When we reach the point where the women athletes are getting their pick of dates just as easily as the men athletes, then we’ve really and truly arrived. Parity at last!
BILLIE JEAN KINGIn 1973, a woman could not get a credit card without her husband or father or a male signing off on it.
More Billie Jean King Quotes
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You can’tbuy that. It’s about making decisions, corrections, choices. I don’t think it’s so much about becoming a tennis player. It’s about becoming a person.
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It’s important to try to get people to think about women’s wellness.
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Sports are a microcosm of society.
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That is where the power, opportunity, and choice come from-when you have money. Money equals opportunity. There is no question.
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As far as U.S. tennis, we need new stars coming up in the pipeline, but I don’t know if we have it.
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You do have to get players every year. You have to deal with calendar. You have to deal with all kinds of things in our sport, like every sport does.
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I would have them do their skill drills as a team and their fun drills together as a team, then they have to have a match at the end of every week. They can’t just have what they call a lesson today every week.
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We have, or have had women presidents or prime ministers in Liberia, Chile, Germany, Great Britain…and yet the US of A still hasn’t had a women president. It’s just beyond my thinking. Look at Congress.
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Trust and respect is something you earn, not something that is given.
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Reputation is what others think about you. What’s far more important is character, because that is what you think about yourself.
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I didn’t really care if I had a coach that much, me personally, because I was brought up to think for myself.
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In 1973, women got 59 cents on the dollar; now we are getting 74 cents on the dollar. In the area of finance and business, we are at 68 cents on the dollar.
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It’s really impossible for athletes to grow up. On the one hand, you’re still a child, still playing a game. But on the other hand, you’re a superhuman hero that everyone dreams of being. No wonder we have such a hard time understanding who we are.
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There is no life for girls in team sports past Little League. I got into tennis when I realized this, and because I thought golf would be too slow for me, and I was too scared to swim.
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Champions keep playing until they get it right.
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You just know where to put the ball. You just feel it. It has been computed into your brain so many times it is there.
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The most important words that have helped me in life, when things have gone right or when things have gone wrong are ‘accept responsibility.’
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Some people do have softer boundaries.
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It’s very important to take tennis to the people. For young people, they get to see the best in the world.
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You’ve got to win in sports – that’s talent – but you’ve also got to learn how to remind everybody how you did win, and how often. That comes with experience.
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I like putting money back into what made my life, and tennis has been great to me.
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That’s why my place in the all-time rankings means so very little to me, because I know I won’t be anybody’s number one, and it’s that same old thing: if you’re not number one, then what does it really matter?
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In the complete overall history of tennis, I figure I’ll be worth a sentence or two….
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You have got to want to be the best before you can even begin to reach for that goal, and you have got to be prepared to sacrifice a lot to get there.
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I would just never out anybody. I think everyone has to find it in their own way and their own time.
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Pressure is a privilege – it only comes to those who earn it.
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