Last night, The New York Times interviewed John McEnroe as part of their TimesTalks series. And the interview started off in pretty epic fashion. Rather than exchange pleasantries with McEnroe and throw a bunch of softball questions at him at the top of the interview, NYT sports editor Jason Stallman got things started by bringing up a story about the time that McEnroe reportedly cursed at an ESPN reporter in a bathroom during Wimbledon a number of years ago. Then, he invited McEnroe to curse at him just to loosen things up a bit.
"Fuck you!" McEnroe replied.
That got the ball rolling and helped Stallman get a pretty great interview out of McEnroe. During the interview, they talked about McEnroe winning $39,000 for his U.S. Open title back in 1979, the lack of great American tennis players, the guilt that McEnroe feels for berating so many umpires and line judges during his career, and the player he would most fear playing against today.
"My nightmare scenario would be to play [Rafael] Nadal, at his best, on clay," McEnroe said.
You can check out the rest of the interview over here. Even if you're not a big tennis fan, we think you'll enjoy it. If not? F**k you!
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[via NYT]
