Calling someone the "greatest" in any sport is reserved for two groups of people.
1) Fans arguing, usually while consuminglarge quantities of BBQ, nachos, liquor or all of the above.
2) Magazines trying to sell their product.
Sports Illustrated naturally falls into that second category, and its ploy of putting
Serena Williams on the cover two weeks ago tabbed as "The Greatest Ever" has done the trick, people can't stop talking, writing and blogging about it.
It's a pretty simple formula really, although not one that enhances SI's legitimate standing in journalism.
When you're a magazine that comes out weekly in a world where news is digested instantly through another medium, you've got to take bold steps to keep people plunking down money for your print edition.
In this case, it's hailing
Serena as the greatest ever, a premature argument to make no matter if you agree with the statement
The story went out in a huge lull of time in the sporting world. Sports Illustrated needed a big, bold cover to move the merchandise. To be in mail boxes by Thursday, Sports Illustrated has an early-week deadline, which means it couldn't hold out to hear what team LeBron James was off to that Thursday night.
Nobody had pulled a big trade in major league baseball, the World Cup was a boring finish for Spain and The Netherlands and Brett Favre was still about a month out from starting his "Maybe, maybe not" shtick that we all love so much.
That means SI had to figure out another sport to bang the drum to, and tennis took center stage.
Let's face it, the magazine's long-standing East Coast bias and propensity to care infinitely more about the Big Three American pro sports means you're unlikely to make the front page of the 56-year-old rag unless you're 1) an
American player, an attractive
female player or the attractive
girlfriend of an American player
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