A couple fun things I got from reading Andre Agassi’s bio, ‘Open’. Many of them are about his father.
- His dad would keep salt and pepper in his pockets so he could throw it in people’s eyes if he got into a fight.
- Andre once got a best sportsmanship trophy but didn’t win the tournament. His father smashed the trophy in the parking lot to prove winning is more important than sportsmanship
- His father told him doing is more important than thinking and felt school was overrated
- Andre and Stephi Graf’s fathers got into a fight the first time they met and almost came to blows.
- Agassi had many ups and downs over the course of his career. The frank discussions of the downs was one of the best parts of the book.
- Agassi discusses a lot about his team (trainer, coach, confidants, significant other, etc.)– how they were assembled, how the relationships evolved etc. This is something I had not thought about as with tennis you usually just see the player.
Overall, I’d highly recommend the book. It’s well written and interesting and gives a good picture of the difficulties associated with being a top flight pro athlete.
Finance Nerd 