It Is Not Just The More Talented

I Take The Good With The Bad, And I Try To Face Them Both With As Much Calm And Dignity As I Can Muster.

Start Where You Are, Use What You Have.

The Best Way To Judge A Life Is To Ask Yourself, "did I Make The Best Use Of The Time I Had?

There Were Times When I Asked Myself Whether I Was Being Principled Or Simply A Coward.... I Was Wrapped In The Cocoon Of Tennis Early In Life, Mainly By Blacks Like My Most Powerful Mentor, Dr. Robert Walter Johnson Of Lynchburg, Virginia. They Insisted That I Be Unfailingly Polite On The Court, Unfalteringly Calm And Detached, So That Whites Could Never Accuse Me Of Meanness. I Learned Well. I Look At Photographs Of The Skinny, Frail, Little Black Boy That I Was In The Early 1950s, And I See That I Was My Tennis Racquet And My Tennis Racquet Was Me. It Was My Rod And My Staff.

I Strongly Believe The Black Culture Spends Too Much Time, Energy And Effort Raising, Praising, And Teasing Our Black Children About The Dubious Glories Of Professional Sports.