Don't Fake The Funk

Over-rated

Anna Kournikova is an overrated tennis player. Your knee-jerk reaction will be this: “Like you care, G. She’s hot, so what if she can’t play tennis?” Okay, you have a point. Anna Kournikova is an attractive woman. Thing is though, she actually can play tennis. In fact she was pretty damn good. I don’t have the exact statistics in front of me, but I do recall that she got to the semi-finals of Wimbledon as a teenager, and I think she was ranked as high as #8 or #9 in the world. You can’t achieve those accomplishments without having talent. It’s true that AK lost her way, she lost the “eye of the tiger,” however you want to put it. Yet the fact remains that she had “the stuff.”

The tennis stuff, you pervert.

Professional sports today place a high premium on potential. Anna Kournikova was expected to become a force in women’s tennis; this is a big reason why her overrated-ness is so dramatic. She became a “could-a-been.” No, worse. AK is a “should-a-been.” Because of her good looks, she was offered a choice early in her career: make your mark/money by playing tennis, or by just being good-looking. The first choice takes strength of will, it takes passion and drive, and the willingness to put in the work. The second needed none of those. We know which option she picked, and truthfully had any one of us been presented with those choices we would have chosen the same.

Some would say that Kournikova squandered her potential. I submit a challenge to this statement. I propose that her potential remains untapped but not wasted. Looking good isn’t hard on the body – the pitfalls that looking good proffers, however, do take its physical toll. But just for the sake of argument let us assume that Anna has not been pulling a Kate Moss for the last few years, sniffing cocaine and popping Ecstasy while carousing with “the beautiful people” of the world. Let us suppose that she is just a little bit older, relatively uninjured and only a little bit out of shape.

If that supposition has even a modicum of veracity, this could be Anna Kournikova’s opportunity for a comeback. The Williams sisters are injured (kinda) and uninterested (more likely) and women’s tennis is not that strong. Worse still, Maria Sharapova has been stealing Anna’s thunder for far too long. If Anna makes a comeback now she could very well finally win a big tournament. And if she wins, history will characterize her life story as inspirational rather than impotent.

Wow, there are a lot of “ifs” in that paragraph.

It is possible that Anna Kournikova can at last become a champion, or at least again be highly ranked. But there are so many questions. The biggest question being: why won’t she?

What's More Inspiring Than A Fat Guy Running A Marathon?

A fat guy running a marathon for charity, that's what!

The charity I'm running for is called Gawad Kalinga, which means "To Give Care" in Filipino.

GK's mission is to destroy poverty.

Less for self, more for others, enough for all.

I set up this website last to make it easy for people to give donations to GK and within minutes my uncle donated $25. My friend Tony, who I just met two months ago, donated $20. And my rich, beautiful, and rich (yes I know I said it twice) donated $50 this morning.

So a fat guy running marathons for charity really is inspiring!