McEnroe’s Volley Hits the Line but Is Hardly a Winner

Paradorn Srichaphan was in the interview room Wednesday, talking about the biggest unexpected victory of his life. The Bangkok-born 22-year-old sent Andre Agassi out of Wimbledon in the second round, stealing the spotlight from Agassi with a charming victory celebration, a quiet bow and prayer sign to the fans on all four sides of the court.

Still, he could not steal the spotlight from John McEnroe.

Who can?

After all, no one has been able to do it for more than two decades at Wimbledon. On the court, McEnroe did it by whining and winning. Now, he is getting his daily dose of exposure by writing and talking.

Wednesday evening, McEnroe was on an NBC conference call. It was the first opportunity to ask him about accusations made by his ex-wife, Tatum O’Neal, including charges that he used steroids during his playing days and once kicked her down some stairs. O’Neal’s interview with Barbara Walters will be on ABC’s “20/20” on Friday night.

The charges and countercharges were started with the recent release of McEnroe’s autobiography, “You Cannot Be Serious.” He has been doing interviews at a frantic clip--you wonder if you’ll see him show up on the Golf Channel one of these days.

By supposedly baring his soul, and, it seems, selling out his ex-wife and their three children, McEnroe got his desperate wish: more attention and a No. 1 spot on the New York Times’ bestseller list.

To say he was surprised that O’Neal decided to fight back was disingenuous. How could he possibly believe mud wouldn’t come flying back after striking the first blow in his book?

“I’m definitely disappointed,” he said. “I think it’s ridiculous, but at the same time, this isn’t the first or last thing I’ll hear. That’s why it forced me to make a statement. I don’t know what she’s trying to accomplish. I’m concerned about my own kids. I can handle it.”

His attempt at handling it Wednesday was a decided double-fault. The statement released Tuesday did not respond to specifics. But he did not clear up the issue by answering the steroid question directly on the call, either. Mr. Candor wasn’t willing to say whether one of the game’s greatest players used steroids as a performance-enhancing assist.

“First of all I think I have made it clear where I stand on that in the statement that I made,” he said. “I think it is ridiculous and unfair. My statement makes it pretty clear as to what my feelings are on that topic as well as other ones. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as addressing this one issue, and I believe it’s better served, and my family and children are better served, sticking with what I said.”

Later, he refused to answer another direct question about whether he used steroids, unwilling to give a simple yes or no. He argued with one reporter and in typical fashion said: “You’re incorrect. You need to read the book.”

After that sparring session, he speculated that O’Neal was unhappy because he was happy with the success of the book. He worried about the “horrible things my kids are going to have to deal with” because of his ex-wife’s accusations.

O’Neal explained to Walters why she is angry about the book.

“Well, first of all that he would--loose lips sink ships, that he would do a tell-all,” she said. “Talking about me ... and not ask my permission.... Ah, am I afraid of him? No. Who is gonna fight him if I’m not? Who’s gonna refute some of this ... that’s in this book.”

She said McEnroe used steroids during his comeback campaign in 1988, after their son Sean was born, and she urged him to stop taking steroids “because he was becoming violent.” Walters asked O’Neal if tennis officials knew. “I never read about it,” O’Neal said.

In another recently released book, “Uncovered,” Pat Cash wrote about smoking marijuana with McEnroe. Cash also caused waves in the British tabloids and broadsheet newspapers with harsh criticism of Greg Rusedski, whom he coached in 2001. It says something about the state of men’s tennis that the biggest news in the lead-up to Wimbledon in England came from books written by two players who have not been a force on the tour in years.

At least there was a moment of levity, albeit unintentional, near the end of McEnroe’s call.

“I don’t want to be a distraction to the tournament or Wimbledon,” he said. “I’d like to blend in. I’d like to be the icing on the cake.”

No, not quite. He not only wants to be the icing, but the whole cake. He also wants to tell everyone what kind of ingredients are in the cake and what he thinks of it after it is baked.