Gimelslob

The guy has already allowed him named to be made fun of, amusingly and self-deprecatingly, for a Tennis Warehouse commercial, so I'm not breaking any new ground here. Like seemingly everyone else, I have intermittently found Justin Gimelstob kinda funny, kinda worth listening to, and kinda worth reading (he wrote for Sport Illustrated's website for a while). However, you gotta question the wisdom of the comments he made on a D.C. talk radio show, promoting his World Team Tennis franchise, the Washington Kastles. Calling them "comments" is really too generous, since he basically spent his air time talking crude smack about Anna Kournikova.

Now, Kournikova may be all that J-Gob says she is, I have no way of knowing. But one wonders: WTF was he thinking? He's actually managed to position himself, in spite of his not terribly impressive career and his extremely slender calves, as an up-and-coming analyst on the tube. He's basically been offering up much of the expert opinionating for the Tennis Channel's Wimbly coverages, and by and large, he's been fairly good. Now this.

Mind you, he has been doing his work while sitting next to Martina Navratilova, who cannot be the sort who would have taken kindly to what he had to say about Anna K., or any of the other female players Gimelstob, um... brought up while his was on the radio. Credit to her professionalism that she hasn't slipped in a comment of her own. I hope she gave him a talkin' to off air--evidently the Tennis Channel "reprimanded" him, which probably means that they couldn't ditch him during the Wimbledon coverage because they didn't have anyone else to fill in.

What he said provides him with no upside and actually borders on semi-suicidal, career-wise. A lot of ladies he mentioned let him off the hook. Lucky man.

Anyway, the doofus apologized, as they always do.