Assuming you are right on all points - and I'm not going to argue any of them - I would still say that any champion who loses a GS final when up 2 sets to 0 is going to feel that loss much more painfully. It's very different to be 1/1 and then 2/2. That's a see-saw. Anyone can win. Of course anyone can still win at 2/2, no matter how they get there, but I would argue it feels different when you started up at 2/0.
Add to that the idea that JMac was denied that career GS because of that loss, and that we all know that JMac was never as fit as many other champions because he did not like to train.
In order to go from 2/0 to 2/3 still means you lose the last three sets in a row after being in a very dominant position.
That may not be a huge choke to you or others, but it still feels like at least a small choke to me, and in a GS final it's a bitter pill to swallow.
Well a choke would imply that Mac was either overawed by the whole occasion and came out nervous from the start (like Nalbandian in the 2002 Wimbledon final for instance), or became nervous as he closed in on a victory (like Coria in the 2004 RG final). However neither of those scenarios applied to Mac in the 1984 RG final.
In 5 set matches, even great ones like Nadal-Federer at Wimbledon in 2008, Borg-Mac at Wimbledon in 1980 etc, both players' form will inevitably go through peaks and troughs. Mac played lights out tennis in the first 2 sets, but it was completely unrealistic to continue to play like that in a long 5 set match on clay in the heat, or to prevent Lendl from eventually getting a look in on his serve. So Mac's form understandably dipped in those last 3 sets as he couldn't maintain that initial level and grew tired, but it was still pretty good. The problem was that Lendl managed to get a foothold in the match, played smarter, and passed him pretty mercilessly. In fact he only had 2 break points in the 5th set. Mac led 4-2 in the 4th set, but leading a set by a break on clay isn't really such a big deal, and Lendl had already previously broken his serve in that set anyway.
All the bogus talk about Mac choking away the match detracted from the fact that it was an incredibly high quality match, and one of the best grand slam finals of the open era. It shouldn't be anywhere near a list of greatest chokes.
Mac can reminisce fondly about the his epic defeat to Borg in the 1980 Wimbledon final, because he liked and respected Borg a lot, and because he came back there the next year and avenged that defeat in the 1981 final, won all their other major finals, and went on to win Wimbledon 3 times. On the other hand he banned people from mentioning the 1984 RG final in his company for many years and struggled to get over this defeat, as he despised Lendl and didn't even respect his game much at the time, never beat Lendl in any of their matches at RG, and never won the tournament during this career.
