King Richard Reflections By Chris Lewit
finally had a chance to watch “King Richard”, one of the best tennis films I have seen— perhaps ever—and I would like to share my thoughts as both a high-performance coach and parent. Richard Williams was wonderfully portrayed by Will Smith who delivered a powerful performance. The acting—by all involved—was excellent overall and even the tennis technique was fairly close to the actual strokes of the sisters and their competitors, which helped the realism of the film. It is very difficult to find good actors who can also demonstrate decent technique and make it all work in a dramatic movie. It was cool that the actor portraying Venus even mimicked the hitch in her two-handed backhand. I’m interested in the level of accuracy of the story that was portrayed in the movie. For example, Richard Williams was a chronic smoker and this aspect was not included in the film. Another discrepancy was when Rick Macci visited the Williams family in Compton. In his excellent and highly
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recommended book, Macci Magic, Rick has a slightly different version of events as they transpired. For example, Macci says in his book that Richard did not commit until months later—not immediately as depicted in the film. Another discrepancy in the film is that the breakup of Macci and Richard—which is notorious in the tennis world—is never presented. Macci discusses the split at length in his book. Richard got a deal with Reebok and bought a house in West Palm Beach, hired away a couple of Macci’s hitters, and started coaching the girls himself, according to Rick, in Macci Magic. In addition, Richard tried to change all the terms of Rick’s contract, which Rick refused to accept. Rick admits that the rift was so great that he prepared a 14 million dollar lawsuit against Richard. Yet, in the book and in many recent media interviews, Macci claims Richard and he were best friends. That’s hard to believe. Overall, however, Macci has claimed the movie is very accurate. Discrepancies aside, the movie is riveting and dramatic, and it holds
New York Tennis Magazine • March/April 2022 • NYTennisMag.com
many lessons for parents and coaches. It is interesting that the movie juxtaposes the pressures of the father with the pressures applied by the coach. In the film, Richard clearly accuses Rick of malpractice with Capriati, highlighting her fall from grace and turn to drugs, a situation that Macci laughed off and minimized in the film. Rick, in turn, accuses Richard of putting too much pressure on the girls by billing them as the next great champions all the time. Those countervailing positions are intriguing. You have two men tied up in a business deal together with a lot of money at stake, and they are both accusing each other of pushing the girls too hard to get success. The film suggests that Richard saved the girls from a similar fate as Capriati. I wonder if this is how the story really went—or if it was Rick who tried to protect the girls from their father. The film’s condemnation of the junior circuit is striking. Richard repeatedly suggests that the junior circuit is worse than Compton, the way the kids and the parents behave.
