Okay, so it's not a big shock.
In those days (pre-comeback) he was a mess. Still, it's surprising he would admit it. All i've heard about this book is how candid and non-sugar-coated it is. Wonder if he'll detail his 90's homophobia?

That..or detail the true nature of his "relationship" with Perry Rogers

Actually, crystal meth surprises me, because I've never had the impression it was a big drug in the Hollywood crowd. Cocaine wouldn't have surprised me--not pre-comeback, and especially not in the post-Brooke Shields tailspin.

That explains why he thought that his choice of wild, loud, & often ugly colors that he wore on the court were cool.

After reading the excerpt from the forthcoming Agassi book that's posted at the ESPN website, I changed my perspective for the worse on Agassi, and for the much worse on the ATP. The excerpt says Agassi decided to dive in to "getting high" because his "assistant", named "Slim" brought him into the world of Crystal Meth. After failing the dope test and notified as such by the ATP, the ATP gave Agassi the opportunity to respond. Which, given what subsequently happened, "respond" in this case really meant " Oh PLEASE give us a reason to ignore this, Andre". He did.

Lying through his teeth Andre tells the ATP "Slim" (whom he's now fired) was a noted "user" of meth and was also "known" to "spike" his soft drinks with the stuff. And Andre begged off that he must have acquired that nasty stuff into his system by chugging one of "Slim's" Dr. Peppers. Huge sigh of relief from the ATP, which immediately filed the finding into the "Reports That Will Never See The Light Of Day Again" File Cabinet deep into the bowels of some ATP storage closet. Evidently the ATP was all to eager to be rid of the responsibility of having to take the proscribed action against someone with the Celebrity Status (read: deep pockets capable of buying expensive lawyers) of Agassi. None of which would mean a thing to me but for one glaring hypocrisy: no such ATP willingness to discard troubling findings was made in favor of Richard Gasquet (or Martina Hingis, in the case of the WTA/ITF).

This admission of Agassi's is notable on a couple of counts. The first is this: the ESPN Excerpt says the report of this incident was buried by the ATP until it "surfaced" now. Begging the question of exactly who "surfaced" such a thing, and why?? Well, the "exceprt" tells. Guess ole Andre decided it was "time to come clean", so he decides to tell us all about this decption he foisted in his own book. Which he hopes millions of people will buy. I mean, why let a good tragedy go to waste without cashing in on it? So Agassi, far from being some kind of model citizen he pretends to be with his charities, school and such-not is shown to be just as run of the mill as any burglar caught in the act of theft. Agassi didn't seem too sorry when he checked out to tank up on meth. His only sorrow was for himself, when he discovered the ATP discovered what he was doing. Isn't that as typical as it gets? Only when faced with the real possibility of financial ruin did he make the decision to throw his "supplier" under the bus, lie to escape his own culpability, probably called to remind his childhood ATP Board Member pal (Perry Rogers) to make sure this report never saw the light of day again so as to keep the endorsement gravy train rolling into his bank account for the ensuing 9 years. His behavior from getting busted is no different from any common thug who gets caught stealing cars. Except the car thief probably doesn't get to walk away scot-free from his crime as though it never happened. Such is one of the perks of being as wealthy and famous as Agassi.

The second, and even bigger culprit, is the ATP itself. These idiots are claiming how sanctimonious their employment (in conjuction with the ITF) of WADA is to "insure the integrity of the game of tennis" by busting those who break their scared rules regarding doping. And here they are just waiting for any reason not to bust such a beloved soul as Andre Agassi. Evidently there are exceptions to their sacred rules, only I'll bet none of the players know exactly what qualifies as an exception (and if anyone's interested - WADA scheduled a test at this year's French Open with none other than Robin Soderling - who oddly enough had changed hotels on the very day he was notified they were coming, and never did go through with his test according to the AP. Hmm). Basically this admission by Agassi of the ATP's willingness to bury his drug test can only make anyone wonder how many other players were granted the same privilige. And if so, why? You can't think Agassi was an isolated case. Who else got the preferential treatment? Sampras? Guga? Federer? Nadal? All? The ATP/ITF is now basically a joke when it comes to pious claims of attempts to preserve the game's integrity by random drug testing. Their own intergity as organizations (ATP, ITF, WADA) is probably buried in the same folder alongside the Agassi Drug Test. Maybe someone can "surface" that too. They need it.

I'm surprised you guys aren't disgussing his 90s hairpieces.

I respect Agassi's legacy as a tennis player, but his persona (on and off the court) has always bored or exasperated me. This is no different. I guess he needs to sell his book, so he had to include this 'bombshell' - but really, what is the point of bringing it up these many years later? It kind of follows this attention-whore pattern of late, like his recent widely-repeated, over-the-top, and late-to-the-party remarks that the 'Federer-Nadal era is over' with Murray as heir-apparent (welcome to the end of 2008! did you notice what happened this year?) and constant flogging of his charity and school. He also dragged out his retirement long past his sell-by date instead of going out on the high note of his 2005 USO fluke finalist finish (provided courtesy of not-ready-for-primetime fifth-set-flakes Blake and Ginepri in the QF and SF).

Of course, I agree with vm1 in general that the whole episode stinks on principle regardless of Agassi's motives in raising it now. Hingis was hung out to dry - even though her comeback was already heading south with injuries and losing steam form-wise, her retirement was basically forced upon her with the draconian two-year ban just so she could supposedly be made an example of - while party boys like Gasquet and now apparently Agassi were given a pass.

I was going to say something like "he probably got away with it because it was before the huge baseball exposé of the last few years, and tennis has been priding itself on being so clean all that time"...but that wouldn't explain Gasquet's recent relative slap on the wrist, now, would it?

In fairness, though, I believe there were many in the ATP that wanted to have his reinstatement overturned, because it wasn't fair (to the likes of Hingis). I also wonder if the amount had anything to do with such a light non-sentence, since they said it amounted to "no more than a grain of salt."

Meh. Players like Agassi, and the ATP, have a delicate yet symbiotic relationship. I find it somewhat ungrateful of Agassi to bite one of the hands that fed him for so long, by now making the ATP look so bad with this admission of his, that he conveniently kept quiet for so long, and that he's obviously looking to cash in on.

Since I don't know Agassi, this is all just my speculation and assumption, but I have a tough time believing that money was his motivation. Unless both he and his wife were both incredibly stupid with finances, Andre should have more $$$ than he, his kids, his grandkids (etc., etc.) could possibly spend. Besides, considering that he still makes something from endorsements (Longines, probably others but haven't seen them) and public appearances, is the tarnish on his reputation worth the boost in book sales? Plus he is passionately committed to his school, and surely this unseemly revelation can't be good for fundraising.

So why come out with it when an all-too-willing ATP couldn't bury this story fast/deep enough? Maybe it's a guilty conscience, although I gotta wonder if even the guiltiest of consciences would need to announce guilt with such a big bullhorn. The most plausible theory, IMO, is that someone else was going to leak the story, so why not announce it yourself, so at least it's in your words and on your terms. Perry Rogers, Agassi's best friend since childhood and his longtime business manager, and Andre have had a very public and apparently very ugly falling out. You sure as hell don't want a guy like that telling the story first.

Even if Hingis wasn't going to last much longer in the professional tennis world, she's gotta be PISSED as all get-out. Gasquet tests positive from "kissing a girl," Agassi tests positive from "drinking a friend's soda" (WTF? you couldn't afford a buck for the vending machine, Andre??), and the ATP buys both far-fetched tales hook, line, and sinker. Hingis tests positive and is, in effect, banned for life. Oh, that's justice for ya.

This is an excellent point on Rogers, who, aside from being Agassi's friend since childhood, was also on the ATP Board as a Players Representative. The thing about the falling out being dangerous is plausible too. Although Agassi got his $4 million advance for the book last year. I don't remember if their falling out happened before or after he signed with the publisher for the advance.

The other reason he likely did this is because of who he is as a person. Andre Agassi has been one of the most Spotlight-Hungry Athletes ever known. His relationships have all been with highly famous women, the outrageous clothing and the ever-changing hairstyles all scream "Look At Me!!!". He's been the Madonna of tennis: there's no such thing as bad publicity; and no amount of publicity is enough. This is tabloid stuff, and that he chooses to point it out now, after Tennis Channel already did one of it's Signature Series Biographies on him 18 months ago tells us he was saving this for the book. I mean, why offer the Meth story for free on TV when you can cash in on a book? Does he really think we can't get enough of him? It's as though he's acting as the informant on his own life, in the same way someone would to a tabloid magazine in hopes of collecting cash for the juicy, sordid tidbits they dole out. And all for the sake of increasing his own revenues. Some should tell aging prima donna Andre to get off the stage already.

The worst thing here is his trashing of the ATP. Who will ever believe anything they say now? Judging by a lot of the player reactions reported so far there are plenty of them who are either cooly indifferent or outright critical. A lot of them aren't too impressed with his story, at least when you read what Martina, Boris, Safin, Nadal and what a lot of others have said about it. The irony though is undeniably rich. He reveals the Meth story most likely for the specific purpose of generating sympathy for himself (along with driving book sales), and yet this could end up making Agassi more disliked than he ever thought possible.

I hope the next player who gets caught with recreational drugs uses either the "soda" or "I kissed a girl" defense. Performance enhancers, though, I still think need to be punished more severely, and to the defense of the WTA/ATP, they have been pretty harsh on those offenders, read: Canas and Sesil K.

What bothers me about the attention whores, à la Evert and Agassi, is that they have families now, and the fallout they create for their loved ones doesn't seem to phase them. I know that just because someone is married and with kids, it doesn't mean they can't admit past mistakes and be apologetic, but it's how they do it. Calling press conferences and signing book deals to brag about um...er...flaunt... uh...talk about getting away with doing illegal or questionable things in the past isn't fair to your family, they can unfairly bare the brunt of a lot of the collateral damage.

Steffi Graf was always the anti-Andre as far seeking attention. She always seemed uncomfortable in the spotlight, where it was actually a lifeline for Andre. I feel badly for her and the two kids. Granted they have the money to ensure quite a bit of protection and shelter from these things for their two kids, but no amount of money can protect them from this little legacy Andre's created. I feel the same kind of sorrow for Chris Evert's kids, they'll never be able to get away from their mother's egotistical histrionics and numerous "victories" she's scored off the court.

Agassi had nothing to gain by these admissions except a clean conscious. Meth is one of the most destructive drugs a person can take and Andre's performance on the court during his 'meth year' only underlines this.
He wasn't taking a performance enhancing drug, he was being self-destructive most likely fueled by this angry turbulent relationship with his father. Yes, he lied big-time back then; that's what drugs make people do most of the time. He'll sell books but he'll also take a lot of flack. I think it's a brave admission and one that will eventually be interpreted as a cautionary tale, which is really what it is...he almost lost everything because of idiotic recreational drug usage. He got his act together and became a tennis champion and an advocate for at risk youth. What else do people want from him?

These titillating piecemeal revelations just get more and more bizarre by the day. This morning on tennis.com, The Ticker reported on yet another tawdry Agassi tidbit for people who buy his Tabloidautobiography. And this one is a new low in excuse making for losing a tennis match. Seems Andre, who admits in the book his mullet was actually a wig, went into the 1990 French Open Final against Andres Gomez riddled with anxiety. Andre evidently was distressed with worry that his wig would fall off during the match !!! He said it was "damaged" the night before !! The mere contemplation of exactly how his wig incurred "damage" so severe that he had genuine concerns it wouldn't stay in place during the match is..well...side-splittingly funny sorta begins to describe it

Here's a guy who left the game with his head held up proudly, the epitome of how hard work pays off for anyone willing to do it. And now, for the sake of a book, he decides to trash the very reputation he spent so long building. He's hooked on Crystal Meth for a year; humiliated the ATP by telling the world they let him off the hook when they found out; that his father was crazy - feeding him amphetamines; and now this wig story that reads like it was a skit on SNL. Every one of these pieces of information makes him look more and more like some kind of tragic clown.

Totally agree. I don't get the sense he's bragging, but rather telling how someone who seemingly has it all can make terrible decisions, how those decisions can impact one's personal and professional life, and how ultimately it can be turned around through hard work. I think there's a lesson to be learned here, and I think Andre thinks so, too.

Munson and Bryan -- I'm with you. As usual, there's enough hate spewed on this site to fry all the eggs in Siberia in January.

Personally, I think it's terrific to see a sports memoir that is honest and interesting, even if it's at the risk of damaging the sports hero's image. When's the last time we've seen that?

And why would anyone expect these athletes who've been driven so hard from such a young age not to have some kind of a freakout or wild period? Being controlled and professional as an adolescent is very difficult; Agassi's father sounds like a monster. It seems like Andre just wants to tell the truth - perhaps he hasn't been all that comfortable with the adulation that's come post retirement.

a tragic clown? you have to be kidding. sure it's disappointing to hear that he did meth, but i'd be more disappointed if he did performance enhancing drugs. at least it didn't affect the integrity of the game. he did it to himself and not to the sport and credit to him for turning things around. the toupee thing is just silly. much ado about nothing.

he's made some bad decisions in his life. nobody's perfect. he didn't say he murdered someone. he took drugs. and he got out of it. he re-dedicated himself to tennis and won slams. what's more important is that he turned out to be the model citizen that he is today. okay, maybe not. but he's not as bad as you think.

Much ado about nothing, you say? What about disclosing his notification from the ATP that his drug test informed them he was using Meth, which by it's own rules mandates an automatic 3-month suspension? The fact Agassi decided to disclose that is what's caused a lot of the controversy - as it should. The disclosure completely puts the ATP on the defensive with a lot of explaining to do. Why does Agassi get a pass, but Gasquet doesn't? The ATP's "looking the other way" was a wink-and-a-nod from the ATP decision makers to Andre so as not to cripple his Endorsement Gravy Train - which would have ended had the fact he was a Meth User become public at the time. He may have been in the doldrums in terms of his ranking (even though he won the Olympics the year before), but all of his endorsement contracts he signed were still in effect, and paying him tons of money. You can bet all the contracts he signed had many escape clauses in them for the companies, and you can bet further public disclosure of narcotic use or trafficking gives them immediate termination rights. Which they clearly would have invoked (after all, Meth users aren't exactly sought after as Pitch Men ). You may believe it was about "nothing". But the mere fact Agassi lied through his teeth to the ATP of how this all happened tells you he didn't think this was "much ado about nothing". He was all to clear on what he stood to lose financially. That's why he lied, and that's why they bought his argument - silly as it was on the face of it. This was really "much ado" about money - as it always is in the cases of the Rich & Famous like Andre Agassi.

You're right in the fact nobody gives a rip about Agassi's personal self destruction (which is the "tragic" part of what I said). The fact he implicates the corruption of the Players Organization he's a part of, and actually helped his "friend" Perry Rogers become a Board Member of, is highly curious, to say the least. If his desire to implicate their assistance in his deception was based on driving sales of his book, then it's also obvious he's got an axe to grind with the ATP - despite the fact they refused to bust him when they could have and should have. Why would he do that when they stood by him and helped him hide for his own benefit? The answer to that question alone will give us all clear insight into the true character of Andre Agassi.

The revelations he's made about his disastrous wig incident at the French Open is humorous no matter how you look at it, and that's the "clown" part. That he ever decided to wear a wig at age 20 something was clearly a costume designed for marketing purposes. As for his family circumstances - ya know something? - many many people come from horrible beginnings that never make it to where he has. Congrats to him for putting it behind him. But is it really "refreshing" for yet another celebrity to write a tell-all tabloidautobiography for the purposes of airing their own dirty laundry & cashing in on it? What could be more garden-variety than that? How many thousands of those kind of books already litter the shelf spaces of bookstores everywhere? These anecdotal revelations that SI is doling out are designed for one purpose: drive book sales (and bet on this too: SI paid Agassi handsomely for the rights to the exclusive dissemination of the tidbits prior to the book's release - no one gets privileges like that for free). The consistency here is obvious. Just like his lying to the ATP was to preserve his endorsements, so to is this method chosen to reveal book contents piecemeal for the purpose of maximizing book sales. As ever, Andre Agassi is no different from any other individual who has tasted The Good Life: he's all about the money.

It is inexcusably ridiculous how the powers-that-be lump recreational drugs into the same category as PEDs. That makes some sense in team sports, where the team owner is paying you to perform, but as Santana notes, in tennis the player is only harming him/herself. Well, maybe their sponsors also, but the sponsors can do their own drug tests if they are concerned. The ATP's (and obviously they are not alone) approach has an offensively moralistic quality to it. I agree with whoever said that Hingis must be really pissed about what Agassi got away with, but that just goes to the fact that the Hingis suspension was ludicrous.

So I guess Agassi's going to cry on 60 Minutes about how everyone should show him compassion.

Andre, buddy, I will always admire you for how you turned your career around and played so much tough and inspired tennis, but I'm starting to lose more respect for you when you claim people should show you compassion for doing something you know was wrong.

Seriously."Please, have some compassion! I was making millions upon millions of dollars, even when my tennis sucked, married and dated former actress/models and was courted by so many commercial interests for so long, and I've had the most charmed life possible yet decided to piss away the tennis part of it in the mid to late 90s using drugs I knew were illegal, and lying about it... all while continuing to make millions upon millions of dollars...please! ... have some compassion on poor me!!!"

You won a career slam. Well deserved kudos.

You knowingly used illegal drugs and lied about it, went public with it (conveniently well after the career), regardless of who else you threw under the bus, and yet, now somehow believe you're "owed" compassion.

Uh....No.

You know, plenty of players have had difficult personal lives, disastrous slumps in their tennis, and had been driven from a very young age by overbearing parents (the WTA especially features its share of the latter). And yet no names come to mind as far as these who also turned to destructive drugs in the midst of their careers and then lied to authorities when they were caught. Why should Agassi get a pass? He can't have expected to make these revelations without drawing criticism, so I think he can handle all that has come his way - certainly it's been accompanied by a predictable 'he'll always be Saint Andre no matter what' chorus as well, so it's hardly doing much damage.

I just resent the notion that because of how he skillfully he rehabilitated his persona and plays the public relations game, he should now be above it all. He made his bed, and he can lie in it. It's not like any actual repercussions will come his way, other than the heightened book sales. Posters have been scornful, myself included, but they have also been careful to distinguish his tennis achievements from this whole imbroglio and what it says about his character, whether at the time or in general. Forgiveness or indifference is one thing, but overlooking entirely is another. Compassion, however? I can think of better recipients for it.

Perfectly stated, in a nutshell. (If you're not a professional writer in real life Urban, I believe you might have missed your calling.)

I couldn't agree more, and yet people here are actually throwing around adjectives like "brave" and "terrific" in a hero-worshiping frenzy in regards to this admission of his. Forgive me, I see nothing even remotely brave nor terrific about it, nor about the spotlight-seeking and self-pitying tears he's crying in regards to the reactions (like Navratilova's) any genuine person would have seen coming from a mile away.

UrbanSuede, I couldn't have said it better myself.

Someone aside from Hingis who should be PISSED about the Agassi coverup are all the current players. I had no idea just how invasive the whole drug testing thing was until reading a detailed account from Serena as to just how at the testers' mercy today's players are. Wasn't there a tournament this year when the entire Spanish contingent was yanked out of bed at 5 AM for testing? At least they got to go back to sleep right away. Poor David Ferrer had to sit there for an hour or so because he had just peed 5 minutes before the testers knocked on the door. Why should players put up with this BS in light of the truly shameful Agassi coverup?? Caroline Wickmayer just got banned for ONE YEAR because she missed three calls from the testers?? She didn't even test positive! My response would be, "Chuck U Farley! I was shopping. Deal with it, bitches!! Oh, and I'll be suing you for a zillion dollars because you banned me but let your Meth Head Golden Boy off scot-free."

It was at the French, where Nadal, Ferrer, and Verdasco all flamed out.

And where, as Voicemail pointed out, Soderling missed his drug test.

If only Puerta has "changed hotels" a couple years ago. Interesting too that Yanina Wickmayer gets a year ban, while Soderling misses a drug test at a slam where he unexpectedly makes a final run, and that little tidbit is at best buried in tennis site news tickers, if mentioned at all.

And evidently no punishment was reported. No mention of a fine paid, or suspension incurred, or any follow up on whether he actually was tested at all. As far as I know he just kept right on playing. Business as usual.

well, it all just got better...andre is spilling the beans about all kinds of good stuff like how he felt about other players, grudges and bullsh*t, and what sounds like the best behind the scenes book about tennis EVER! i'm all over it...i love that andre is telling the truth about stuff - his holier than thou rep post retirement, admittedly created by the press, just didn't sit well with me - perhaps it didn't sit well with him either...tennis needs this kind of honesty! suspending players because they don't tell the atp or wta where they are 24 hours a day for months on end is bizarre...test them before a tournament but this whole clean campaign is just propaganda

What struck me about the 60 minutes interview (besides being bored with it..ho hum...someone took drugs. Who hasn't?) was that Agassi was so self righteous about coming clean. but how many years later??? 12!

Also I liked seeing Ag and the perfect wife, having the perfect relationship...or so it seems. I mean Steffi seems to have no flaws and is living a good life. Loves hubby, children, good health. And then there is Monica. Totally going down the tubes since the stabbing. I know, strange to bring that up here. It just seems like their lives are so opposite....after the stabbing. I'll never get over the cruelty and the ongoing repercussions.

Peter Bodo at Tennis Magazine said he thinks the logical reason for Agassi to do all this now is because he's guessing Agassi is planning a career in politics. The book has to address the demons in the Agassi closet as a way of diffusing criticism of those very demons. Or so the theory goes. Gotta love it don't ya? A multi-millionaire former athlete/former Meth head is allegedly planning a new job of Elected Representative.

going down the tubes? what happened to monica? haven't heard any news on her.

Ugh. Bodo is my columnist bete noire, managing to regularly aggravate me more than Doug Adler and Mary Carillo combined, which is saying a helluva lot. I read him almost to see what I'm vigorously disagreeing with him about now on his sanctimonious, factually suspect, condescendingly facile and insulting viewpoint du jour. Even when I'm inclined to agree with him, like his latest for ESPN on the rash of draconian doping bans, he manages to end up alienating me by the time he's through both stylistically and on the merits of his argument, if they can even be termed as such. (Not to mention virtually everything he writes on the WTA is boneheaded, misogynistic fare, even when he's transparently trying to come across as even-handed or complimentary to mask his reactionary ways or thinly-veiled barbs.)

Now where was I? Oh, right. I didn't see the one you're talking about, but I'm surprised Bodo would speak approvingly of Agassi's political activities, hypothetical or otherwise - he regularly shows up on lists of sports figures who have given the most to Democratic campaigns, and Bodo (if my description of his ways in the last paragraph didn't already tip you off) never met an irrelevant, tired rightwing aside he couldn't shoehorn into his spiels whenever he spies a half-chance. In fact a recent ESPN column on Agassi - one of something like fifteen he's written in the last week as one of his leading apologists - had some pointless remark about how the 'coastal, liberal media elite' etc etc ignores the crystal meth problem ravaging rural American communities. Except it doesn't, or I wouldn't have already known about it. (I wonder what Bodo would think if he were to learn it has also posed grievous problems for the LBGT community? - although fortunately I haven't really encountered this firsthand.) If nothing else, surely everyone remembers that Palin was mayor of Alaska's 'crystal meth capital' in the words of one of its state troopers, right? Okay, now I'm guilty of tangents which betray my political leanings. Heh.

Oh, and Navratilova is no longer Agassi's most outspoken critic, now that Safin - in an interview with L'Equipe he gave this week while in town to play Bercy - basically called for him to be stripped of all his prize money and trophies or something to that effect, for violating the terms of the ATP's own little version of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. I know he's usually the deadpan sort and this is more of the same probably, but at least he's being over-the-top and unpleasant to the last with his media persona, eh?

This was on the tennis.com website on their new Podcast. It's a discussion among Bodo, James Martin and Steve Tignor. I agree with your view of the Bodo pomposity - I always thought he was the biggest glommer among the tennis press whoever existed. He doesn't even play tennis; nor is he even remotely knowledgeable about tennis history in the way someone like Bud Collins is. Bodo managed to catch the wave of the ascent of tennis popularity working as a newspaper beat sports reporter and turned it into a career of kissing just about every ass he thought might do him good. Especially when it came to co-writing autobiographies. But I also digress...

One thing that gave Bodo's theory credibility was the fact that, as an author himself, Bodo was able to tap his own Literary Agent to snoop around and find out how much Agassi was paid in advance. The $5 Million was termed a "Presidential" category of book advances, something like Clinton would get. And without being permitted to say exactly all he knew, the publishing company would never have advanced that kind of money just for an athlete's simple autobiography. They're too far in the hole financially without a long term prospect of profiting. They could only do that if Agassi managed to stay in the headlines long enough for people to buy it. The second speculation of a possible political career was to preempt anything that could be contained in the forthcoming Perry Rogers book; combined with the idea of getting all the skeletons lingering in the Agassi closet out now so as to "diffuse" the criticism he'd get on the campaign stump. Or so the theory goes, anyway.

Urban Suede that's some enjoyable writing about Bodo's often bad writing. And while I've read Bodo's book VM, I didn't know about his background.

So what dirt do you think is in Perry Rogers' book?

I have to say, Agassi's book doesn't annoy me 1/100 as much as his Lou Gehrig fake tears performances at the end of his career. Regardless of how truthful or candid he's being, I'm enjoying all the fallout and teapot tempests being generated, because as Bryan intimates, tennis is so complacent.

I definitely don't feel offended on behalf of the precious ATP, who haven't needed Andre Agassi's help to prove how ethically unsound they can be in recent years. One need only remember that little round robin disaster at Andre's hometown a few years back. What happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas.

Bryan, Agassi is appearing at the Commonwealth Club in SF soon. Many if not most events there have political connotations, funnily enough.

Anyway, Agassi is nowhere near my list of world woes, and as far as unqualified cretins with political aspirations go, he could never hope to match Arnold. Gary Indiana's book Schwarzenegger Syndrome should be a must-read for any queen with a brain and a sense of humor.

Did anyone actually read the book? I found it totally compelling. Whether or not it's remotely honest (much of it seems pretty dubious to me - oh well), it's highly readable, pretty thoughtful, and nicely mixes the tabloid stuff with some tennis stuff. To me the only revelation that's shocking - and the one that's least self-serving - is that he always hated tennis. And that he always thought that other players who talked about how much they loved tennis were lying.

As for the meth - I fail to understand the hubbub. All of it (the drug taking, the lying) seems perfectly in line with what many humans have done and will continue to do forever. The fact that he got away with it is, in my opinion, a good thing for everyone concerned. Honestly, who was hurt by it? Other than our sense of innocence, of course.

And the wig - that was awesome. What it really showed was that this guy was a head case for pretty much his entire career, and something as silly as a wig being a distraction makes as much sense to me as any as to why he lost a match he should have won. On the big stage, Sampras NEVER would have let a wig distract him from winning a major.

So yeah, I remain a big fan of Agassi - of his game, of his journey, of his humanness. I never know for sure if he's telling the truth about anything (the split with Perry Rogers tells me there's a lot more going on in his life that wasn't in the book) but I continue to root for him, partly because of his flaws.

Agassi has always been interesting. For me, I try to remember that players are human, not just the image that they project. Saying that, what I know is what I see...the player, the athlete, the competitor...so I can like or dislike a player for who they are on the court. Added in are things that come out that are related to their professional performance.

I always saw Agassi as being fragile, particularly in the first part of his career. He had great talent, but was not the competitor that many others were (Sampras, of course, but also Chang, Courier, Becker, just to name a few from his early career). Not just with the hair, but also in not playing Wimbledon because he'd have to wear white. Seemed that he was dodging to protect the ranking and so he wouldn't be beaten early.

As for Agassi saying he thought others were lying about liking tennis...that's rich. He's entitled to his assumption. And of course he knows them whereas I don't, so maybe it's more than assumption. But it strikes me as self-serving. Becker seemed to like tennis. As did Chang. And Connors. Gomez didn't seem to hate it. Neither did Guga or Rafter.

His deception about the drugs didn't just hurt the image in the fans' minds. He should have been suspended, according to the rules, no? So...when he won matches/tournaments he shouldn't have been playing in, that hurt the other players. Just like Ben Johnson and Marion Jones "winning" gold medals...they shouldn't have won, and those medals did not rightfully belong to them. Track can at least go through and award the medals to other competitors in the race, although not the endorsement money. But tennis can't go back and replay the tournaments.

Agassi made a long journey during his career, such that he was willing to fully compete starting in 1998...and seemed to enjoy the playing. He sure played a long time after for someone who hated it. But he seemed to be a different person by then. As he has shown, one for whom image is finally not everything.

No, I haven't read it. Those that have read it seem to have the same reaction you did. So I guess Agassi's already existing fan base are the ones largely responsible for driving the majority of book sales. It's not clear the general public at large is scooping up copies left & right. Interesting that you describe much of what you've read as "dubious" - that's another description I've read from others who've read it also. Which is hysterical on the face of it. If your keen sense is correct Jake, then we have an autobiography by an Eternal Spotlight Seeker like Agassi which could be largely a piece of fiction. Normally an autobiography chronicles a life that was lived instead of a life the author wished or hoped they had lived, or believed they should have lived. Talk about literary license

My issue with his meth problem was in relation to his professional handling of the notification by the ATP. As I've already stated, Agassi lied about what was going on for two reasons: he would have faced criminal charges for sure; and he knew public disclosure would end his endorsement career. We only need to see the Tiger Woods situation to understand what public disclosure of behavior can cost you. Tiger's sponsors can't bail on him fast enough today. Every endorsement contract (rightly) contains multiple "morals" clauses to release the endorser should the endorsee do anything to damage the very public image the endorser is shelling out millions of dollars to ally themselves with. So once the image becomes transparent, the dollars stop flowing. Agassi understood this fully - and that's why he lied to the ATP. Money. Millions and Millions of dollars would continue to flow into his bank account. And the real question is: why did the ATP look the other way despite his ridiculously obvious lie of a letter to them? How is the ATP helped by not enforcing it's own rules? I say because of: money. I wouldn't be surprised at all to find out Agassi managed to channel some of those endorsement dollars into some ATP Bank Account somewhere in the Cayman Islands to insure this test result would never see the light of day.

You ask - "who was hurt by it"? Well, the ATP for one. They have to explain to it's members now why they are subjected to testing of any kind any where WADA demands they be (WADA is contracted by the ATP, WTA & ITF). Given that they are willing to let one guy skirt the rules, then why not let everybody skirt them? Why test for anything at all? It doesn't matter that such substances are not PED's. If the ATP is conducting a tournament under it's auspices anywhere Crystal Meth is an illegal narcotic, any knowledge the ATP has regarding any of it's members use, purchase or sale of such a thing can make them legally complicit in a criminal investigation should it be discovered. That means they will have to expensively hire lawyers to extricate them from any legal ramifications should, say, Agassi and "Slim" been busted for such at some ATP Event (which according to the excerpts he released was a highly possible situation - since Agassi's inane letter to the ATP openly stated the ATP "knew" "Slim" was involved in meth to begin with - which begs a most intersting question: if Agassi is telling the truth about this in his letter, why then did the ATP continue to allow "Slim" access to ATP events if they knew he was involved in criminal activities???).

And what of other players during that period who actually were fined, suspended or even banned by the ATP for narcotics use? I don't know if there actually were any, but they had a rule in place against it. What of them? Is it fair to allow Agassi to skate away scot free if others had to endure punishments?

I'd also say Agassi himself isn't exactly helped by this meth revelation now. After all, I'm sure the book publishing company has been down this road MANY times with celebrities of all kinds. They are well aware that any criminal activity confessed to by such an autobiographical author will need to ensure that any Statute of Limitations has long since expired prior to publication, so the publishing company itself does not become liable (that's why we don't get murderers confessing in books or articles to murders they committed when they're not already in prison: murder has no Statute of Limitations). In this way Agassi doesn't fool anybody. He waited until now, knowing he was beyond the reach of the law, to "confess" to such a thing. Moreover, we all clearly understand that he originally lied for the benefit of keeping his millions. And now he waits to disclose his Meth Story, but not in an interview or magazine piece for free- but in a book he writes himself that he wants to sell - ALL FOR THE PURPOSES OF CASHING IN ON IT MONETARILY. Ironic, eh? Agassi spends all of his days post-career endlessly reminding us of how charitable he wants us to think he is. Yet we have a guy here whose true character is revealed by the fact he lied to keep his money & career going on ad infinitum, and then decides to go public with his Meth story only when he's sure he's escaped legal culpability against him & hoping to raise buckets of cash for himself in the process. And all the while simultaneously trashing the image of the very organization that helped him hide for his own benefit years earlier. Like I said before: with friends like that....

So now someone can explain to me why I should consider someone like him some kind of paragon of virtue? In fact Bodo had the best reason why Agassi decided to purge himself with all of this now. Since Bodo himself is an author with a literary agent, he's suggested this is about a potential Agassi political career (which is the whitewashing way of communicating publicly "uh..here's the REAL story"). Come to think of it, his whole handling of this Meth affair makes Agassi the ideal politician: present yourself as someone who appears to be one thing, while in reality you are something quite different. So you may want to root for such a guy Jake because of his "flaws". But if you believe his "flaws" are simply his use of Meth, then I'd say you're not looking in the right place. His "flaw" is not the victimhood of drug use. His "flaw" in this case is most clearly his calculation of how to best benefit for himself (monetarily or otherwise) regardless of the effects of such a calculus. Like most Eternal Spotlight Seekers, we can see the real Agassi even in his attempt to whitewash through a book: he's a garden variety narcissist, plain and simple. Tough for me to "root" for a guy like that.

Wow, you're pretty naive if you believe that ANY autobiography is the true, unvarnished, objective story of a life led. I think what's great about Agassi's book is that it provides a completely plausible narrative, but also contains enough spaces where you can fairly ask "wait, is this telling us the whole story?", which frankly one should do with any autobiography (or biography, for that matter). Obviously Agassi is selling us something - but so even the most pure-hearted athlete/celebrity with a book or image to sell.

What's unbelievable to me is that so few people are willing to even CONSIDER the possibility that Agassi might have wanted to reveal his meth use for exactly the right reason - because what he did was wrong, and he feels bad about it. Your idea that he didn't reveal it sooner to avoid criminal prosecution is ludicrous, since I've never heard of someone being busted for admitting to having done drugs, or even failing a drug test - rather, they have to be busted for possession of drugs or for doing something illegal while under the influence of drugs.

As for how this might harm the ATP, I'm pretty sure none of us knows intimately what the ATP's policies or standards were in 1997. A lot of this seems like speculation intended to make Agassi look like a jerk regardless of the reality. Charlie Bricker has done some reporting on this, and it seems to me that that the testing and the appeals panel were out of the ATP's hands in any one particular case. http://www.tennisnews.com/exclusive.php?pID=29799 This was all before WADA came into the tennis drug picture.

I don't see Agassi as a paragon (nor does he, even to this day, as the book makes clear) but I do see him as a pretty compelling figure and one with a fascinating story to tell. Seriously - read the book (get it from the library so you don't put one more cent into his dirty pockets) and judge for yourself. If nothing else, it's an excellently constructed and easy read, thanks to his ghostwriter. If for nothing else, read it for his take on Courier, Sampras, Chang, Becker, and especially Connors. CATTY!!

Since it's highly likely Agassi purchased whatever meth he was using (unless you think "Slim" was a charitable pusher and decided to give his meth away to a deep pocketed client like Agassi), then buying and selling such substances is what's called "trafficking", I believe. And I'm thinking there are a few laws against that . And you're right. The reason no one buys into the idea this revelation was just a soul cleansing moment is because he decided to "narc" on himself regarding his Meth use so that the Cash Registers would hum and hum and hum. That's why we can all see through it. Pure self serving cashing-in on his tabloid tale of woe.

Again - WADA isn't the point of what I said. The ATP came to Agassi and said "We have this test result that you're using Meth, and we have rules in place where we have to fine or suspend you for that - what say you?". And his reply was essentially "Well it's all Slim's fault. You guys know he's a meth head, so I drank his coke (uh, sorry..Coca-Cola) and that's how I ingested that awful stuff. Geez I will never ever ever do it again - promise promise promise - please don't do anything to me - and PLEASE don't tell any of my sponsors!! My ranking's in the toilet right now and my game is so awful I couldn't beat my grandmother - and she'd dead! So all I have is my multi-million dollar endorsements to live on - do you have any idea how hard that is to do??. Please take pity on a poor self absorbed multi millionaire celebrity athlete icon, won't you??". Fine said the ATP, blinders in place, and on everyone went. And I still say they got $omething in return for burying this test result.

And if the cattiness of what Agassi thinks about Courier, Chang, Sampras and Connors is your recommendation to me to read the book, then that's very honest of you. My response is: any guy who wears a wig for athletic and commercial professional purposes ought to realize he lives in a rather large Glass House. Besides, trashing the people you work with after you've left "the office" just so you can tabloid up your autobiography for generating $ales is, well, yet another piece of evidence that Andre Agassi is as classless, phony and disingenuous as that stupid mullet wig he felt so compelled to wear, and wear just to Cash In (are you starting to clue into the Agassi Theme here, Jake???). Here's my memo to Agassi - Get Off The Freakin Stage Already You Diva Beaaatch

I'm not saying he didn't break any laws, just that he was in no danger of facing criminal liability for admitting to drug use. Do you see the difference?

And again, if you read the article I linked to, the matter was out of the ATP's hands, so you're basically making suppositions without any supporting evidence in order to sharpen the axe you have to grind against Agassi. We get it: it's all about the money for that guy, and everything you read about him conveniently fits into that mold. Counter-evidence be damned.

And yes, I do think it's interesting to hear his opinions about other players. He's certainly had enough people - including you - share their opinion about him. What makes him "classless" then and you not? Honestly, the only thing I fault him for in that respect is revealing how much Sampras tipped a valet. That anecdote shouldn't have made it in the book.

Anyway, he won't be leaving the stage anytime soon - sorry. And his HOF induction in 2011 should be that much more interesting now!

The article basically quotes the ATP as doing a CYA. It says Mark Miles can't even comment whether there even was an investigation over Agassi, or anyone else - rather a stupid comment to make since Agassi has told the world there was one. This article is pure political speak. It even opens with the first line of what is clearly an agenda, in fact it's a warning to all who read it: we'd better not even think about hanging this around the neck of the ATP. Gee - maybe just a teentsy bit biased toward the ATP, dontcha think?? And maybe even a touch defensive??? Despite the fact the ATP allegedly claims it had nothing to do with such testing, its results, or the consequences - why then was Agassi's explanation letter sent to the ATP if they in fact had nothing to do with anything? Your "article" cited here has a fair bit of CYA launched by the ATP. The only person quoted in the piece is the former head of the ATP - who was in that position during the time this happened. Which by the way isn't "Reporting". If you're going to interview one guy, and that guy has a vested interest in making sure people think he & his organization had nothing to do with anything illegal or improper and you let him make his statements with no challenges - that's called Stenography. And to even further underscore the point I've been making all along - this very article demonstrates the preferential treatment he got! This panel DID make public drug test results regarding Wilander & Korda and it was the ATP & ITF which inflicted appropriate punishments. So for Miles to claim the ATP had no knowledge of the "panel's" work; that they're just a bystander to this "panel" but yet the ATP is charged with administering reprimands when results turn up disclosed is dubious, to say the least. It amounts to the ATP position of "OK - you panel people don't need to let us know anything about anyone's drug test results, but we'll make sure that whoever you choose to bust will not play in any of our tournaments. We won 't question anything you do. Ever". This is BS. Despite that, this "panel" decided to let Agassi $kate. I don't know what Korda & Wilander offered in defense; but to claim somehow this panel was convinced that Agassi had nothing at all to do with ingesting Meth by his own volition is $erioulsy $uspect. Even taking this stenographer's stretch of a claim that the ATP "Heard No Evil, Saw No Evil and Spoke No Evil" in this case, the issue that Agassi got preferred treatment over others in similar circumstances is now in no doubt. They let him $lide, $kate, what have you, precisely because of his celebrity $tatus. Yeah - you go ahead and root for that kind of Elitism Jake.

And another thing. Up to now my comments to your posts have been about the subject of Agassi. In this last one you openly take a shot at me personally, referring to me as "classless". And all because I'm daring to challenge the nature of somebody you want to shamelessly fawn over. We all know how you celebrate ad nauseam about American Tennis Players. But for you to bristle is one thing - taking a direct shot at me for basically not being consumed with rapture over a fruitcake like Agassi is, well, the truly classless thing. Birds of a feather, you and Andre.