Reply #35: This is a nice response

[Sugarcoated]

http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sports_tennisblog/2008/03...

"March 23, 2008
Richard Williams: Master of poor taste
> Posted by Charles Bricker at 7:03:46 AM

I'm not as exercised as many are about Richard Williams' latest outrageous, racially tinged remarks. He's been saying these ridiculous things for years. If you understand that much of what he says is designed to promote himself, you, too, will be less irritated.

But his comments about Chris Evert were beyond outrageous. They were disturbing. . .repellent...an insult to a great woman.

"I don't think Venus or Serena was ever accepted by tennis. They never will be. But if you get some little white no-good trasher in America like Tracy Austin or Chris Evert, who cannot hit the ball, they will claim this is great."

No-good trasher? Oh, wonderful. Let me take you back 14 years to one of Evert's annual pro-celebrity fund-raisers. Money from those events is used to financially assist women -- many of them black -- who are suffering under the weight of poverty and drugs. Venus was 14, Serena 12 and Evert asked them to play an exhibition doubles match at her weekend event.

It was the first time Serena had played in public and the crowd embraced her as much as Chrissie. It also was the first time Williams said that Serena would be better than Venus. He was right about that. He's been wrong about so many other things.

When Evert opened a tennis academy in Boca Raton, one of the first coaches she hired was black -- Chip Hooper, a former ATP pro from California.

Go to the Evert Academy today and you'll see black teenagers of both genders working on any number of courts.

I've known Richard Williams since 1994. He's amused me with his announcement that he would one day buy Rockefeller Center and I've rolled my eyes at his various other ridiculous comments, because I know he doesn't believe one-tenth of the nonsense he says.

So when he told an Indian newspaper that, "Tennis is a prejudice game. I'm black and I'm prejudiced. I'll always be prejudiced as the white man. The white man hated me all my life and I hate him. That's no secret. I'm not even an American. It just so happens I was born in America." I wasn't offended by that.

When he unloads all this garbage, it's done to make himself appear bigger than life at a time when he's no longer the focal point of the Williams sisters success. I understand that. He understands that. That doesn't trouble me.

But when he starts making disgusting remarks about Chris Evert, it's time to tell Richard Williams we're no longer amused."