King also tackled the topic of Serena Williams: her fitness and how she detests losing.
"First of all, she hates to lose. But physically, she’s just, oh my god, she’s a bomb. She’s great. I think emotionally and mentally, she hates to lose. I’ve never seen somebody hate to lose as much as she does. And I’m a big believer in most champions hate to lose more than they like to win. I hated to lose. We hate to lose."
It's well documented that American men's tennis hasn't seen a major singles champion since Andy Roddick pounced on the 2003 U.S. Open title. King addressed that as well: "We don’t have enough champions. We don’t have one male champion right now. We need a male champion, we only really have Serena in women’s. We have Madison Keys coming up, but people yearn for a male champion, and we need one. We’ve got a lot of Top 100 players."
The conversation turned to the ballyhoo over Bruce Jenner's transition to Caitlyn Jenner after her highly publicized and widely viewed sit-down interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC. Never short on opinions, and worthy ones to express, King took on that topic as well.
"The most important thing you want for people is to be their authentic self," she said. "Whatever that is, whoever you are, you want that. And I'm really happy for Caitlyn because it seems like she's finally going to be who she wants to be. There's probably somebody gay in every family. There's a lot of kids who are transgender. ... People have to have compassion and understanding. This is life, and you have to understand that it's okay."
King also praised the fact that NBA player Jason Collins went from announcing himself as the first openly gay active player in that league to actually working for the organization. It's a far cry from her experience of losing all her endorsements "overnight" after it came to light that she was a gay woman.
That's Billie Jean King: forever speaking truth to the times at hand.
Got a tip or a point to make? Hit me on Twitter at @jonscott9.
