Lindsay Davenport: Billie Jean King

The stars of our sport shared stories about their heroes, both in life and on the court, and how these idols shaped who they are today. For more "My Hero" submissions, click here.

I first met Billie in 1995—she was my first Fed Cup captain. As a 19-year-old, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was a very shy, insecure teenager going through my parents’ divorce. But she’s just one of those people that, when you’re around her, it’s absolutely impossible not be motivated or inspired.

Her ability over the next 10 years to support and encourage were amazing to me when I was playing, and even in this last year when I started coaching. She is always there to give me her take, on how she would help somebody, or how to say something. I can always pick up the phone and call her and I know she’ll help me. She’s one of the reasons why it was acceptable to be a female coach, to get involved, to give back, and achieve all these things even though your playing days are done.

When she was coaching Fed Cup, she was crazy on the court. She wouldn’t hit with us—we would always try to tease her and get her out on the court—but she would always be ready to go with a burst of energy. When we would play matches, she would only look at us. She would put her hands up near her eyes and just focus on the player that she was coaching, whether it would be me or Monica Seles or Mary Jo Fernandez. There were some matches where I would be, like, Billie, stop doing that! But even though she was set in her ways, she was always willing to make us better. If something bothered Monica and something else bothered me, she would try to adapt for all of us.

I always remember her taking me aside the night before I played the gold-medal match in Atlanta, in 1996, and talking to me for an hour. She would always try to lessen the pressure with us. That night, she said, “This is a huge deal; I’m not going to B.S. you that it’s not.” But she talked me through the whole thing and tried to get me prepared. I will always look back on that talk as a changing point in my career—she made me confront it, and that it was a big deal. With my personality, that was a little bit hard to do.

I was crazy lucky that, during the height of my career, she was the Fed Cup and Olympic captain. She was amazing.

Photo (of 1966 Fed Cup win; King on right) from Wikimedia Commons