That's a perfect summation. Worshipping another human being is simply off limits for me. I would have put a stop to that nonsense if it was me. I don't find that flattering, I find it sick.
for me -- roger has been (or was, in his heydeys) -- quite exemplary actually.
the main point in his personality is that -- with all the adulation , whether because of it or he already actually believed it -- he didn't take VERY WELL at all in many years to the reality that -- upon the entrance of RAFA -and after ''learning" how to deal with that or trying to overturn rafa's ever-incrfeasing dominance over roger -- the entrance of NOLE --
ROGER DID NOT take very well to the idea that he actually HAD RIVALS tha twere NOT frightened of HIM ..AND THAT despite the clear beauty and greatness of his game -- THESE were players who'se ONLY THOUGHT was to CHALLENGE him AND actually succeed in growing ABOVE the abilities of OTHERS to show THAT kind of challenge...
so that it was no longer quite the ''ROGER and everyone else"
this -- imo -- elicited from roger those instances of ''sly'' putdowns towards rafa and nole - each in their turns -- MIXED IN under roger's ''congratulations" ....
he'd say 3 sentences of very nice appreciative remarks about their success -- and THE insert a little ''something" - either about HIMSELF or a sly , underhanded little phrase negating the ''appreciation" .
an exmple would be:
when rafa began showing that his first few wins -- were NOT FLUKES -- roger would make statements such as "he's great etc.etc...on clay"..
when rafa began beating him on OTHER courts -- such as hardcourts -- it's either ''it's because he's a leftie" as if THIS was an unfair advantage (even if roger beat plenty of lefties and made mincemeat of them) (ivan ljubicic certainly helped out on that "the reason rafa beats roger is because rafa is a leftie " -- so being that these TWO were known CLOSE friends -- one can only imagine in their drinking chats what they were TALKING ABOUT concerning that ''spaniard")...
when rafa came around beating roger so many times by some point - repeatedly in the FO -- and then FOLLOWING THAT UP WITH WIBMLEDON on the 3rd try on grass...
the roger ''putdowns|" about rafa RIGHT AFTER FO -- amounted to something like this:
"i have the weapons to dismantle him -- because..u know...he's got that one-dimensional game"...
and then LOSE in the 3rd meeting in wimbledon...
soon to be followed the year after with that harrowing loss in AUSTRALIA finals where roger cried...
so - interspersed with the ''ultimate gentleman" were those little - almost girlish -- snaps at rivals -- rafa and a bit later nole -- who didn't play or fight or act LIKE the others...
which even
JIMMY CONNORS quipped :"one reason i like rafa is because he doesn't act like these others who CAME WITH ROGER (roger's generation) - he steps up to the plate".
and THAT -- for rafa and a bit later nole -- were what i think were VERY hard for roger to accept.
players who actually went on court INTENDING to BEAT HIM. NOT play ''second fiddle" or be some kind of FOIL in what mostly amounted to a ''solo performance" by roger. which audiences just loved....
because as rafa would say "we all love roger's game, no? because it's so beautiful, no? but i have to FIGHT TOO, NO?"?
or nole would a few years more later would say" I think THERE IS ROOM UP THERE WITH BOTH OF THEM -- AND I WANT TO BE THERE TOO -- and be a number one someday too,,,i want to show that i ALSO have some quality".
roger gained - correctly based on his great game -- great respect and adulation..
but he HAD to LEARN to Actually GIVE THAT respect TO others -- namely -- rivals on the court whose purpose AND ABILITY was to DEFEAT HIM.
NAMELY -- RAFAEL NADAL, AND NOVAK DJOKOVIC.
:scratch:
B-)
