Serena Williams Covers Hamptons Mag

Even though she's not participating in this year's U.S. Open due to injury, right before the festivities began she hosted an event in NYC to celebrate her Hamptons Magazine cover and help build awareness about Russell Simmons D.E.F. (Diamond Empowerment Fund.) Both were in attendance.

Ever since these pictures came out everyone has been talking about possible plastic surgery she may have gotten done. I can't confirm or deny but I know she looks gorgeous and I told her so when I interviewed her on the carpet so whatever surgeon she used should be very proud of his work. Check out this video where I caught up with both Serena and Russell.

Smarty's Most Memorable Sports Moment '09

Under normal circumstances, I am not a fan of country club sports. In golf and tennis, there's no contact. There won't be any bodies crashing into each other pursuit of the ball or points. There's just the athlete and the sport. It's a mind game, really, like watching somebody play Chess on TV.
But this year has proven to be exciting for two country club sport athletes in particular. Of course Tiger Woods is fresh on our minds because it just happened. But I want to go back a few months for this moment.
On Day 13 of the 15-day long US Open for tennis, Serena Williams went ape shit on a line judge for calling a foot fault. Let's watch:

Dear Jason Whitlock ...

... please, I'm begging you, go somewhere, anywhere, and sitchoass down!
OK, OK, maybe I should explain myself a little bit here. Against my better judgment, I read your column on a semi-regular basis. Maybe it's just me, but it seems that everything I've read that you've written is something negative.
In your July 9 column, you talked about Women's Wimbledon champ, Serena Williams and how even though she, along with her sister Venus, have dominated the tennis grand slams for the past decade, she can still do better. According to you, she lacks focus, she's greedy (food wise), she's out of shape and she has too much ass to be the world's best.
You'll have to excuse me, and black women everywhere, when we tell you to fuck off! Yea, I said it!
You sit behind your computer, with your stats and Krispy Kremes, watching Sportscenter looking for top athletes to piss on because you lack even the basic skills to play any of the sports you write about.
In your column, you say that Serena's fans are "rationalizing her failure." You, or anyone else, can hardly call 11 grand slam singles titles and nine grand slam doubles titles a failure. Since her debut in 1995, she and her sister have done more to expose this country club sport to more people than your lil' column will ever reach.
And in what world is Serena Williams out of shape? While I'm sure you're an authority on the subject, with your sweating butter and all, her presence in such tourneys is indicative of just how in shape she is. I'm pretty sure you only train to run fast enough to catch up with the ice cream truck, but she puts in actual work to chase balls all over the court and to return serves of more than 100 mph.
If you spent more time at actual sporting events than you do fast food drive-thrus you might actually have a better grasp of what it is they do. So until you stop hating on active, FIT athletes, I will refrain from reading anymore of your hate columns and encourage my fellow sports lovers to do the same. Good day, sir.

Sincerely,

Smarty Jones

Tennis grunts distracting?

Former No. 1 women's tennis pro Chris Everet was recently interviewed by Reuters saying that the grunts by the tennis players today are becoming a bit much. According to Reuters, Everet said, "It comes before they hit the shot. That's the first thing you hear and you are kind of like thrown off guard as a player and then before you know the ball gets past you."
Is it just me or has Everet admitted to letting the other players throw her off her own game? Tennis, for the most part, is an individual sport. Everything starts and ends with you. The coaches can't even coach you while you're playing. It's up to you to take what they have taught and put it into practice.
As a former athlete of mostly team sports, when there is a loss, there is enough blame to go around. Somebody didn't rebound, somebody else had an off shooting night and somebody else wasn't covering their man. My point is, in team sports, there's always some one else to blame. In individual sports, there's just you and the opponent.
I said that to say, if the opponent gets you off your game, it's your fault. It's your job to practice game like situations. What's to stop you from having someone grunt at you while you practice? If you ask me, Everett is like the chick who stands up for her solo on Sunday mornings sayings she has a cold and asking the church to pray with her as she does the song. What they're really saying is "if I eff this up, it ain't my fault!"
When I was throwing shot and discus, if I didn't place well, it was MY fault. Not the big chick who could throw the damn things a mile. It was all mine. Maybe I didn't train hard enough or maybe I just sucked, but it was no one's fault but mine. So, Everett, accept it, you suck under pressure. Move on, start to commentate. Get a real job, just make sure you're not under pressure.
You'll suck at it!