Brad Gilbert is regarded as one of the most entertaining television personalities in tennis, serving as an analyst for years for ESPN in the United States. Prior to his TV career – and his career as a highly regarded tennis coach – Gilbert was a very accomplished top American player, who not only won a bronze medal at the 1988 Olympics, but earned the distinction as being one of the greatest Jewish tennis players of all time, as documented in Sandy Harwitt’s book “The Greatest Jewish Tennis Players of All-Time” for sale here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/193755936X/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_EMyxxb43VBK55
The chapter on Gilbert, entitled “The Chatterbox with Something Important to Say” is excerpted here below.
The prevailing opinion from anyone who knows Brad Gilbert is that he must talk in his sleep. If you’re wondering why, the answer is pretty simple — Brad is a chatterbox. The California native is absolutely never at a loss for words and when it comes to talking tennis — or all sports, for that matter—it’s worth listening because he’s naturally gifted in providing sports analysis. It’s no wonder that Gilbert has been a highly successful professional player, coach and ESPN TV commentator — he is a self-proclaimed sports junkie.
Oh, and let’s not forget that he also has written two books: Winning Ugly, which is a description of his playing style, and I’ve Got Your Back. The premise behind Winning Ugly is it’s a book dedicated to winning matches from a mind-game perspective, a talent in which Gilbert excelled. In I’ve Got Your Back, Gilbert offers insight into the tour, a winning approach to coaching, and why great players rise up to achieve their “personal best.”
While he was attending the 2013 Orange Bowl Junior Championships at the behest of the USTA, Gilbert was asked whether he’s flattered to be considered one of the great minds in the game. He smiled at the notion: “I have to be honest with you I just feel like I compete,” Brad said. “I like to compete, and the great thing about tennis is two men enter the court and one man leaves. You get the opportunity every time you play to compete and have a chance to win.”
Gilbert was born on August 9, 1961 in Oakland, California and has an older brother Barry Jr. and older sister Dana. It’s likely that being the baby in the family explains his ability to speak frequently and quickly to get his point across, a trait of many younger siblings.
Tennis became a focus for the three Gilbert children when the sports-minded Barry Sr. discovered the game. “You know, to the best of my knowledge, I think when
my older brother was like 6 or 7, for some reason my dad bought a couple of rackets for like a dollar at a flea market or won them,” Brad said. “So they went out to play tennis a couple of times and then my dad got every book on tennis and he just said in the next few days after ‘that’s it, we’re playing tennis.’ He had never played tennis in his life. He didn’t know anything about it. So we all just started playing. I started playing at 3.”
Brad’s brother, Barry Jr., had an ATP ranking of No. 390. His sister, Dana, played on the WTA Tour for five years after attending UCLA with her best Grand Slam outing being a fourth-round finish at the 1982 French Open.
Brad paints a picture of his dad as a guy who can become totally consumed by something that catches his interest and tennis clearly did: “My dad was incredibly passionate about a few things. He’s a dying breed of a Jewish guy who thinks the Democrats are like Communists. He likes Republican politics and he loves tennis,” Brad said with a bit of a laugh.
I remember distinctly it was early in Brad’s tennis career — and early in my career as a sportswriter when I was sitting in this rickety two-story lean-to media center at the Longwood Cricket Club in Boston, Mass. It was a popular clay court event played after Wimbledon in July. Brad was just coming onto the stadium court and the phone in the press box started to ring incessantly, but the press officer was not there at the time. It became so annoying that I decided to pick it up and it was Barry Sr. — he knew Brad was on the court, the match was not being televised and he wanted a point-by-point description. When I explained that I was one of the journalists and was working but I’d tell the press officer or ATP Tour media person that he had called when they got back, he prevailed upon me to provide the details. I have to say I did sit there and give him a point-by-point of the match. I remember that he was rather desperately persuasive.
Brad definitely shares an infatuation with the game similar to his dad. And his competitive nature motivated him to the top of the tennis charts. Brad attended Foothill Junior College in Los Altos, Calif., from 1980 to 1982 and it was there where he met Tom Chivington, the school’s tennis coach, who would become Brad’s guru throughout his career. Not only did Tom often travel with Brad, but so did his wife, Georgie. The Chivingtons were, without a doubt, a second family for Brad.
While at Foothill, Brad won the California Junior College singles championship and the U.S. Amateur Hardcourt Championships held in Cleveland. In 1981, Brad was selected to the Junior Davis Cup team that traveled the American summer circuit with Steve Stefanki, the older brother of Larry Stefanki, as the team coach.
Gilbert also would take part in the 1981 Maccabiah Games in Israel, where he teamed with Jon Levine to win the gold medal in doubles. It seemed natural that Gilbert would participate in the Maccabiah Games — the Jewish Olympics — as he was raised with a nod to being Jewish and did have a Bar Mitzvah. Brad’s wife, Kim, is not Jewish but they’ve incorporated both religions lightly into raising their three children.
“I don’t come from a pseudo-religious family,” Gilbert said. “We went to a Conservative temple, maybe we would go on the High Holidays. My grandmother kept kosher, but that was about it. If you ask me if I’m Jewish, I’m Jewish. We light the candles on Hanukkah at home and I know of other things. But we have a bit of both (religions) in the house.”
While Gilbert points to the successful Jewish players during the time period he played, including his good friend Aaron Krickstein, as well as Brian Gottfried, Brian Teacher, Harold Solomon, Eliot Teltscher, Jay Berger, Amos Mansdorf, and Jim Grabb, he believes their being Jewish had little impact on their careers: “The one thing about tennis is that when you walk through the gate it doesn’t matter what religion you are, what color you are — nobody cares.
That’s the great thing about tennis, that when you’re playing a match, it’s just about a chance to compete and beat someone who is trying to beat you.”
After the summer of 1981, Gilbert returned to Foothill, but the following year he transferred to Pepperdine University where Allen Fox, a former Jewish player and
former U.S. Davis Cupper from the amateur days, was the coach. Brad would be an All-American at Pepperdine and reached the 1982 NCAA singles final, losing to Mike Leach of Michigan. With Brad’s assistance, Pepperdine posted an impressive 23-5 record for the season.
In the end, however, Gilbert would end his college days to turn pro after his junior year and start traveling on the tour. He would spend nine of his first 10 years on tour ranked in the top 10, reaching a career high of No. 4 in January 1990. Gilbert would win 20 career titles, was a valued member of the U.S. Davis Cup team, reached the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open in 1987 and Wimbledon in 1990, and won the 1988 Olympic singles bronze medal in Seoul, South Korea. And he achieved remarkable victories over many of the greats of the game — Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Pete Sampras, Jim Courier, John McEnroe, and even Jimmy Connors.
Still, Gilbert is one of those guys that is always hard on himself. So even when asked to remember back to what the highlight of his career was he offered it with a glass half-empty instead of half-full mentality; “Hey, it’s just great I got to play for 13 1/2 years and loved every minute of it,” he said. “Probably my biggest high and low came at the same tournament. Getting a bronze medal, but I always think that maybe I got ahead of myself in thinking it should’ve been the gold because there was a great opportunity with Edberg losing. There was some opportunities but I lost to my teammate Tim Mayotte, so it was probably the high of my career and the low because I thought I had a chance to win it.”
To this day, you’ll find tennis insiders and fans scratching their head at the success Gilbert had in the game. His big weapon wasn’t a serve, a volley, or anything like that. In fact, when it came to his strokes he didn’t have a big weapon — he had a fine serve, a finer return-of-serve, good groundstrokes, and decent volleys — but nothing stood out as breathtaking. What Gilbert had beyond speedy court coverage was his uncanny ability to frustrate an opponent. He relentlessly fought for every last point. He was adept in taking players out of their own game and many thought he cleverly lulled opponents into an ineffectual daze.
When he retired from tennis in 1995 having earned over $5.5 million in prize money, Brad was not ready to walk away from the game he loved. Toward the end of his career — in 1994 — he started to switch gears by becoming Andre Agassi’s coach. His alliance with Andre lasted until January 2002 and during their time together Andre won six major singles titles and once again became the No. 1 player in the world. The next year, Gilbert started working with Andy Roddick and it was during their partnership that Roddick won his lone major title at the 2003 U.S. Open.
Gilbert also had coaching stints with Andy Murray, Alex Bogdanovic, Sam Querrey, and Kei Nishikori, the latter who was Brad’s son Zach’s roommate at the Nick Bollettieri Academy.
A guy who is clearly capable of multitasking, Gilbert is also one of the faces of ESPN’s tennis coverage and, to be sure, he keeps the commentary lively and insightful. Tennis addicts listening in to Brad dissect a match consider it pure heaven as well as a teaching lecture on how to play the best tennis possible.
If Brad’s friend Aaron Krickstein tells it like it is — and there’s no doubt he is doing so — the older Brad still is as enthusiastic as ever and most resembles the energizer bunny in everything he does: “I’ve stayed at Brad’s house several times and a few times we’ve gotten up early,” Krickstein said, laughing. “I’m not a bad morning person but I like to have some quiet time and coffee. I like to read the paper and digest everything and have a cup of coffee. But that’s not the way
it is when Brad is around. He’s going to tell me everything before I read it from the get go – from 7 a.m. he’s going to be going non-stop. And I’m like, ‘Take a breath, Brad, I’m just like waking up here. That’s his personality — you’ve gotta love Brad for who he is.”
And who Brad happens to be is a guy totally content with the life he leads.
“I’ve been really fortunate,” Gilbert said. “Since I’m 20 — I’m 52 now — so 32 years later I’m still involved in tennis and I still love it.”
