In June 1990, just minutes after his shocking first-round loss to specialist Derrick Rostagno at Wimbledon, a suddenly aging and desperate John McEnroe sat down with NBC’s Bud Collins, alongside rival Jimmy Connors, for an interview. Connors was working for NBC that summer as an analyst while nursing a wrist injury.
It was a rare moment of revealing, subdued reflection from the usually fiery McEnroe. The talkative New Yorker spoke about his disappointment in himself and his level of play and how difficult it had become to balance family life and a professional tennis career. Connors pointed out that his fellow Irish-American seemed to lack direction and needed advice on how to proceed.
And then something extraordinary happened: Connors offered to be the one to bring McEnroe back to glory by suggesting that he take on the role of McEnroe’s coach himself. McEnroe literally reached out to seal the deal and for a brief moment, the impossible was about to happen: two fierce – and often hated – on-field rivals were about to team up and give their tennis generation one last chance at glory before showing up rudely. – and permanently – expelled from the party.
But, alas, that wasn’t supposed to happen. These few minutes were the limit of the coaching proposal. Years later, Connors would remark that shortly after the interview, he and McEnroe decided to “run away the other way.”
I couldn’t help but think about that moment that could have been last week’s shock announcement. that Andy Murray would team up with Novak Djokovicas the Serbian’s coach to begin the 2025 campaign. The brilliant Djokovic will be aiming for his 11th Australian Open title in January and, probably even greater motivation, his 25th major title overall, which would allow Djokovic to surpass Margaret Court as the all-time winning slam champion, male or female.
In some ways, Murray coaching his longtime friend and rival makes sense, as the two have been together for decades. Consider: Roger Federer is six years older than Murray and Djokovic and started in an entirely different generation of tennis. Rafael Nadal enjoyed such unprecedented early success that he split from his slightly younger rivals early on and solidified his duo with Federer as early as 2004. But Murray and Djokovic have a history dating back to the days when they competed frequently in their junior years. And they were also born just days apart in May 1987.
Additionally, although Murray is a three-time Grand Slam champion himself (impressively beating Djokovic twice in major finals) and a surefire Hall of Famer, his relationship with Djokovic, unlike McEnroe and Connors’ choppy interactions , has never been a co-equals relationship; Djokovic, Federer and Nadal are obviously in a world of their own and the very idea that there would ever be a “Big Four”, as it was initially coined, was false, as well as an unfair burden on Murray . There was the Big Three with an occasional plus-one (that “one” being Murray or Wawrinka).
Given that he was a great player himself, it will be interesting to see what Murray can do to help Djokovic get that final slam before he retires as perhaps the greatest player in all time (judging solely by the erroneous metric of slam titles). Murray might just be able to provide that little mental edge or confidence boost that Djokovic needs, something that – perhaps – only another former top player can provide. Djokovic tried this before when Boris Becker helped his coaching staff for several years with great success.
Perhaps Murray will be able to channel the positive effects of his former coach Ivan Lendl. Lendl is that very rare breed – someone who was an all-time great on the court and who also enjoyed enormous success as a head coach, guiding Murray to his three Grand Slam triumphs. But Lendl is the exception that proves the rule.
The world of sports is full of great players who have not been able to transfer their successes from the playing arenas to the coaching box. Consider Ted Williams. Undoubtedly the greatest hitter of all time, Williams was also a passionate teacher, and he fulfilled a personal dream when he became manager of the less-than-mediocre Washington Senators in 1969, winning the University’s Manager Award. the year his first year. But the perfectionist Williams soon discovered how difficult it was to instill his supernatural baseball abilities into mediocre talents. During his four years at the helm in Washington (and Texas, where the Senators were located and moved and renamed the Rangers), Williams finished with a career win-loss percentage of .429 – lower than his career on the on-base percentage as a player, . 482.
Wayne Gretzky, Isaiah Thomas, Bart Starr, Mike Singletary, Magic Johnson and many other all-time greats have all tried their hand at coaching and none have been able to duplicate their triumphs as players. Obviously it’s a bit of luck and you have to accept the players you inherit into a team, but the vast majority of the most successful coaches were not great players.
If you think about the best coaches in any sport over the past few decades, none of them were stars on the field: Andy Reid and Bill Belichick in the NFL, Bruce Bochy and Dave Roberts in baseball, Gregg Popovich and Steve Kerr in the NBA, etc.
But why is this? Why is it so difficult for those who have honed their craft in competition to pass on their gifts to their eager students? Malcolm Gladwell, the popular author of The Tipping Point who specialized in research at the intersection of the social sciences, had a theory. While speaking to ESPN promoting his 2005 book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, which focused on the effectiveness of instinctive versus well-thought-out actions, Gladwell mentioned an anecdote in which the legendary Tennis coach Vic Braden said: “We haven’t found a single top tennis player who knows and explains exactly what he’s doing.
Gladwell offers an explanation: “This is precisely why top athletes so often make bad coaches or general managers. Often they don’t really know why they were so good. They can’t describe it, which means they can’t teach it, and they quickly become frustrated with their inability to raise others to their own level. Mediocre players – or non-athletes – tend to make better coaches because their knowledge is not unconscious. It’s the same with writing. I know very little about science. But I think I write about science with more clarity than many scientists because I have to go through each step, carefully and deliberately.
There is a sort of middle ground, what I would call category B-plus very good players – but not really great – who have also become excellent managers. The most obvious example is Joe Torre. Although the back page of the Daily News tabloid newspaper infamously read “Clueless Joe” when the Yankees hired Torre in November 1995, he became a four-time World Series champion with the Yankees and is in the Hall of Fame because of it. .
As for coaching the aforementioned Big Three, none of them have ever had a great player as their long-term coach: Federer has never had a long-term coach, but he has had Paul Annacone and Tony Roche alongside him for long periods, both of whom were solid pros but neither a dominant singles player; Djokovic’s longest-serving coach who accompanied him throughout his career until recently was Marian Vajda, a former professional who never made it past the third round as a player; and of course Nadal had uncle Toni, who never played professional tennis.
The Murray-Djokovic partnership would seem, on the surface, to be an ideal setup. There is obviously no long-term commitment stress since Djokovic is at the very end of his career. The two men clearly have the greatest and sincere affection and respect for each other. And although the ten-time Australian Open champion is now outmatched by the brute force of Jannik Sinner’s groundstrokes and the dazzling variety of Carlos Alcaraz, Murray can provide an invaluable source to counter younger players. A master of defense and counter-attacking himself, Murray also faced Sinner and Alcaraz. And after facing Djokovic so many times over the past quarter century, he knows the few areas in which his new student is most vulnerable.
Whatever happens in Australia and the rest of 2025, Murray taking on this role is a unique and somewhat joyous coda to this golden age of the sport. And the extra boost of enthusiasm and energy that this partnership will undoubtedly bring just might make that small percentage difference as Djokovic strives to win that final slam.
And for their part, Connors and McEnroe ended up trying their hand at coaching. Connors enjoyed some success with Andy Roddick during their two years together, with Roddick reaching the US Open final in 2006 with Connors in his dressing room. And McEnroe briefly worked with Milos Raonic during the 2016 grass court season, helping the great Canadian reach the Wimbledon final where he lost… to Murray.
