Serena, In a Man's World

Serena has let it be known that rather than being referred to as "one of the greatest female athletes of all time", she would prefer the moniker, "one of the greatest athletes (period)." The only problem with that is she has only competed against other female athletes. If she had competed against male athletes, she would still be called the "greatest female tennis player ever" because she, doubtless, would have been the one female who came closest to defeating a male tennis player.  She would, however, have "zero" grand slam titles (instead of the 23 she accrued against women), and there is the real chance that, on the tour, competing against men, she would not have won a single match. 

I understand what people would prefer to hear. That would be politics, however; sentimentality, and a subjective desire to ignore reality for what feels better - a pleasant fiction.  

Of all human endeavors, none so starkly draws the line between men and women as does athletics. Women can compete with men on a multitude of levels - the classroom, the boardroom, on the political stage. But, they cannot out-hit, out-run, out-throw, out-jump, or out-fight their male counterparts. They lack the requisite muscle mass, plain and simple. That fact has not changed in a million years. 

Certainly, a trained female sprinter can outrun a pedestrian male, just as the tennis great Billie Jean King out-played the hustler Bobby Riggs, in a tennis match. But, Billie Jean could never have defeated Arthur Ashe, Jimmy Connors, or any of the other professional male tennis players of her day. That would be as unlikely that it would have been nearly impossible. 

ESPN's Stephen A. Smith, in a fit of verbosity, declared he would place Serena on the Mt. Rushmore of Athletes. First, most sports aficionados never speak of the tennis greats - Nadal, Federer, Djokovic - with the same breathlessness with which they extol the titans of football, baseball, basketball, and boxing. Second, Serena on Mt. Rushmore" That would mean, after placing Muhammed Ali, Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, and Jim Brown upon those glorious heights, you would remove one of them and replace him with Serena. Really? 

I could devise ten Mt. Rushmores - fully 40 all-time greats - and no female athlete would make it to the foothills of any of those mountains. Try to remove Jim Thorpe, Willie Mays, Lebron James, or Tom Brady from Rushmore II. Or, have at Joe Louis, Tiger Woods, Josh Gibson, or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Rushmore III, etc., etc., etc. When it comes to athletics, it truly is "A Man's World", and we do not need James Brown to remind us. 

Serena, respect the Mt. Rushmore of women athletics. Take your plae alongside Diana Taurasi, Simone Biles, and Babe Didriksen Zaharias. Be honored to stand among the first pantheon of female sports legends.