Mastodon
@Nashville Predators

John McEnroe’s epic Wimbledon meltdown: ‘You cannot be serious!’ | ESPN Archives



On June 22, 1981, John McEnroe had arguably his most famous on-court meltdown, shouting “You cannot be serious!” at chair umpire Edward James. McEnroe would go on to win the match and defeat his rival Bjorn Borg in the finals to be crowned the 1981 Wimbledon champion.

✔ Subscribe to ESPN+ https://plus.espn.com/
✔ Get the ESPN App: http://www.espn.com/espn/apps/espn
✔ Subscribe to ESPN on YouTube: http://es.pn/SUBSCRIBEtoYOUTUBE
✔ Subscribe to ESPN FC on YouTube: http://bit.ly/SUBSCRIBEtoESPNFC
✔ Subscribe to NBA on ESPN on YouTube: http://bit.ly/SUBSCRIBEtoNBAonESPN
✔ Watch ESPN on YouTube TV: http://es.pn/YouTubeTV

Exclusive interviews with Rachel Nichols https://urlzs.com/jNURe
Stephen A. Smith on ESPN https://urlzs.com/W19Tz

ESPN on Social Media:
► Follow on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/espn
► Like on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/espn
► Follow on Instagram: www.instagram.com/f/espn

Visit ESPN on YouTube to get up-to-the-minute sports news coverage, scores, highlights and commentary for NFL, NHL, MLB, NBA, College Football, NCAA Basketball, soccer and more.

More on ESPN.com: http://www.espn.com

25 Comments

  1. He was right it was in lol but as an athlete sometimes officials miss a call and you have to deal with it.

  2. I always thought it was from a galaxy far, far away. And a long time ago. Then I see Han Solo at 3:12 and now I don't know what to think anymore.

  3. Amazing how John always managed to keep his temper in check when he was playing Bjorn Borg, wonder why that was. Gotta love McEnroe, I miss the personalities of that era, even though I may not have appreciated it so much at the time.

  4. "Pits of the world." An iconic riposte from an iconic sportsman. Those pompous officials were enough to give anyone the heebee-jeebees. Modernity/Professionalism v. The Ancien Regime/Amateurism.

  5. Complete brat should have been taken off the court for ungentlementry behaviour.wether the referee made a mistake or not you should respect his decision

  6. Just incredible how ancient, slow and unprofessional this all looks. As well as tiny. The game has evolved somewhat.

  7. A genius on and off the pitch

    I still remember the final of the Davis Cup against Vilas and Clerc in 1981, when he cooled off the game by throwing himself to the ground, inventing that the court was damaged.

    and he achieved what he wanted that afternoon, they won the doubles with Fleming in the fifth set of chance

  8. the man should have been thrown out of tennis. the only reason he was tolerated was for TV ratings.

  9. Well, you really can't be mad at Mac here. That call was just atrocious as even at live speed it was easy to see that serve was in. Mac lost his temp quite a bit during his career on such calls, but the bottom line is he was virtually always proven correct when the replay occurred. The guy was not Jonesing for calls. He was calling out poor line judges and poor chair umpires. The chair umpire in this match should have been embarrassed by his obvious incompetence or bias.

  10. I was in high school watching this live on tv. John was my favorite player of that era. I even wore that same shirt when I played tennis.

  11. I have no problem with pro-sportsmen who are passionate about their sports. However i EFFING hate people like John McEnroe when they act like total psychos. I DO know it must be frustrating if you feel a ball was inside the field and the referee thinks differently. However, throughout a tennis game – you will have decisions that go against you and you will have decisions that are positive towards you. In the long run those decisions will outweigh each other. People who think that referees have a personal vendetta against someone, they are paranoid or have other severe mental issues.

  12. Coming to adjudicate sometjing he never saw 😆 at least the announcer was honest about that 😂

Write A Comment