By Bill Simons
You couldn’t miss the buzz. Michael Jordan was in the house. Bathed in white, perhaps the greatest athlete of all time was on hand at New York’s Ashe Stadium. Just like Tiger Woods did a while ago, Jordan sat court-side to get a dose of Federerian magic. After Roger Federer‘s easy first-round win, I did my best imitation of a salmon swimming upstream as I wove through a formidable gauntlet of five burly handlers who were escorting MJ down a mezzanine corridor. Though speed-walking, Jordan was gracious as we had this fast-break exchange.
INSIDE TENNIS: What impresses you the most about Roger?
MICHAEL JORDAN: He’s so smooth, man. I love the way he moves on court. He’s so incredibly smooth.
IT: And how do you compare the incredible athleticism we saw out there tonight with the fabulous athleticism we so often see in basketball?
MJ: Well, they’re very similar.
IT: They both have a lot of quick footwork, lots of hand-eye coordination, plenty of grace?
MJ: Absolutely. They have a lot of similarities. They’re the same type of exercise. You use your body similarly in both tennis and basketball.
IT: So, Michael, allow me to ask how you did in that “Beginning Tennis” class you took in your first semester as a freshman at the University of North Carolina.
MJ: Yeah, I did alright.
IT: And finally, we’re going to be seeing Serena soon. Quite a lady. Your thoughts?
MJ: Oh, she’s confident—very confident.
And with that, MJ and his security pack veered a sharp right into the players lounge.
But when we told Federer about Jordan’s comments about him, Roger was thrilled. “He was one of the smoothest movers out there,” he observed. “So for him to give me that compliment means a lot. Meeting him yesterday for the first time was a big deal … It was a special sort of last 24 hours-plus.”
We asked Roger what made Jordan special. “His longevity,” Fed replied. “The way he made it look easy, his will to win, wanting to be the best, delivering under pressure, being a superstar in a team sport, carrying his team for so many years. There’s so many things that he did well, and [he] represented the game really nicely … [Now] he wanted to know about tennis. How I prepare, how much I play, where I go next … You exchange each other’s ideas about your sports … He was just my hero of all sports. Besides [Stefan] Edberg and [Boris] Becker being my tennis idols, I had Jordan as my all sports idol…When I was younger he was really big on German TV. Every Sunday, they had unbelievable NBA highlights. That’s where I saw him doing all his moves … I was into him. He was such an incredible athlete … That’s what inspired me.”
As for comparing hoops and tennis, Roger said, “In terms of movement, it is actually quite similar. You have to go side to side, move forward, backwards, be able to stop on a dime and redirect. Maybe we don’t jump as much. We slide more … It’s more extreme side to side…So we can relate. They’re just all bigger and stronger. I guess we need more endurance, where they need a lot of explosive[ness] … I always enjoyed playing myself.”
To close, we asked, “Hey Roger, how’s your jump shot?”
“Not great,” he confided, looking a bit sheepish. “It’s okay. Looks good, but the results were not the best.”
Of course, not all tennis players have had the best opinions on Jordan. Martina Navratilova once asked, with some indignation, “Have you ever seen him make a statement about anything Have you seen Tiger Woods make a statement about anything? No, because they want to be marketable to everybody. They don’t want to offend anybody.”
(Additional reporting by Lucia Hoffman.)
