The Commish is not just one single person, it is a real and true thought experiment of many different entities. That's also why the Commish has no preferred pronouns and you can call the Commish anything and any way you want. Makes no difference to the Commish. The Commish lives in the minds of all tennis professionals, tennis players, tennis organizers, and everyone with a clear and logical thought process. And no, Rich Neher is not The Commish!
TENNIS LIFE OBSERVATIONS
By The Commish
The commish had an interesting conversation with a USTA refugee recently. In that communique, the test subject iterated that they had been naive to think they could change things within the USTA for the better. That person is now out and not even trying to make any influence on USTA decision-making. They thought that since they were very involved and that he had numerous children as juniors heading toward college tennis, and many contacts within the junior tennis sphere, that he could positively influence the junior tennis scene. Not so! The commish sometimes thinks that like Sun Tzu you “shouldn’t interrupt your enemy while they are busy destroying themselves”. For 2024 continue to build your own initiatives, and begin slowly to create new non-USTA programs, because that behemoth is slowly decaying due to its own internal lack of direction, service, and engagement with the real people of tennis.
Osaka hype is awesome. Osaka hypers are awesome. Looking good in early losses is awesome. Being the highest paid poorly performing female athlete in the world is awesome. Being a voice of reason on Break Point after having done so little in the last few years is awesome. Way to go.
Commish thinks anyone who doesn’t think Break Point is awesome, is dumb. Commish needs help with grammar.
Commish love, love, loved it when Zverev said, “I’m a reserve driver for Mercedez F1 team behind Lewis Hamilton”. Mr. Z really gets it, seems to be a very real young man, and Commish strongly believes that allegations against him are overblown. Please Z, don’t disappoint Commish, because he ain’t no sycophant.
If you in the tennis world are not capitalizing on the interest created in tennis by Break Point, you are missing out. Didya know, that there are tens of millions of people who want to play tennis, but they don’t know how to get started? If your club is packed, then you know, if your club is not packed, go find those people, and stop doing dumb things that turn them away.
The commish is still waiting on an answer from 2021, when a USTA guy said, “I will get back to you on that.” Multiple follow-up emails yielded no response. I guess that’s what they want over there in USTAland. Ignoring the noise has replaced growing the game.
Commish just realized that he is tired of his local library because it's noisy and there are a lot of homeless folks there, so (genius), he is going to head over to his local USTA Section to do some reading and get some work done in quiet solitude, because the noise canceling is so good there, you might expect to hear not one peep.
Isn’t it cool that if you slowly worm your way up the ladder at USTA you can finally get to a position of total control and zero accountability? That must be fun. Commish wonders, if those folks have a mirror that they talk to that, shows them the next victim. Or if when alone they dance around and laugh in a tyrannical cackle. To be fair, there are conscientious, frustrated, tennis-loving people who work for USTA and are swimming upstream, against the powers that be. Commish likes to call new hires when the time comes to give them a look ahead at what they are up against. Many of the people who would really love to achieve something in life realize quickly when they are beating their heads against the wall, and move back into a tennis job where you can do things.
Nick K, stop all your jabbering and get back on the court for 18 months to 2 years.
Tennis announcing is 90% bad, and the people at the top don’t care that people who really know tennis are annoyed and frustrated. Commish did enjoy a few new talents in commentating. Announcers talk too much, spew garbage, and try too hard to get into the player’s head. Just watch and tell us what you see! Stop putting your career into it, unless you empathize with pain.
Pickleball is still on the Tennis Channel. Can we head back into the wormhole, and come out the other side into the right universe where people listen, serve one another, and do what’s best for everyone?
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The Commish
Everywhere, USA
Pronouns: They/Them
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