By now we all know that John McEnroe has taken the Williams sisters to task, criticizing them in Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper for having "no respect for anyone in the game," for presuming to think that they might be as good as some male tennis players, for not saying "hello to people in the locker room," and most incredibly for their lack of "humility."

Mac further declared that he would be uninterested in playing either of the sisters in a $1 million dollar exhibition match, a concept enthusiastically pursued by his fellow commentators on the USA Television Network during the US Open, and a concept that he did nothing to discourage. Of course that was before Venus showed her stuff in the incredible semifinal with Martina Hingis.

I have some prejudice in writing this piece. I consider John McEnroe to be the greatest television tennis commentator on the planet. His insights, particularly into the players' emotions throughout a match, are unparalleled and unsurpassed.

John McEnroe is also one of my favorite players of all time. I share the memories of his great matches with Borg, Connors, and Gerulaitis that all tennis fans share, and I'll never forget watching him and Nastase on television one afternoon. Those guys were just unbelievable, both of them routinely executing shots that lessor talents couldn't even imagine.

I have never found John McEnroe's behavior to be more offensive than entertaining. Until now.

Mac's comments on the Williams sisters constitute hypocrisy of the highest magnitude. What the hell can he possibly be thinking?

"They have no respect for anyone in the game," McEnroe criticized, begging the question of who it was that he respected through all the years of obscenity-saturated explosions, disqualification and suspension? Surely not his contemporaries who served primarily as straight-men for the lunatic act; not all-time greats like Nicola Pietrangeli whom Mac dismissed as a "moron" and a "jerk" (for assessing a penalty point after Mac issued a blanket denunciation of the Argentine population); not the Wimbledon umpire who was condemned as "the pits of the world" nor the tournament referee that was urged to engage in unmentionables with his own mother; not the fans whom he derided with the vocabulary of a seasoned sailor and the venom of a cobra; and certainly not himself. Who could forget his mid-match 1981 Wimbledon declaration that "I'm so disgusting, you shouldn't watch! Everybody leave!"

McEnroe's tirades would then be regularly followed by a hang-dog press conference in which he would assume the demeanor of a drunk with a hangover contemplating the previous evening's excesses, and which would include ruminations such as "Why do I let it happen?"

It has become a cliche' that Mac, as a father, has more recently "mellowed." Mellowing is, perhaps, a subjective measure to the eye of the beholder.

The principal totem of Mac's newfound maturity is his appointment to the revered position of Davis Cup captain. In the very first match he was sanctioned for obscenities, and shortly thereafter accused the judges of holding a grudge against him. As recently as July at the Champions Senior Tennis Tournament in New York McEnroe spewed forth in a sensational barrage of obscenities, racket throwing, crowd-baiting, and all of the conduct that has so historically distracted from his immense gifts.

McEnroe's obsession with the sisters' alleged inability to defeat male players is no more sensible, or worthy of defense. Frankly, who cares? Everyone knows that the best male players are stronger, and better than the best females. It is also true that many females are better, and stronger, than some males. I would think that a man enjoying the accomplishments of McEnroe could find solace in something more meaningful than his undemonstrated claim of being able to defeat women.

The Williams sisters have endured more than their share of criticism, and from many of the very same people who so enraged McEnroe when he was on the other end of the writing equation. Among other things, their father was enthusiastically derided from many quarters for emphasizing the girls' education at the expense of their development as players. Now that their development as players appears to be adequate the criticism has moved on to their personalities.

McEnroe has gone on at great length as to how the mens' game suffers from a lack of personality, while the ladies are more interesting. It is, at best, bizarre that he now criticizes the very personalities that have apparently gained his approval.

Venus is on the most solid of ground when she says "I've never had a conversation with [McEnroe]...he doesn't know me." I've always felt that the critics of McEnroe suffered from the same lack of empathy that he's now shown.

One statement, beyond all others, puts McEnroe's most current self-inflicted wounds in perspective. Once, in the wake of a story on his bad behavior, the young McEnroe ranted at reporters, "Why do you guys write about that stuff? All you want to do is sell newspapers!"

McEnroe was a hero to a generation that celebrated his attacks against phonies, incompetents, and hypocrites. How disappointing that he should find himself in his present situation.

this originally appeared in ZoomTennis

McEnroe's show is over, everyone go home, and, obviously, sin no more