Notable among America's national habits is our long and passionate love affair with great athletes. Along with superlative athletic skills, those many athletes firmly shared a common belief: that the greatest honor and responsibility that could be bestowed upon an American athlete was to be selected to represent the United States of America in competition with fine athletes from all over the world.
Perhaps the epitome of that belief was the great sprinter, Jesse Owens. Son of a sharecropper and grandson of a slave, this skinny teenager found that God had given him the gift of great agility and blinding speed. In an age blighted by racism and widespread poverty, this young man dared to dream of the matchless honor of representing the United States in competition with the world's best. There was never a man who was more thrilled to compete for the honor of this country. There was never an American athlete who more deserved undying fame.For today's professional athletes who participate in competitions such as the Davis Cup in tennis, the Ryder Cup in golf and the World Cup in soccer as well as the Olympic Games, the pay is small or nonexistent compared to what they customarily earn; but for them the money is entirely beside the point. They participate because, like the great sprinter Jesse Owens, they want to represent their country against the best athletes from other nations. As the flamboyant superstar Charles Barkley, recently said when selected for this year's "Dream Team II" in the Atlanta Olympic Games: "It's not often you get to represent your country. It's a great honor. You've got to be crazy to turn it down."
Crazy, or just too shamefully self-centered to think of the larger and more important issues at stake in such international competitions. This year four of America's greatest tennis players - Michael Chang, Jim Courier, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi - were invited to join the American Davis Cup team. None could find the time to represent their country in the world's premier tennis competition.
Agassi offered the lame excuse that he passed up the Davis Cup because he wanted "to concentrate on the Olympic Games." This is an especially specious argument, because the Davis Cup, involving some of the world's greatest tennis players, would have provided an excellent tune-up for the Olympic Games, along with the French Open and Wimbledon. He also said that the Davis Cup should be played only every two years, instead of every year, a suggestion that has some merit, though it is hardly an excuse for ducking out of the competition.
It wasn't that these big moneymakers were being asked to represent their country at their own expense. For participating in all four one-week rounds of the competition, each of these stars could have expected to pocket a minimum of $200,000. That's a fifth of a million dollars more than anyone paid Jesse Owens to compete in Berlin.
All four had participated before. In fact, when the United States swept the Cup in 1992, three of these same four players exuberantly spoke of an American tennis dynasty in the making.
Then, within 60 days of their great team victory, the three still playing (John McEnroe had retired) declined the invitation of Davis Cup captain Tom Gorman to play in the opening rounds of the 1993 competition. The Australians knocked the American team out in the first round.
The case of the four tennis stars who put their comfort and paychecks ahead of representing their country is, alas, symptomatic of a far greater ill - the nation-destroying attitude of no longer caring much about our country. All too often today our own comfort, convenience and the almighty dollar come first.
Many successful business executives, asked to contribute a year or two of public service in Washington, have looked at the enormous pay cut and other hardships involved and decided to leave public service to others. And now, once again, we see some of America's most celebrated athletes passing up the chance to represent their country.
Of course, it's not fair to blame Courier, Sampras, Agassi and Chang for everything that has slid downhill in recent years. But they could have done their modest part to arrest the slide. Idolized by millions of fans, they could have gone just a little bit further to give their best for the honor of their country. Even the brilliant but temperamental McEnroe answered the call to give his best for the Davis Cup, saying memorably, "When my country needs me, I am there."
After all, four weeks competing for the Davis Cup is not four weeks at Guadalcanal, Chosin or Khe Sanh. The chances are real good that the contestants would have returned alive, in one piece, $200,000 richer, crowned as the best tennis players in the world and besieged for more big-ticket appearances and product endorsements. But the money argument begs the question. The real issue is answering the call to represent your country.
With little or no embarrassment, the four tennis stars passed up the honor and the opportunity to do something fine and admirable and inspiring for America. As it happened, the Czechs, whose top players were eager to do the best for their country, defeated the outmatched Americans we sent to compete.
Our four absent stars didn't lose at Prague, but the United States did. It's too bad our four stars - even one or two would have made the difference - couldn't find the time to play for their country, not only because the United States lost, but because a great many of their fellow countrymen will find it very difficult ever to look up to them as heroes again.