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John McEnroe


            The autobiography that I selected to read is titled You Cannot Be Serious. It's written by John McEnroe along with James Kaplan. John McEnroe was born on February 16, 1959 at the Wiesbaden Air Force Base.
             John grew up in Douglaston, Queens where he excelled as an excellent student and was favored by many teachers. One teacher once wrote a note to his parents saying "Johnny is a gifted child with a tremendous urge to do better work than his classmates." Some of why John excelled at a young age can be contributed to his parents who pushed him constantly. As soon as he started playing tennis they pushed him to play a minimum of 6 hours a day to improve his skills. But tennis is not what John enjoyed the most. His true loves were basketball and rock and roll. He dreamed of growing up and becoming a professional basketball player. He played many sports including football until he decided soccer was more fun. He was forced to quit all sports though in 10th grade to further his career in tennis. He was really disappointed to have quit basketball because he loved the camaraderie of playing on a team. That is one reason he loves to play doubles so much. He lived a very well-to-do childhood. His parents had money and could afford to send him to the best instructors for lessons and provide him with anything he would need to succeed. He was sent to the Port Washington Tennis academy in 1962 where he improved by leaps and bounds. No matter where he was his dad would never miss him play a match. Whether he was at work or at home he always made sure to be there when Johnny stepped on the court. John got his first real job as a ball boy at a tournament that was played at the academy in 1963. Although he only made minimum wage of $1.85 he learned a valuable lesson from tennis pro, Nicky Pilic, who was very mean and cruel. He made a promise to himself that no matter how famous and good he would become he would never act and treat others the way Nicky did.


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