By Tim Kawakami, Mercury News Staff Columnist
August 24, 2003
Six picks and assorted bric-a-brac and blurbs for the new sports week and beyond:
1. PETE SAMPRAS, WHO OFFICIALLY RETIRES MONDAY, is the anti-Michael Jordan. The guy who quietly quit 50 weeks ago and didn't get around to telling anybody until now.
Sampras, the greatest male tennis player of this era and maybe ever, is the one dominant athlete who absolutely isn't coming back. He'll never un-retire.
Sometimes, watching him wince through matches and news conferences, you wondered how he gathered enough energy to play when he was 22 -- so forget about it now that he's 32, a father and wealthy beyond his dreams.
We have had four or five chances to say a loud farewell to Jordan, and just as many with Sugar Ray Leonard and Arnold Palmer. Joe Montana had his Monday night goodbye as a 49er, plus his tenure in Kansas City. For Jerry Rice, the whole 21st century is a victory tour.
I was at Sampras' first pro victory -- Philadelphia, 1990 -- and even then he looked like he would rather sleep in and hit the golf course in the afternoon than pound the practice court to prepare for a French Open.
He won a record 14 majors -- the last at the U.S. Open a year ago, his final match a four-set victory over Andre Agassi -- but he never had the appetite for public worship that still prods Jordan, Agassi and other Great Ones.
He had no entourage. He played tennis, spectacularly. When he started to play less than spectacularly, he shut it down, and bided his time in private while the inner flame weakened. There is grace in that. Cool, distant grace.
Let's say a fond farewell to Sampras on Monday during the first day of the U.S. Open in New York. He'll looked embarrassed, say a few things, then vanish into the night, in plenty of time to get back to Beverly Hills for another long slumber.