Ball 5

Author: Justin Golenbock

Rumors have been swirling after recent stories that have suggested mutual personal interest between Maria Sharapova and LeBron James ("That day might present itself," he responded in seriousness to a joke about going out with Maria after the ESPYs). This is not a good thing. I cannot compete with King Bron-Bron. But perhaps more importantly, for Sharapova, these stories have coincided with the recent bit of obligatory bad press suggesting she's overrated on the court because she's so hot off of it.

I take that press with a grain of salt because it's a traditional tactic in sports journalism to build up an athlete's off-court persona and then take it down (see: Kirby Puckett, Mark McGwire, Bode Miller). And I have her SI swimsuit four-page spread tacked on my wall. But she's one of the top three or four female tennis players in the world and she just turned 18. And she's won Wimbledon. So come off it.

Inevitably, the argument takes a bloody turn when some idiot suggests she's "just another Anna Kournikova." Let me channel my indignation.

Anna Kournikova was a GREAT tennis player. I say "was" because starting in 2000, when she had just turned 18 and was just entering her peak, she had the first of a series of debilitating injuries that sidelined her career: torn ligaments in her thumb, stress fractures in both feet and eventually chronic back and spine injuries from the wear and tear of an 11 month WTA tour schedule that features virtually no off-season.

The biggest knock on Anna is that she never won a singles tour event as a WTA tour pro. But when Anna was only 11, she had already won her first International Tennis Federation (ITF) junior (18 and under) championship. By the time she turned pro at age 15, she had won more junior events than any girl in ITF history. Even the claim that she has never won a WTA singles event comes with its own asterix - in her first year as a pro, she did win two ITF adult singles tournaments (the organization that sanctions the four Grand Slams).

In her singles career, she rose as high as eighth in the women rankings and reached four singles finals, losing twice to Martina Hingis, once to Venus Williams and once to Anna Smashnova (a real person). As a DOUBLES player, she won 16 titles, including two grand slams, and was several times ranked the No. 1 doubles player in the world. So yeah, she could play a little. And no, she never actually went out with Enrique Iglesias. I mean, come ON (He's right guys…come on).

So a few of us were in love with her. And a few of us are in love with Maria. They're really good in the, you know, competitions and stuff. But it's also okay to appreciate achievement without getting overexcited in demarcating the merely second-best. Or third or fourth or eighth best.