mac gilbert feud

[Superbrat4Ever]

Why did Mac hate Gilbert? Was it his style of play? His lack of shotmaking ability? Even by Gilbert's own admission he was a talentless player. His family even questioned his decision to turn pro. "Er, Brad," they said, "you're not that good!!!" Agassi was of the same opinion. Yet the man did win 20 singles titles, was ranked No 4 in the world, so he couldnt have been all that bad. So what precisely was Mac's beef.

[Jeebs]

Gilbert won ugly.

[schang70]

According to Mac in his bio, Gilbert was a pusher and one of the most negative players he has ever played. Sounds like to me Gilbert did whatever it took to win within the rules of the game, and sometimes this ****es people off including Mac.

[big ted]

mcenroe was an talented artist and gilbert was a junkballer. total opposites. when they played at the masters in the beginning of '86, mcenroe had a meltdown oncourt, yelled at gilbert on a changeover "you dont belong on the same court as me!" , ended up losing that match, and then took a 6 month sabbatical from tennis to try to get his head straight.

i think mcenroes mindset was in such bad shape at the time, whoever he would have played, he would have taken time off. he didnt win a major the previous year, lost the no1 ranking to lendl, and had a very bad performance a month earlier in australian open. he didnt even want to play it but i think i read borg convinced him to go down there to try to get his top ranking back.

[Moose Malloy]

I think its a stretch to call this a 'feud' since Mac hated pretty much everyone on tour.

But having seen Gilbert play many times, his on court demeanor was among the most irritating of any player I've seen(which makes it funny when he criticizes todays players during his commentary for getting negative etc)
In terms of bad body language and negative comments, Murray has nothing on Gilbert. Gilbert would essentially comment after every point he lost(sometimes loudly) "you should have hit it there!" etc, etc.
Do you see how that would sort of be annoying to an opponent?

and lots of people had issues with Gilbert because of this(not his 'ugly' game, like his book would lead you to believe), he was not popular with other players for the most part.

David Wheaton almost got into a fight with him oncourt. Muster hated him(and said Andre became a ***** after Gilbert became his coach)

And Gilbert doesn't come off well in Andre's book(seemed like he was always trying to get Andre to hate his opponent - like the Becker stuff)
And he wanted Andre to take a walkover over Peter at '94 Lipton instead of postponing the final for an hour so Pete could get treatment. What a nice guy. This new image of the smiling(I never saw him smile when he played) village idiot who seems like one of the guys when he works for espn is nothing like his image when he was on tour.

yelled at gilbert on a changeover "you dont belong on the same court as me!"

There is a long list of players who Mac said that to(or variations of)
I don't think many would remember Gilbert today if he didn't become a coach & write that book(and most of the forum seems to have been born 1985 and later, what could they possibly know about Gilbert as a player)

[JGads]

Originally Posted by big ted

mcenroe was an talented artist and gilbert was a junkballer. total opposites. when they played at the masters in the beginning of '86, mcenroe had a meltdown oncourt, yelled at gilbert on a changeover "you dont belong on the same court as me!" , ended up losing that match, and then took a 6 month sabbatical from tennis to try to get his head straight.

i think mcenroes mindset was in such bad shape at the time, whoever he would have played, he would have taken time off. he didnt win a major the previous year, lost the no1 ranking to lendl, and had a very bad performance a month earlier in australian open. he didnt even want to play it but i think i read borg convinced him to go down there to try to get his top ranking back.

Somewhat comforting that even the greats had their own frustrations with junkballers/pushers.

[Xavier G]

I remember hearing talk of McEnroe not liking Gilbert back then. Mac lost the plot so often and maybe Gilbert annoyed him more than most. I could kind of admire Gilbert for getting the most out of his game and working hard. If only John had more of a focus and work-ethic too, because to go from an absolute peak in 1984 at the age of 25 playing some of the greatest-ever tennis to squander the next few years basically, was a bit crazy.

[Power Player]

Originally Posted by JGads

Somewhat comforting that even the greats had their own frustrations with junkballers/pushers.

LOL..good point.

When I was a kid BG played a tournament near me. I hated the guy, hated his ugly Fox racquet and taunted him subtly the entire match. He got p1sst and starting thumping balls at the signs underneath where I was sitting. but since I was not bothering the match and not being obvious, plus being around 10 years old there was nothing he could do but deal with it. Still remember that dude glaring at me..lol. It was great. for the record he was playing (then unknown) Mal Washington. A super nice guy who was my favorite player behind Agassi.

Mal won the match and I got to meet him afterwards.

I don't think anyone like gilbert on tour, but thats ok. It won him matches. He was a pro level version of "that guy" who annoys us all on the tennis courts.

[dje31]

BG doesn't belong on TV as a commentator either. Where Courier generally seems to be improving, Gilbert is getting worse.

[NLBwell]

I don't think Gilbert is getting worse as a commentator. I think, like many guys commenting on matches, he's said it all before over the years and is no longer interesting.

I'm sure he is a nicer guy now than when he was on the tour, as are McEnroe, Lendl, and most of they guys as they aged.

[Tshooter]

I like BG as a commentator. I find him and Fowler the most enjoyable.

However, BG has what I assume is a verbal tic that is getting worse. And because he strikes me as the type that might read an on online board, I'm going to mention it:

He frequently prefaces what he is saying with "to me." It's no where near as annoying as other tics/mannerisms of some other commentators. Nevertheless, yes, Brad, when someone speaks it's generally understood they are expressing their own views unless they indicate otherwise. Please stop saying "to me."

Other than that, I give him an A. I give Fowler an A. Together they are an A+.

[Tshooter]

"When I was a kid BG played a tournament near me.'

When I was a kid BG played near me too - in a small USO warmup tourney.

I remember watching him practice with some other guys and he would thump the ball an say "Connors !" Just like me and my friends would do pretending we were Connors or that we were hitting like Connors. Except he was a pro. He's not the only pro I saw thump a shot in practice and yell "Connors !" I saw Arias do it once to. It would be like Harry or some other relative youngster wacking the ball and saying "Federer !"