Novak Djokovic: I Did Think About Leaving Tennis [Video]

Wog mentioned on the other thread that a lot more people than his wife helped and this is true. But I think most people do not want recipients at an awards ceremony to drone out a long monotonous list of people of audience has never heard of or cares much about that must be thanked. Often in TV and Film awards the words of the recipient are purely spouting their laundry list. There is really no need or obligation anymore do the laundry list thing in the days of the Internet and social media – easy to list all the contributors no one knows afterwards.

What people want to hear is what the award mean to the recipient and what they had to do to get it. What struggles occurred. What Djokovic did is something that would benefit Hollywood awardees and maybe end plummeting numbers of people watching the Emmys and Academy Awards. That and using such moments to alienate audiences to show how politically correct they are in a room of other leftist PC lovers different from 90% of the audience.

Doing the thank yous online would also allow a little context, allowing time to write and post what exactly the awardee is thankful for when citing a person. Fleshing it out. Take Delpo.

One thing I liked was Juan Martin del Potro talking last month about how important the calls he got from Novak were the times when he was down and out and thinking of hanging it up and ending his career..And Juan talked about his calls back to buck up Novak when Djokovic was struggling with injury, self-doubt, loss of confidence.Its a good thing and a credit to both competitors that they care about an on-court rival. Something more of us need to draw on, something political parties need
more of,

February 19th, 2019 at 3:08 pm

“A room of other leftist PC lovers”
I get so. so tired of Political Correctness being labelled leftist. PC was indeed invented by Americans – but not just left wingers.

This is a country that has elected a president who is right wing to the point of insanity, so it’s not a left wing society.

In America you mustn’t say someone is a cripple or disabled in any way, you must say they are “challenged”. It is a short step to treating them as if they are to blame for not rising to the challenge. Consequently The nation shuts its eyes to a health system that penalises those who cannot afford proper medical care, and when Hilary Clinton suggested there should be a decent health system, there were placards saying “No thank you, comrade Hilary”, and in the league table of general health and life expectancy, America comes somewhere about 32nd, after even Slovakia, which has only recently emerged from a brutal civil war.

Talking of war, was it not America that invented the phrase “collateral damage” to avoid facing the fact that war is nasty, and sometimes you kill the wrong people?

February 20th, 2019 at 7:43 am

^ +1

February 20th, 2019 at 3:57 pm

“..after even Slovakia, which has only recently emerged from a brutal civil war.”

Sorry to correct you, Slovakia was never in the civil war, they separated peacefully with Czechs. Strange mistake for an Englishman, I would expect that from an American, not to know where is Slovakia, Serbia or Siberia.

As for “collateral damage” that was invented by an Englishman, NATO spokesman to explain NATO maniacal bombing of hospitals, schools, passenger trains, markets, bridges, factories, power stations etc.
His name was Jamie Shea, the aggression that was brain child of Tony Blair, same as Iraq war, naive George Bush and sleazy Clinton were sucked into the wars by war criminal Tony Blair and guess what, he is labor, meaning left.

So don’t blame Americans for everything, though they have their share in that.
I am surprised in how many wars Americans were sucked in by their junior partner, England.

February 20th, 2019 at 5:23 pm

^^
Just to clarify, when I was talking about Jamie Shea and him inventing “collateral damage” phrase and NATO manical bombing, I was referring to 1999. 78 days of maniacal bombing of sovereign country, Serbia.
Besides, how anyone can say anything positive of that evil woman, war criminal Killarry, is beyond comprehension, apart of everything else she is directly responsible for ISIS, it was her and Obama who formed ISIS from former Iraqy solders and sent them to overthrow Asad and then all the hell broke loose, ahh those republicans…wait a minute, they are democrats, no?

February 20th, 2019 at 6:16 pm

I haven’t realised that this is not off topic thread, I only saw Colin’s post, my apologies for replying on Nole’s thread instead off topic thread.

February 20th, 2019 at 8:30 pm

^ Most historians, journalists, etc. all seem to agree that ISIS was born in 2003-04 out of the American invasion of Iraq, so we can thank George Bush (or, perhaps more accurately, Dick Cheney) for that.

February 21st, 2019 at 6:26 pm

https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/87582276

https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/thomasdelbeccaro/2017/02/16/are-the-democrats-helping-isis-recruit/amp/

Now, can I see the names of those credible “historians”, their articles and facts, thanks?

February 21st, 2019 at 8:56 pm

Can you move on off topic thread, please.

Something about Nole, this is his thread, Agassi had to say something about Nole:

“No one better than Novak Djokovic at his best: Andre Agassi”

Check Agassi’s interview for Times of India.

February 21st, 2019 at 9:20 pm

1. PC was used by the Soviets as a stamp of approval to the purity of Party members who correctly toed the Bolshevik and Stalinist line. (1926) The rival totalitarians, the Nazis drew inspiration from Bolshevik and Stalinist teachings and also said membership was limited to Aryans of the proper political correctness. It was a pejorative word beginning in the early 1950s used by socialists to denounce communist ideology as too rigid, too correct, too lacking in compassion. Lot of debate then happened about the Red Guard and the Cultural Revolution regulating thought and the New Left. Curiously, the 1st place it was codified into law was Canada, which guided by the New Left in the late 60s, took restrictions on anti-Semitic speech prevalent in Europe since the late 40s and extended that to all “oppressed groups” in Canada. The Human Rights Act of 1971, then 1977, set up tribunals, fines, and what could get a person sacked of words and speech that repressed those minorities. It then spread to Eurocrats, universities which busily passed laws to punish incorrectness of speech that “repressed” anyone that claims offense, hurt. (Except speech against the West the oppressor race, Christianity, and those conservatives and moderates of repressive inclination). Then onto the USA in the mid 80s.

2. Germans and Soviets had words about “side damage” other than to the target in WWII on artillery barrages. The US and Britain used similar ‘extra casualties and damage other than to the enemy war effort” in their strategic bombing campaigns. Websters dictionary states the 1st use of the phrase collateral (latin meaning of root – ‘in addition to) damage was a 1947 US military document exploring reimbursement to infrastructure depending on if it was deliberately destroyed (town bridge blown up by manual explosives placed by the US Army to cover a Netherlands retreat) or accidentally while targeting the enemy. (Sorry, we hit a school, a hospital and half a neighborhood in N Italy by mistake while trying to bomb oil tanks serving 2 armored Divisions).

It entered most nations manuals by the late 1950s, as it was also a legal matter of defining liability under that concept. The Left began maligning the term in the 60s as proof the military would not purely limit harm to only uniformed soldiers.

February 21st, 2019 at 11:34 pm

A bit of PC is not bad, but we have too much of it lately. Am also not a fan of right wing extremism. Politics is giving me head aches lately. Am a huge admirer of the scandinavian society, the perfect socialism is there perhaps. In the capitalist countries the people are somehow robbed by the huge corporations (with other words, they are pretty much f*cked but they get a coke an have the feeling they have the freedom of speech) , same as the people in the communist coutries were/are robbed in order to make the state happy.

February 22nd, 2019 at 9:50 am

WB,

I did read what Agassi said about Nole. I like Agassi more and more :)

February 22nd, 2019 at 9:52 am

Thanks for the USA Today article and the good reads about Trump! I don’t read enough about that guy as it is :P He’s so wise on foreign policy anyway.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levant#Foundation_(1999%E2%80%932006)

History.com:
https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/isis

The encyclopedia:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Islamic-State-in-Iraq-and-the-Levant

February 22nd, 2019 at 2:16 pm

Yes, I actually was Agassi fan as a player (never liked Sampras) and I believe he has big heart, nice human being.
I like your comment too, it is coming from someone who experienced both worlds so can judge fairly and squarely.

I can’t understand people who lived all their comfortable life in liberal capitalism, obviously being middle (upper clas), but yet they are quoting Karl Marx and advocating communism, they are representing what we use to call “salonski komunista” in English something like “elite club communists”.
To quote somebody who got it completely wrong and brought the misery and tragedy to millions of people with his theories is very ignorant. Even he admitted that he was wrong to predict communist revolution will happen in most developed countries with strong working class (namely England), and change it for least developed country with basically no working class but peasants, which happened in Russia since it was easier to manipulate uneducated people, like in most Eastern European countries at the time, no industry, no working class, 90% peasants.
Yet, after all what he was preaching and poisoning the minds of the people, he moved to very country he predicted will have bloody revolution and lived comfortably in hated capitalism mostly financed by his rich boyfriend Friedrich who had factories in Manchester, and they lived happily ever after.
I agree about Scandinavia too, they got it right.

Who ever wants to argue about Karl Marx and his work, don’t forget that we, in Eastern Europe, were force fed with his books and theories starting from high school, it was compulsory.

February 22nd, 2019 at 3:32 pm

VP,
One more thing, in that interview Agassi is absolutely right about “shaking Nole’s cage” (what we would say) by dumping him together with Stepanek. Nole needed someone to shake his cage, he was dangerously deep in f…n la-la-land, and it worked.

February 22nd, 2019 at 4:49 pm

Van Persie @ 9.50am.

I’m still gripped by BREXIT…it’s giving me a body rash. I’d love to express what I think but if I even begin I’d be barred from commenting ever again.
Re. Scandinavian countries – “their perfect socialism” means having plenty of money – and in my humble opinion, divisive categories of wealth are beginning to rise to the surface.

February 23rd, 2019 at 4:25 am

JK,

I get you with the Brexit, I will only tell this. The EU as idea, was not bad, but again, it does not work. It is hard, if not impossible to unite somehow countries with such cultural differences. It is too artificial. I am looking at China, boy, a centralized state since thousands of years!
In my opinion, Western Europe and USA are in economical decline and we have all this s*it in politics, as they are failing to find a solution.
I am pretty pessimistic about Europe’s future, with or without Brexit and just enjoying the moment. lol

WB,

Cheers! 😉

February 23rd, 2019 at 7:21 am

“The EU as idea, was not bad, but again, it does not work.”

Agree VP, same as communism, on the paper ideal system, in reality impossible, utopia. The reason why is because it depends on human behaviour and humans are most rotten and corrupted creatures.
You can teach 10 dogs in the same household to eat from their own bowl and not to touch next dog bowl, not even to look at it. You can’t do that with humans, human would first go for next human bowl and then for his, that’s why communism failed…they couldn’t teach humans to eat only from their own bowls.
I was thinking something, not that I am good at it, when God was creating the world (for the people who don’t believe in Darwin’s theory, I don’t) on the sixth day he should have taken day off and go for a beer instead of creating man and consequently woman, this world would be much nicer place without humans, even God makes mistakes;)

February 23rd, 2019 at 5:00 pm

Van Persie: Agreed. Germany, France, Italy all have huge problems. I actually voted Leave. But at this stage I just want them to get on with it…and don’t really care any longer ….

February 23rd, 2019 at 5:18 pm

Wog Boy: Don’t you know, God made Switzerland and by the 7th day he was so exhausted at fulfilling their demands (mountains, valleys, money – even the Fed.) that he asked for a cup of coffee – when delivered he was asked to pay for it.

February 23rd, 2019 at 5:23 pm

JK,
👍😂

February 23rd, 2019 at 5:25 pm

JK,

Good joke. :)

WB,

Yeah, humans are the worst parasites in the univers. Consuming and destroying pretty much everything.

About communism, it is funny yo see how Western Europe, and even America, is using the communist ideology(without to admit! ) lately, in order to survive. Also ironic to see how China beats them by using the capitalist weapons in economy. There is no way to survive, by being purely capitalist or socialist or communist.

February 24th, 2019 at 2:17 am