Over the past few weeks, Martina Navratilova has been very critical of Andre Agassi’s use of crystal meth during his time on the ATP tour–specifically, his failure to own up to it after failing a drug test in 1997.
Do you agree with Martina Navratilova’s harsh words regarding Andre Agassi’s admitted drug use?
Martina in her own words:
“Shocking. Not as much shock that he did it, as shock that he lied about it and didn’t’ own up to it. He’s up there with Roger Clemens, as far as I’m concerned. He owned up to it in the book, but it doesn’t help now.”
In a recent TV interview, Martina did admit that that putting Agassi in the same category as Roger Clemens was a “bad comparison”. She even showed some compassion for Agassi’s personal struggles, but stuck to her guns about calling him a liar.
“He did a great disservice to himself and a great disservice to the sport. We are role models and we have that responsibility and we have to own up to it. Whatever the rules are you need to abide by them, and live with the consequences when you don’t.”
Do you agree with Martina Navratilova’s statements? Tell us your opinion in the comments below or send a reply on Twitter to @OnTheBaseline.
Martina can say whatever she wants, and I’ll always be happy to listen. I love that she has strong opinions and is not afraid to air them out. Her views on on-court coaching (likes) and grunting (strong dislike) are sometimes controversial, but when someone has dedicated herself to the sport like Martina has, their is no doubt that we should listen up, whether we agree or not!!!
Navratilova did nothing wrong @OnTheBaseline It’s Agassi who took illegal drugs,lied about it,and tanked matches.Not wrong 2criticize Agassi
absolutely not, Martina needs to get some compassion and to be reminded of recreational vs. performance enhancing.
I don’t agree w/navratilova-its easy 2 judge-harder 2 live someone else life. Federer/Nadal still active dont speak too soon.
Per Martina’s statements on OTL on ESPN & CBS I do agree but not that the doping system shouldn’t monitor recreational drugs.
Navrátilová’s words aren’t nearly harsh enough. He should be stripped of all his titles, and given a long, long jail-sentence.
I agree to a certain extent. Look at how badly Hingis was treated and Agassi has lied and cheated. It’s unfair, but I wouldn’t say it’s worse than Clemens. And I do think recreational drugs should be tested in tennis just as they are tested with other professions.
I agree that the news about Agassi was shocking, especially that he lied and was believed and not disciplined. Had he confessed, this might have ended his tennis career and we would have missed out on being witnesses to a great tennis career. Taking drugs was not right, lying about it was not right. Was confessing now right? I don’t know. That took a log of guts. So, while I basically agree with Martina’s comments, I don’t judge Agassi as harshly. He is still one of my tennis heroes.
Martina, of all people, should be more sensitive to the personal struggles of another human being.
I haven’t heard Martina criticize Agassi for using crystal meth, per se. In fact, she supports an end to punishing players who use recreational drugs. She does make a point, however, that–silly or not–it was against the rules to do what he did. What really appeared to upset her was his lying.
I have mixed feelings. I don’t think players should be punished for using recreational drugs, either, especially since they receive no penalty for using the world’s most popular recreational drug. I can even understand Agassi’s lying–apparently, it was easy back then to get away with it. (I am, in fact, more offended by the bigotry he espoused back then.)
What I can’t tolerate, however, is Agassi’s exploiting his own behavior to generate a media circus about his book. Always a pleasant presence until he opens his mouth, Agassi has now found a new way to Not Shut Up. Some players have wondered why he had to make this confession now. I can’t answer that, but I do know that going on television and asking for mercy is a bit much.
No, I don’t agree with Martina. It’s Andre’s body, his choice. Even if it were performance-enhancing drugs, it should be okay, because it’s only his own body that’s at risk even if it does give him an advantage. But this wasn’t even a performance-enhancing drug, it was a recreational drug. Tennis officials shouldn’t be morality police.
While I agree that all professional athletes are role models, they are also human beings with real life problems and struggles. Individuals in their teens and twenties are still acquiring the skills to grow up and live enriched lives. This process can be very difficult for child prodigies who never really have a childhood. This was part of Agassi’s growing process. He lied because he was afraid and it was the easy way out. Many of us would have done the same thing. The good thing is that he took all of these lessons, learned from them and was given a second chance and has made the most of it. He is a good human being who took a risk telling people about this in order to possibly give hope to others.
I think Martina, since her original comments, has somewhat softened her stance. Andre should be respected for his honesty (better late than never), and his story should, and will, help many more young people than it will harm.
Of course we all now what Andre did was not good for tennis, nor was it good for his body. What we have to understand is we all make misstakes when we are young, and if we do not forgive each other where does that put us? It is pretty sad the way the world looks at things today. I am a strong conserveative. I do not put up with a lot of nonsense. But this action did not hurt anyone but Andre. After all he did not have to confess this deed to anyone, but he did in order to help other young tennis players not to make the same misstake. I think it was honorable of him to admit that he took the meth and that he lied about, and admit that it was wrong. This could help someones life in the future. Let us judge not that we be not judged. We should be thankful for the man that Andre has turned out to be. As far as Martina is concerned, I will keep my comments to myself.
way to go martina…..agassi is a punk, always has been….
Thank you for all of your insightful comments. I just wanted to add a few things regarding Martina’s belief that recreational drugs should not be part of the tennis drug testing program. According to WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency), they do not categorize any drugs as “recreational”. Those substances which are commonly considered to be ‘recreational’ by the public, such as cocaine, heroin, and cannabis, are illegal in most parts of the world. It would be irresponsible of the ITF to NOT ban those substances, in my opinion.
Agassi taking the drug was wrong. Then lying about it to the tennis officials was wrong. Then not correcting his lie for many years was also wrong. However… He has finally fessed up; shows true remorse; and has been leading a very good, respectable life since then (with his incredible charity work to his credit). I think that we should all just accept Agassi’s confession with the compassion + empathy that it deserves.
WHY has Navratilova all of a sudden become the official anti-Agassi spokesperson on this subject? Yes, she was a great tennis star… but I’m sure she also has a few skeletons in her closet, with regrets of her own as many people do.
Unlike other people finally caught in a lie, Agassi chose to confess with out anyone even knowing this dark truth. I have to give him credit for that.
Let’s all learn from his experience… teach our kids better… and just move on from this subject without continued pointless attacks like these from Navratilova.
Remorse? I highly doubt that Agassi understands the true meaning of the word. All he wants to do is to maximise sales of his book, and it is disgraceful that he is allowed to do that.
If Agassi were truly remorseful, he would start by giving back all of his titles and prize-money. Then he would take his case to a court of law, and insist on a long, long jail-sentence for taking illegal drugs and perjury.
“Even if it were performance-enhancing drugs, it should be okay, because it’s only his own body that’s at risk even if it does give him an advantage.”
Do other people support the use of performance-enhancing drugs? That’s new to me.
By the way, Agassi also revealed that he tanked a match, which means he probably tanked more than one.
First, I have to say that I love Andre Agassi. He’s such a great human being, as he has devoted his life to making others’ dreams come true. I totally disagree with Martin, whose accomplishments off the court are less than stellar. She needs to keep her mouth closed when it comes to Andre. When she has put forth as much effort in giving back as Andre has, then, and only then will she be qualified to say anything about the legend we know and love as Andre Agassi.
Andre may have been wrong for not admitting then what he is bold enough to do today, but he is admitting his wrong-doing now. He didn’t even have to do that. I can understand why Agassi felt the need to deny the truth back then. Society is so hypocritical and so very unforgiving–ungodly is a much more deserving term–that people who are otherwise honest feel the need to lie. Still, Agassi is a great person. His love for people is evident in his undying and unselfish acts of kindness. He is the ultimate role model, having saved the lives of many of the world’s less fortunate.
I take offense to anyone who has the audacity to open his mouth and say anything negative about my all-time favorite tennis player one of my all-time favorite human beings. So, to Andre, keep your head up. You’re a beautiful individual, and you deserve the best the world has to offer. What these hypocrites say about you doesn’t matter. They can’t hold a candle to you. Keep doing the great things you’re doing. We, your true fans, will always love and support you.
I understand how some people feel upset, or betrayed, or that it has given a black mark for the sport of tennis…I get that.
Andre is human and we all make mistakes, but he should have owned up to it at the beginning. As much as I like Andre and enjoyed the years of great tennis he has given me, I will look at him differently, not for doing the drugs but taking 11 years to say I screwed up and passing blame onto someone else. I would like to think as a parent, that his Armenian parents taught him better than that.
It always seems that people judge others by harsher standards than they place on themselves. Yes, Andre should not have abused his body in that way; however, it did not enhance his performance and thus, does not discredit his accomplishments. Had it been average use of alcohol, this would not be a subject of discussion.
There are two topics here — use of drugs and tennis performance. In his case, one had nothing to do with the other.
As for Martina Naratoliva, she should be the last person to be judgmental, since she was the beneficiary of the reverse of judgement. Had she been judged according to the standards of the majority, she would never have been recognized as a tennis star. I won’t go any further on that subject; it’s self-explanatory.
I agree. Totally lost my admiration and respect for him.Was a fan of his,but I feel like he not only cheated himself but everyone else who love the sport. Totally disgusted. I dont see any bravery in what he did now,confessing, he should have done it before.Now there are doubts as to what he has achieved even if some or more of those achievements were fairly won. Who knows now?
Why do all the people who think it’s okay what Agassi did and love him so much alway have to down Martina with these strange comments like if the majority had their standards she would not be a tennisstar, you mean her being gay or worse.And then she did not do enough outside of the courts, if she had earned 100 or 150 million dollars like some who deserved less but earned more she could do the same as Agassi she did something more important was honest about her sexual orientation and gave courage to a lot of youngsters when there were no other rolemodels in the eighties. She even saved them from suicide as they wrote to her. She does not speak about that only on very few occasions. When Agassi was young I thought he was phoney and now he showing off his depression do not you think more people who are down all call it a depression, Robert Enke the german goalkeeper he was depressed so you can say. The last thing the sinner is innocent after all image is everything if it would have been known that he used drugs and escaped a ban would he had so many endorsements, ofcourse taking drugs is okay being gay is so bad you do not get endorsements.
It’s a shame Andre couldn’t fess up when the time was ripe, but he didn’t, and in fact I remember when Magnus Norman reported this episode in his bio and everybody gave him **** including Andre, who pouted and put on his best poor-little-me pose. Well guess what? Turns out Norman was right after all haha, vindication comes finally.
I don’t think players should be slammed for recreational drugs, but the rules are what they are, until we change them. Andre must have a really huge mortgage he’s fretting over, so I will grit my teeth through the media blitz and the Oprahs etcetera, and hold my breath in anticipation of his next….um….confession….
Now say five hail marys and go run up a desert hill, guy
If he had done enhancement drugs to improve his game then absolutely. HOWEVER, he did not and obviously was hurting himself and he had no game nor did he play while on the drugs. I believe that it is possible that she has a point about the lying part but what would anyone do? he did what he did, the past is the past. Drug testing wasnt the same as it is today. Again not enhancement drugs. I think he had a lot more to lose than to gain and as of right now… he doesnt need to gain anything. He was closing the book on an old chapter of his life and IF it helps one person he believes he did the right thing. Can’t we all just look at this as that? I believe that all sports groups need to take care of their players good, bad, or otherwise. If they are using enhancement drugs then appropriate penalties. If they are using harmful drugs, then help them… just like you would if it were alcohol!
I think she is right on. I was really dismayed about his actions. And that he’s using this dirt to help boost sales of his book is beyond words… He’s no champion in my eyes anymore.