{"id":710220,"date":"2026-06-02T11:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T11:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/710220\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T11:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T11:00:13","slug":"tennis-icon-john-mcenroe-counting-down-until-to-return-home-from-french-open-ahead-of-nba-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/710220\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis icon John McEnroe counting down until to return home from French Open ahead of NBA Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

John McEnroe was 14 when New York last won an NBA<\/a> championship.<\/p>\n

Now 67, the former top-ranked tennis<\/a> player and notorious basketball fan is anxious to get back home from his TV commentating duties at the French Open in time to attend the Knicks\u2019 first home game of the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t ask for anything better. I\u2019ve been waiting only 53 years,\u201d McEnroe said.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSo, time has come. It\u2019s going to be awesome because (Victor) Wembanyama is out of this world. Can\u2019t ask for a better match-up. It is like a dream match-up, it\u2019s like getting your best guys to do their thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The French Open ends on Sunday (Monday AEST). Game 3 of the NBA Finals is in New York the next day.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully I\u2019ll be there,\u201d McEnroe said in Paris on Monday.<\/p>\n

\"JohnJohn McEnroe\u2019s work commitments at Roland Garros can\u2019t wrap up any quicker for the huge Knicks fan. Credit: AAP<\/p>\n

The last time the Knicks made it to the Finals was 1999, when they went down to San Antonio \u2014 the same opponent they face in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

A French reporter asked McEnroe if he\u2019s afraid of Wembanyama \u2014 the Frenchman who leads the Spurs.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, he doesn\u2019t know who the hell I am,\u201d McEnroe snapped back.<\/p>\n

Still, how can the Knicks stop Wembanyama?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if you stop him. It\u2019s probably impossible to stop him,\u201d McEnroe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just try to slow him down a little bit, I\u2019m guessing, just make other guys beat you. But they got some great other players.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Knicks won their only titles in 1970 and 1973.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved Clyde. He was my favourite,\u201d McEnroe said of Walt \u2018Clyde\u2019 Frazier.<\/p>\n

\u201cWillis (Reed). What a great team. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought that was going to happen regularly, so it took a little longer than anticipated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Josh Hart is McEnroe\u2019s favourite player on the current team.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s so hungry and just makes everyone better and the offence-defence thing,\u201d McEnroe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you got to love (Jalen) Brunson, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

McEnroe\u2019s prediction? \u201cKnicks in six.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

World No.104 in shock after producing late-night miracle<\/p>\n

2 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

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1 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John McEnroe was 14 when New York last won an NBA championship. Now 67, the former top-ranked tennis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":710221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,726,1805,1625,88824,3863,588,85,747],"class_list":["post-710220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-french-open","tag-lifestyle","tag-national-basketball-association-nba","tag-sponsored-content","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=710220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}