If some Brad Pitt-looking guy from California invented a revolutionary tennis training regimen centered on whale-worship and cosmic values, and if that guy coached two players both of whom were in the top ten, the media would hail a new epoch in the history of tennis if not mankind. That Brad Pitt-looking guy would be celebrated as the greatest genius since Harry Hopman and tennis fans would gleefully engage in fisticuffs to bask in his presence.

Richard Williams coaches and manages two players, both in the top 10. He's recently from California but doesn't look much like Brad Pitt, and his values are traditional. The reception accorded Mr. Williams has been lukewarm at best, and more folk at all levels of the game have suggested that he's a nut than a genius.

In fairness to Williams' critics, the man can be defensive and surly, paranoid may not be going too far. Of course just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that they aren't out to get you, and Richard Williams didn't exactly grow up in the lap of protective luxury.

Richard Williams is the son of a Louisiana sharecropper, his wife Oracene ("Brandi") hails from neighboring Mississippi. While there are many wonderful things about those southern states, neither has ever been considered a haven for ambitious black people whose intent is anything other than to shamelessly grovel before the long-established pecking order. Say what you want about Richard Williams, no one has ever accused him of groveling.

If Louisiana and Mississippi aren't the promised land, it's at least as difficult to make a case for Compton, California. Compton is the Mecca of black gang violence, drug dealing and addiction, prostitution and broken dreams. In greater Los Angeles where hopelessness is a way of life, probably nowhere is more hopeless than Compton. The legendary rap group N.W.A. celebrated the enclave's vices as virtues on their critically celebrated 1987 opus "Straight Outta Compton," but a sober reading of even that seminal work reveals a cycle of life inevitably ending in jail or early death.

Compton is not known for producing world class tennis players.

Little Venus and Serena Williams grew up in Compton, practicing with dead balls on cracked public courts surrounded by drug dealers and drive-by shootings, broken people and broken glass. The Williams family got out of Compton in September of 1991, and much of the rest is history.

Richard Williams brought his daughters along slowly by contemporary standards, limiting their early tournament appearances and then cutting back Venus' appearances even further when her grades dropped below an A+ average. Richard has appeared somewhat inconsistent in his utterances over the years, but he has consistently insisted that education is more important than money or tennis.

Commentators can be partially forgiven for criticizing the Williams approach at the time. He had no proven track record, and all his talk about acquiring skills at the expense of tournament exposure and winnings, of becoming a well-rounded personality at the expense of a single-minded conquest of the tennis world...to many it sounded like the overly simplistic psycho-babble of a man who had no idea of what he was getting into and would thereby squander the extraordinary potential of his daughters. He had, it was repeatedly said, absolutely no idea of how to develop talent.

Get the cash and glory first was the conventional wisdom, there will be plenty of time for well-rounded personalities when you retire with millions at age twenty-eight.

Then something unexpected happened. It turned out that Richard Williams was right, and the experts were wrong. Venus and Serena Williams are the first sisters to each win a Grand Slam. When they met in the finals of Florida's Lipton Championships in 1999 it marked the first time that sisters had reached a final since Maud Watson knocked off her older sister Lilian at the inaugural Wimbledon in 1884.

Venus Williams is arguably the best player in the world, and many observers believe that once Serena conquers the psychological aspects of the game she'll be even better than her sister. Together the two are the best women's doubles team on the planet, having won three of the last four Grand Slam events that they entered (they defaulted in the US Open semifinals after Serena's disappointing quarterfinal loss to Lindsay Davenport in singles) and the Gold Medal at the Sydney Olympics.

So what should the rest of us make out of this unusually successful family that fought its way out of the ghetto to Centre Court at Wimbledon? Nothing revolutionary, ironically enough. The most important thing to teach young tennis players is the basics, hard work is important, mental health is paramount in a mental game.

A coach's job is to coach. Who cares what he says? Richard Williams has been soundly criticized, and not entirely without reason, for a few of the many things that he's said. The most readily criticized of his comments, and writings on placards during matches, have been those that celebrate his daughters at the expense of other players. Richard is a justifiably proud father, and most of us are guilty of even more egregious offenses than being overtly proud of our children.

The duality of Richard's role as a father/coach is of particular interest, and shouldn't go past without further comment. His relationship with his daughters is one of love and respect, and both sisters are often seen looking to his box for support and inspiration. During the recent US Open semifinal when Martina Hingis had Venus on the ropes, and after Venus had repeatedly looked to Richard, he just left. Stood up, walked out and disappeared. A television announcer criticized him for being unsupportive, but when he reappeared a handful of points later the momentum of the match had turned around.

Remember early in the year when Richard publicly revealed that he had counseled Venus to consider retirement? Did she? Or did she storm back with renewed dedication and passion for the game? I would suggest that, whether he's able to articulate it or not, Richard is a master psychologist.

Venus and Serena, Richard Williams is an incredible success story. If it was a Disney film no one would believe it. The girls are threatening to entirely take over women's tennis. Remember a few years back when Richard said that one day they would be the two top-ranked players in the world and would face each other in all the Grand Slam finals? It's still a long-shot, but the odds aren't nearly as long as those that the Williams have already overcome. At very least it doesn't sound quite as nutty as it did then.

Meanwhile the sisters take college courses, and make millions of dollars designing tennis clothes. In fact my wife says that Venus and Serena "are the only ones on the tour with any sense of fashion at all."

Well rounded girls. Maybe a little too confident and straightforward for some people, but you can't please everybody all the time. It's to their credit that they don't bother trying. Remember that the media used to consider Richard both arrogant and insane, so in some sense it's a triumph for the family that the indictment is now limited to arrogance.

Richard Williams deserves to be as proud as he is. He's raised two successful daughters (actually five if you consider being a lawyer successful), they're happy and healthy and confident and full of personality. Well done, Sir.

This article originally appeared in ZoomTennis

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