paid female athlete in the world, but she isnt. Thats something madison avenue decides, i wish i was the one pulling the strings and had the ability to write and sign those checks but what do you think madison avenues thinking is on that . [laughter] i mean, Maria Sharapova has, i guess, if you want to say the look that theyre looking for . And shes been marketable. Shes sold a lot of, she sold a lot of cars, watches, clothes, shoes, whatever it is that shes endorsing. Shes sold a lot of them. I also dont want to seem like im begrudging her, because she deserves everything that she gets. But i just think serena deserves even more than she get, and shes had to fight so hard to get what shes gotten. Why do you think there are so few africanamerican tennis players of the total percentage besides serena, venus, madison, sloan and a couple of others . Why so few of the percentage . Well, i think, for one, it still has the stigma of being a country club sport. So its not often the coolest sport to be playing as a kid. I cant say it got me a ton of street cred when i showed up at school my racquet bag. [laughter] so i think its fighting that stigma a little bit. And then theres the issue of the if you want to have role models, you look at the effect serena and venus have had, and its already being seen with sloan and Taylor Townes zenned townsend. Theres females following them and inspire youngs. Right now a kid picks up a basketball, and he wants to be steph curry, lebron james. He sees a role model, sees someone thats having success. And for a young africanamerican kid right now, hes not seeing a ton of that on tv on the mens side. On the womens side theres still serena and venus, you know, having crind bl success incredible success this late in their careers. Its a whole other topic, how amazing they are. But if you dont have those role models, its tough to look up and say i want to be like them. I hope you see that trickle down of Young Players growing up and having the talent and the work ethic and succeeding. Does it bother you when people label you as an africanamerican tennis player or instead of a tennis player . They dont say rafael nadal, caucasian tennis player. [laughter] if you think about it, they dont do that. Only if youre africanamerican, they give you the title africanamerican. Does it bother you and did it bother you on the tour . It didnt bother me. It was more for me, i actually thought of it as a challenge. I think a lot of people try to find their own ways to challenge themselves, and for me i took it as i want to be good enough that they just talk about my tennis. And that was part of the reason i cut my hair too. I was kind of the crazy kid with the wacky hair and dread locks, and, you know, pretty abnormal in the sport of tennis. So, you know what . I want to succeed and i want them to just talk about my tennis. When they said hes the first africanamerican to do this, the first africanamerican since mel washington, since arthur ashe, i wanted them to have results they said hes the first to do this, or hes the only american to do this and not always have to qualify it with africanamerican. It was a challenge for me to say i want to do something where they dont have to put that in to qualify how im doing or how well im doing. I just made it as my own kind of personal goal. You were ranked number one in the united states. What does it take to be ranked number one in the world . Well, number one in the states took, i mean, it was my best year ever in 2006 on the court when i won five titles. It was, it went by in a blur. It was two years after i had my father passed away and a broken neck in the span of about three months. So thinking about coming back to play tennis at all seem like a monumental task. And two years later the perspective i had, how happy i was on the court just to be playing, i was in as good of shape as i could, and it still took luck, good scheduling, great matches at big moments and all of that to have to come into place for me to be ranked ahead of andy roddick whos about to go into the hall of fame and one of my good friends on tour. I knew he was, you know, he was happy for me to get it, but he was also chomping to get that number one title back, and he did a few months later. It was a ton of fun. Its a tremendous honor, especially when i look at the people that are on that list that have been the number oneranked americans. People think about Michael Chang that also got into the hall of fame, and he was never the number oneranked american. Always had such strong american players. Its not an easy task. But you had also a ranking of number four in the world. Yeah. To hit number one, what do you think the difference between number four and number one is . Its bigger than it seems. Its bigger than just three spots. You know, its kind of like in golf where it says to get from an 18 handicap to a scratch handicap is easier to do than get from a scratch to a pro. And to get from 100 in the world to the 50 in the world was really tough. To get from 50 in the world to 10 in the world, monumentally tougher. 10 to 5, darn near impossible. 4 to 1, for me, was impossible. [laughter] some guy named roger kept taking all the titles. Its just the amount it took for me to be consistent to be four in the world, it made me more impressed for how much consistency it took to be one in the world. You cant have a bad couple of months. You have to put up result after result after result and be playing your best at all the grand slams, the masters series. The other tough part is youre being you have a target on your back the entire year. Every single match you play, andre agassi said it when i was first coming up. I said how did so and so play against you . No one plays bad against me. They have no fear and they want to beat you because theyre going to be able to tell their grandkids they beat andre agassi. And that thats the way everyone felt playing roger that year. To go out there and try to match their intensity every single day, its very, very difficult. Its why a lot of People Struggle the first time they get up into the top ten or get any sort of success on tour. They take it for granted how hard they had worked and how hungry they were to get there, and they fall back a little bit and realize, wait a minute, these guys are just as listening hungry just as hungry, and for roger to have sustained that for as long as he did being number one in the world, its not an easy task. Takes a special person. In 2011 some people would say you broke the laws of physics. You hit the ball, a forehand, 125 miles an hour. Yeah. [laughter] how is that possible . Many most people cant serve, even a lot of pros cant serve 125 miles an hour. Howd you hit a ball, a forehand at 125 . Even today many of the top players if they hit 90 miles an hour, everybody is blown away, a forehand. Whatd you do that day . Were you eating, did you eat your wheaties beforehand . [laughter] close your eyes and hope it goes in. Forehand was always my weapon, and it was a match point. I always get a special thrill playing at the u. S. Open. I grew up close to here, all my friends were here, my family would be there. So i had tons of accent lin at the u. S. Open adrenaline at the u. S. Open throughout the whole match, and it was match point. I just pretty much just like a pitcher and a batter, a batter sitting on a 30 pitch and waiting for it to be right in that one spot, i just kind of had a feeling it was going to serve, where it was going to be, and he happened to swing exactly where i was looking. I swung as hard as i could, and the ball ended up being about three feet from him, and he just walked up to the net and shook my hand. [laughter] it was pretty exciting and fun. Thats definitely one of the most memorable endings of a match for me, how excited i was and to be in new york and that crowd going craze sate the crazy at the end. People ask if i miss playing tennis. I dont miss a lot of the hard work, i dont miss the travel, but that feeling at the end of a match and the crowds appreciation, thats something that ill always cherish. Talking about the u. S. Open and the 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, hes going to win many majors. You had a phenomenal career. You made the quarters of majors. Why do you think you never won a major . Is it because somebody one word, roger. [laughter] thought so. I mean, 2005 it would have been kind of a storybook. That was right when i came back from shingles, from breaking my neck and played andre in the quarters and would have gotten a chance to play robbie in