ATP CEO

Adam Helfant a former Nike executive and Harvard lawyer is to be named shortly as the ATP CEO, unless there is a dramatic change of heart. This change of heart I hope for and pray holds true and respectfully ask for the interview process to be extended to other candidates and reviewed again.

Clearly, this man selected so far is very smart as he is another Harvard kid. I have met many people who have gone to Harvard and they were all smart and also socially awkward and all had these big dramatic life experience stories attached to their achilles tendon. It actually saddens me that unless you went to Harvard you don't have a shot to work in the tennis upper offices because that appears to be the minimum requirement of hiring these days. If I had known I would surely have done better in my Princeton High School so that I could have gone to this school. I know that I wanted to go to that school but I never knew why, I just knew that I wanted to. After a few years I was not sure why anymore because it was not in Florida, so really who is the smarter one now? I would like to officially extend a challenge to Helfant in a game of chess to see who is truly the smarter kid, and then a set of tennis to seal the deal.

Helfant will join three other men in tennis that went to Harvard who are CEO's with the WTA, ITF, and US Open. Do you think that a lawyer's training will really be useful for calendar shifts and upset tournament directors? Let's be honest, does this guy even play tennis or know how the tennis scoring works? The ATP has potentially hired an outsider, AGAIN. Villiers was the outgoing and now former CEO of the ATP and was a Disney Executive previously (similar to Nike) and just destroyed player relations and was ousted in the press as a vicious CEO with awful player relations and everybody couldn't wait to see him go including himself. How is this selection going to be any different? It is always wrong to bring in an outsider to do an insider's job. It's nothing personal, but does Helfant even know how to hit a backhand? It's like bringing me in to run the NBA or NHL or any other sport besides tennis, its absoultely ridiculis this and this may sound harsh but its true that this decision potentially brings a boatload of shame to people in the running for this spot who have a tennis background.

When I need an oil change I go to the mechanic and get an oil change, I don't ask my lawyer to change my oil. If someone wants a tennis lesson I don't send them to a mechanic. This appointment saddens me and I hope it is reversed...Adam I am sure you are a great guy, but surely something else will come up, you might as well form your own company and surely its not about the money...or is it (didn't Nike pay you enough)? I do have some personal stake in this as well as I have fortunately spoken to the only three American Board Members of the ATP (there are six total) in the past week now and they were all really great, witty guys, especially the South African. If you have not spoken to a South African on the phone it is one of the coolest things ever. All my calls were brilliant and they all sounded brilliant (except for the one who thought it was a prank call which was entertaining in its own right) while I was trying to promote myself to get a last minute interview in front of the board and hopefully swing their votes. I am sure they probably all got enamored as anyone would with a Harvard guy who worked for the NHL and Nike and is good looking. It's easy to lose sight of the whole tennis concept and what the spot is being filled for. If you guys like him so much, bring him in has in-house counselor not as the TOP GUN. The outspoken one of the bunch on the Board was Gimelstob in which case said the decision was finalized and that came straight from the horses mouth but there appears to be no official press releases on the most important newslines in this situation which is TENNIS.com, TENNIS MAGAZINE, ATPTENNIS.com a Press Conference on the Tennis Channel or ESPN which leads me to believe there may still be time to change this selection or maybe I will just wait for the next one.

Anywho, what was a short jewish kid from jersey who went to UTampa, dropped out of law school to play mediocre professional tennis at best, and is only 28 thinking anyways?