Billie Jean King Has Emerged as a Venerated Foremother of American Sports

published to Common Dreams on May 27, 2021

In the late 1990s, I could always draw dismissive snickers at ESPN production meetings—I was a commentator there at the time—when I lobbied for tennis champion Billie Jean King to be named that network’s number-one athlete of the twentieth century. In those days, even women sports wonks would roll their eyes and keep plugging for the likes of Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, or Muhammad Ali.

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