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Andre Agassi

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2026-02-04
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2026-02-04
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  1. “And downs, even the misery, this wouldn't be possible. I even reserve some gratitude for myself, for all the good and bad choices that led me here. The same court on which you suffer your bloodiest defeat can become the scene of your sweetest triumph.”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  2. “Having to repeat things to yourself, and make yourself believe things that either other people might think is crazy, but you have to believe it. And so even though he's still in this downfall, he's being interviewed and they're talking about two other players who are fighting for number one. Remember, this guy's like a number 141 at the time. And they ask him, which one of these two do you think will ultimately be number one? And I say neither. They laugh nervously. I think I'm going to be number one. They laugh a lot. They laugh loudly. No, really, I mean it. They stare and then dutifully write my insane prediction in their notebooks. And so even though he's in the process of rebuilding himself, rebuilding his life, he still has these times of insane fear and doubt. He's talking to JP, which I mentioned earlier is one of his most important confidants and friends throughout this entire story. One night I tell JP that I feel remarkable confidence in my game and new purpose for being on the court. So how come I still feel fear? Doesn't the fear ever go away?”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  3. “I'm slow, fat, frail as a kitten. I haven't picked up a dumbbell in a year. I've never been so disgusted with myself. And so at this time, he's reading Nelson Mandela's autobiography, and there's one of Nelson Mandela's favorite quotes that Andre would identify with and repeat to himself, I am master of my fate, I am captain of my soul. And so during this time, he actually gets to go to dinner with Mandela. And there's something that Mandela says during this talk that really resonates with Andre. And Mandela says, we must all care for one another. That is our task in life. Well, we must also care for ourselves, which mean we must be careful in our decisions, careful in our relationships, careful in our statements. We must manage our lives carefully in order to avoid becoming victims. I feel as if he speaking directly to me, as if he's aware that I've been careless with my talent and my health. And so remember when you talked about being in the shower.”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  4. “For once I don't hear the nagging self doubt that follows every personal resolution. I won't fail this time. I can't because it's changed now or changed never. The idea of stagnating, of remaining this Andre for the rest of my life, that's what I find truly depressing and shameful. Decisions, especially bad ones create their own kind of momentum, and momentum can be a bitch to stop. I have decided to recommit myself to tennis to start at the minor leagues and work my way back up. I'm twenty seven, the age when tennis players start to fade, and I'm talking about a second chance.”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  5. “I say nothing. I stare out the window. I hate tennis more than ever, but I hate myself more. I tell myself, so what if you hate tennis? Who cares? All those people out there, all the millions who hate what they do for a living, they do it anyway. So you hate tennis, hate it all you want. You still need to respect it and yourself. I say, okay, Brad, I'm not ready for it to be over. I'm all in. Tell me what to do, and I'll do it. And so Andre makes the decision he buys in, he wants to change. Remember, he said, I hate myself. I hate what I'm doing to myself. Time to change, Andre. You can't go on like this. Change, change, change. I say this word to myself several times a day every day while buttering my morning toast while brushing my teeth, less a warning than a soothing chant, far from depressing me or shaming me the idea that I must change completely from top to bottom brings me back to center.”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  6. “Women on the planet. This guy's got it all. And really, I hate what I do. I hate myself. I don't want to marry this woman, and I'm smoking and snorting crystal meth. And so he winds up getting married because they're super famous. There's paparazzi everywhere. And so before they leave the church, they have a decoy bride. So somebody looks like Brooke dressed like her. They leave first to throw the paparazzi off the scent. And he says, now as I see the Brooke look like leaving, I have a thought no man should have on his wedding day. I wish I were leaving too. I wish I had a decoy groom to take my place. He pulls out of all the tournaments. His wife goes to work in Los Angeles. Andre goes back to Vegas, hangs out with his assistant and friend Slim, and they just spend their days getting high. And anytime he does play, he embarrasses himself, and this is again why you need people that care about you, in your corner, people that you trust that have your best interests in heart. And this is why Brad.”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  7. “What's going on here? And he says, Hey, do you want to get high with me? Hi. He says, yeah. On what? Gak. What the hell is Gak? Crystal Meth. Why do they call it Gak? Because that's the sound you make when you're high. Your mind is going so fast all you can say is gak gak gak. That's how I feel all the time. What's the point? This will make you feel like Superman, dude, I'm telling you. And as if they're coming out of someone else's mouth, someone standing directly behind me, I hear these words. You know what? Fuck it. Let's get high. He cuts it, snorts it, he cuts it again, I snort it. I'm seized by an urge, a desperate desire to clean. I don't sleep for two days. Think about how different the perception of his life is at this point than what it actually is. World famous tennis player former number one Grand Slam winner engaged to one of the most beautiful.”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  8. “He calls over the ref. He tells the ref that Ogassi said fuck you. The referee approached and says, did you say that? Yes. Then this match is over. Fine, fuck you too. And he just starts to lose and lose and lose and get more depressed. Rock. And this is what he says. This is very fascinating. Rock bottom can be very cozy because at least you're at rest. You know you're not going anywhere for a while. So he feels he has no control over his professional life and at the very same time, he feels he has no control over his personal life. He is engaged. His soon to be wife is, of course, planning the wedding. And yet he cannot muster the courage to put a stop to it before it happens. My wedding looms. I think about it all the time. I think about postponing it, about calling it off together, but I don't know how. And so his friend and assistant offers him a way to deal with this stress. And, you know, obviously depressed.”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  9. “In 98 99. And during this fall, this is where he loses motivation. He has no self-control. He's got a bunch of injuries. He starts doing drugs. He stops training seriously. He's depressed. And he goes all the way from number one, all the way down to 141. And he starts to have to play these challenger tournaments, which literally unheard of. There was no former number one in the world playing these challenger tournaments that he starts again at the very, very bottom. And one of the sources, this uncontrollable anger, it reminds you of a lot of his father. So he's playing in the tournament. His opponent just broke his serve. And he says, I cannot let go of my sudden anger. I look up at the sky and fantasize about flying away. Since I can't fly away, at least this tennis ball can fly away. Be free, little ball. I whack it high above the stands and out of the stadium. Automatic warning the umpire says into the microphone code violation, warning, abuse of ball Fuck you, I say”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  10. “I think wait, wait, wait. And so he plays in the 1996 Olympics for Team USA, and this is where he's learning about himself. If I make things about myself that is deeply unfulfilling, when I'm playing for something bigger later in his life, he winds up marrying, divorcing Brooke Shields, gets married to Steffie Graf, he has two kids, he starts playing for his family, he has this great school that's really important to him. So he starts playing for that. But he's starting to realize I need a mission bigger than myself. And so he ends up winning the gold medal. And he feels great. The national anthem starts. I feel my heart swell and it has nothing to do with tennis or me. And thus it exceeds all my expectations. This moment is special precisely because it is not mine. And so now we're going to get to the fall. You can think about his career this way. Peak dominance is from like 1990 to 1995 thereabouts. Sharp decline is going to happen the end of 96 to 97. Rock bottom is going to be 97. And then he's got this legendary.”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  11. “Important lessons that he learns. He also learns people see him dating Brookshields at the time one of the most beautiful women on the planet, a supermodel. And even though he has doubts about them getting married, he doesn't do anything about it. He desperately wants to get married. He desperately wants to have kids. He desperately wants to stop having, he basically has just a bunch of like casual relationships with women, let's put it that way. And he says, I'm determined to change. At 26, I believe this pattern needs to be broken, or I'll be 36 looking back on a series of relationships that went nowhere. If I'm going to have a family, if I'm going to be happy, I've got to break the cycle, which means forcing myself to commit. And even though he knows that Brooke is not the right woman for him, he can't stop himself. This is the reaction that they both have to when he asks her to marry him. She's pulling me to my feet. I'm kissing her and thinking I really wish I thought this through. Is this the right person for me, the person I'm supposed to spend the next ninety years with? She says yes, yes, yes.”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  12. “Don't know how he's going to make it. Days later, I talked to my manager and asked him to put aside a nest egg of Nike's stock in Frankie's name. The next time I'm in the restaurant, I tell Frankie about it. The shares can't be touched for ten years, but by then they should be worth enough to significantly lighten that tuition burden. Frankie's bottom lip trembles. Andre, he says, I cannot believe that you did this for me. The look on his face is of complete shock. When I saw what it meant to him, I was the one who got educated. Helping Frankie provides more satisfaction and makes me feel more connected and alive and myself than anything else that happens this year. I tell myself, remember this, hold on to this. This is the only perfection there is, the perfection of helping others. This is the only thing we can do that has any lasting value or meaning. This is why we're here. This is one of the most important.”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  13. “I've won sixty three of 70 matches this year, 44 of 46 on hardcore. Reporters ask if I feel invincible, and I say no. They think I'm being modest, but I'm telling the truth. It's how I feel. Pride is good, stress is good. I don't want to feel confident. I want to feel rage, endless, all consuming rage. And so one of the things that he realized himself, he could be number one tennis player in the world. He could win all these tournaments. He feels nothing. When he feels the best is when he's helping other people. And so at the time, he's dating the supermodel Brooke Shields. They wind up getting married and then getting divorced. But they would go to the same restaurant over and over again. And the manager of this restaurant in New York is this guy named Frankie. And him and Brooke build a good relationship with him. Andre says, Frankie's chief virtue in my book is the way he talks about his kids. He loves them. He brags about them. He pulls out photos of them at the drop of the hat. He tells me his kids are only in grade school, but he's already stressed about college. He groans about the cost of higher education.”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  14. “This isn't at all what I feel. It's what I want to feel. It's what I expected to feel. It's what I tell myself to feel. But in fact, I feel nothing. And this goes back to his introspect and trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with me. What is going on? Wondering what the hell is wrong with me? I did it. I'm the number one tennis player on earth, yet I feel empty. The problem all this time is that I've had the wrong goals. I never really wanted to be number one. That was just something other people wanted for me. I never cared about the rankings, and I never cared about the number of slams I won. And again, I need to make this point. Like, the reason you read this book is because he...”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  15. “After 82 weeks at number one, Pete's looking up at me. The next person who calls me is a reporter, I tell him that I'm happy about the ranking that it feels good to be the best that I can be. This is a lie”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  16. “He writes that the US Open is mine to lose, but you can count on the fact that I will find a way to lose it. Ogassi, this writer says, simply isn't a champion. I close the paper and feels as if the walls are closing in, as if my vision is narrowing to a pinprick. The writer sounds so sure as if he's seen the future. What if he's right? What if this is my moment of truth and I'm revealed to be a fraud? And the opposite of criticism from random strangers that don't care about you are people that love you that are happy for your success. And so he winds up winning this final. And there's this great paragraph that says a lot about human nature and the people you want around him. You know everything you need to know about people when you see their faces at the moment of your greatest triumph. I believed in Brad's talent from the beginning, but now seeing his pure and unrestrained happiness for me. I believe unrestrainingly in him. And so this is when he's winning all the time.”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  17. “To my knees, I fall on my stomach. I can't believe the emotion pouring out of me. After the match, trembling, I dial my father in Vegas. Pops, it's me. Can you hear me? What did you think? Silence Pops You had no business losing that fourth set Stunned I wait Then I say Good thing I won the fifth set though, right? He says nothing, not because he disagrees or disapproves, but because he's crying faintly I hear my father sniffling and wiping away tears, and I know he's proud he's just incapable of expressing it.”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  18. “You want this. You do not want to lose not this time. The problem is in the last three slams was that you didn't want them enough, and therefore you didn't bring it, but this one you want. You need to let your opponent and everyone else in this joint know that you want it. The crowd rises. I call time to have a talk with myself, aloud, saying When this point or I'll never let you hear the end of it, Andre, don't hope he double faults, don't hope he misses. You control what you can control. Return this serve with all of your strength, and if you return it hard but miss, you can live with that. You can survive that. One return, no regrets hit harder. I jump in the air, swing with all my strength. Somehow he misses the easy volley, his ball smacks the net, and just like that, after twenty two years and twenty two million swings of a tennis racket on the nineteen ninety two Wimbledon champion.”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  19. “Some words that his mother would tell him as pieces of advice to Andre, how lovely it is to dream while you are awake. Dream while you're awake, Andre. Anybody can dream while they're asleep, but you need to dream all the time and say your dreams out loud and believe in them and what they're referencing is even though Andre is one of the most talented tennis players alive. His head, the inner game of tennis, the mental aspect it's keeping him from winning. He is self sabotaging. He is lying to himself, saying it's not really important that I win this when it is. And so as he begins to work on his body to make it stronger, he does so on his mind. And this mind, again, you're working on your mind. It's not a straight line. It's a ton of peaks and valleys for the next decade and a half of his life. As the fifth set begins, I run in place to get the blood flowing and I tell myself one thing. He's playing in the finals at Wimbledon. This is what's happening right now.”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  20. “Teen years in a torture chamber. Sometimes a workout with Gill is actually just a conversation. We don't touch a single weight. There are many, many ways Gil says of getting strong and sometimes talking is the best way. And so he talks about Gil, how disorienting this experience is. He's on the road, you know, tennis players on the road, something like 10 or 11 months out of the year. It's all very groundhog day, same venue, same opponents, only the years and the scores are different. I tell him the central truth, the fact that he hates tennis. If that's true, he says, why play? I'm not suited for anything else. I don't know how to do anything else. Tennis is the only thing I'm qualified for, and my father would have a fit if I did anything different. Gil scratches his ear. This is a new one to him. He's known hundreds of athletes, but he's never known one who hated athletics. He doesn't know what to say, I reassure him that there's nothing to be said. I don't understand it myself. I can only tell him how it is. And then Gil thinks about this for a while, and sometime later, he passes along.”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  21. “In his career, Andre's making a ton of money. He's famous. He's winning a lot of tournaments. And he goes over to Gill's house on Christmas Eve, and Gill can't understand it. It's like, wouldn't you be happier at a party? Aren't you young? Why aren't you doing hanging out with your friends? And Andre says something that's very revealing here that finally clicked from me what he's doing. I tell him my life has never for once day belonged to me. My life has always belonged to someone else. First, my father, then Nick, Nick is the guy that ran the tennis academy in Florida, and always always tennis. Even my body wasn't my own until I met you, because he's his trainer, who is doing the one thing that followers are supposed to do, making me stronger. So being here, Gil with you and your family, I feel for the first time in my life that I'm where I belong, and that's when you realize what Andre's doing. He's looking for a father. He wants a father. And Gil plays that role of protector. Andre's talking about his childhood. He says, I spent my childhood in isolation chamber.”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  22. “Me, one of the most interesting in the book. Fast forward to Andre talking to JP after this devastating loss. I stare into the river and ask JP, what if I'm no good? What if today wasn't a bad day but my best day? I'm always making excuses when I lose. I could have beaten him if I did such and such, if I had wanted it, if I had my A game, if I'd gotten the calls, but what if I'm playing my best and I care and I want it and I'm still not the best in the world? JP responds. Well, what if? I think I'd rather die. I lean against the railing, sobbing. JP has the decency, the wisdom to say and do nothing. He knows there's nothing to say, nothing to do, but to wait for this fire to burn out. That's a great line and a great way to describe some of these emotions that are uncontrollable. You just have to wait for the fire to burn out. In the very beginning of the book, he talks about this guy, Gil, who's his trainer, his friend, but really a surrogate father. And even at this point,”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  23. “It all revolves around tennis, and I hate tennis. He has this conversation so many times in the book, and every time the person says, yeah, okay, but you don't actually hate tennis. And he says, yes, yes, I do. I talk about my father. I tell JP about the yelling, the pressure, the rage, the abandonment. JP gets a funny look on his face. You do realize, don't you, that God isn't anything like your father? You know that, don't you? God, he says, is the opposite of your father. God isn't mad at you all the time. God isn't yelling in your ear, harping on your imperfections. The voice you hear all the time, that angry voice, that's not God. That's still your father. I turned to him. Do me a favor and say that again. He does word for word. Say it once more He does I thank him and this is one of the most important relationships of Andre's life.”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  24. “Journalists are always asking him questions, and he says, You're asking about the subject that I understand the least. Me, and even though he hates himself, even though in many cases he's deeply depressed, he likes the response that he's getting. Millions of fans like me apparently. I get sacks full of fan mail, including naked pictures of women with their phone numbers scrawled along the margin. And yet each day I'm vilified because of my look, because of my behavior. I absorb the role of the villain, I accept it, I grow into it, I am the villain in every match and every tournament. And so one thing that Shirley Munger says I think is really important. He says, you know, anybody engaged in difficult work needs somebody they can organize their thoughts with. That person should be somebody you like and admire and trust. Some people do this with friends, coaches, therapists. Some turn to religion. And so Andre considers him a Christian, but he never felt that he was close to God. He couldn't find the right church. And one day he stumbles.”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  25. “I cringe when fans start dressing like me, but I also dig it. I'm flattered by the imitators, embarrassed, thoroughly confused. I can't imagine all these people trying to be like Andre Agassi since I don't want to be Andre Agassi. There's a story in the book later on where he goes out one night, gets completely drunk, and is completely hung over the next day and has to play in a tournament. So he wears Oakley sunglasses to hide the fact that his eyes are bloodshot and he's hung over. He winds up winning. There's a great picture of him. It's put on the cover of a magazine. It sells a ton of oakly sunglasses. And the founder of Oakley without telling Andre beforehand, has a brand new Dodge Viper delivered to Andre's house as a thank you. And again he does not hide at any step along the way that he's just very confused. He doesn't know who he is. He's talking about the fact that he has to sit for all these interviews. Media is a huge part of his job.”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  26. “And so he's playing all these tournaments. He's winning them, or he's getting to the final, and they offer him money. And so far, up until this point, he hasn't accepted any of the money because the minute he takes a dollar for playing tennis, he's no longer an amateur and he's got to turn pro. And so he's offered this check of $1,100 at this tournament. He calls his dad to figure out what to do. I phoned my father back in Vegas and ask him what I should do. My father says, what the hell do you mean? Take the money. If I take the money, there's no turning back. I'm pro. So what? If I cash this check pops, that's it. He acts as if we had a bad connection. You've dropped out of school. You have an eighth grade education. What are your choices? What the hell else are you going to do? Be a doctor? None of this comes as news to me, but I hate the way he puts it. I tell the tournament director I'll take the money. As the words leave my mouth.”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  27. “And yet, as you can imagine, if he's been forced to pick up a tennis racket when he's four, forced to hit a million balls a year, now is sent off to this completely rigorous tennis boot camp a decade in, he's really good, and even though he hates what he's doing, he likes being great at what he does. I'm 15 years old and I'm beating grown men. I'm beating them senseless. I'm churning my way through the ranks. Everywhere I walk people are pointing at me, whispering, there he is, that's the kid I was telling you about, the prodigy. It's the prettiest word I've ever heard applied to me.”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  28. “Andre's dad has this vision of how his son's life's going to be and he doesn't care. He couldn't care less what his own son's vision is. And Andre says, having no choice, having no say about what I do or who I am makes me crazy. And so he sends Andre away to this basically this tennis boarding school. And so Andre describes this school. When we're not drilling, we're studying the psychology of tennis. We take classes on mental toughness, positive thinking and visualization. We're taught to close our eyes and pictures ourselves winning Wimbleton, hoisting the trophy above our heads. This is when he starts to rebel. No one seems to notice my antics. I've mutilated my hair, grown my nails. I've pierced my body, broken rules, busted curfew, picked fist fights, thrown tantrums, cut classes, even slipped into the girl's barracks after hours. I've consumed gallons of whiskey. I chew tobacco and smoke weed. What new sin can I commit to show the world I'm unhappy and I want to go home?”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  29. “Makes me. I can't say no to Pop. If you have to take the pills, if he makes you take them, play a bad match. Tank. Then as you come off the court, tell him you are shaking so bad that you couldn't concentrate. Okay, Philly, but what are these pills? Speed. What's that? A drug gives you lots of energy. I just know he's going to try to slip you some speed. How do you know, Philly? He gave it to me. Sure enough, at the Nationals, my father gives me a pill. Hold out your hand, he says. This will help you. Take it. He puts a pill in my palm. Tiny, white, and round.”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  30. “Second chance. I tell my father that I don't like being by myself in that huge tennis court. Tennis is lonely. He shouts at the top of his lungs. You're a tennis player. You're going to be number one in the world. You're going to make lots of money. That's the plan and that's the end of it. His father is insane. So he did this with his other. Andre, I think, has three older siblings, and he tried to turn them into professional tennis players too. His older brother is named Philly. Listen to this conversation. Remember, Andre's around 10 years old. One night Philly asked me to promise him something. Sure, Philly, anything. Don't ever let Pops give you any pills. Pills Andre, you have to hear what I'm telling you. This is really important. Okay, Philly, I hear you. I'm listening. Next time you go away to Nationals, if Pop gives you pills, do not take them. These pills are tiny, white, round. Do not take them whatever you do. What if pop?”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  31. “I walk off the court wishing I were dead. He gets this consolation trophy it's called a sportsman trophy, and this is what his dad does. I walk out to the car clutching the trophy to my chest. My father's a step behind me. He says nothing. I say nothing. Finally I break my silence. I say, I don't want this stupid thing. I say it because I think it's what my father wants to hear. My father comes alongside me. He rips the trophy from my hands. He lifts it over his head and throws it on the cement. The trophy shatters. I don't say a word, I know not to say a word. Andre hates tennis? He hates playing an individual sport. He starts to play soccer which he loves. He wants to be on a team. His father at first allows him to play soccer because he thinks the conditioning would be good for tennis, but then realizes that there's a risk of injury by playing soccer may keep him away from practicing tennis. And so his father literally yanks him out in the middle of a soccer game and says, you're never playing soccer again. I beg him for a”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  32. “Instead of 10 grand, but an eight year old Andre Agassi places grown man, one of the greatest football players of all time and beats him. I beat Mr. Brown 6'2, sweat running down his face. He pulls a wad from his pocket and counts out five Chris Hundreds. He hands them to my father and then turns to me. Great game, son. He shakes my hand. My father tells him he's going to be number one in the world. I wouldn't bet against him, mister Brown says. And then this gives you more insight into his father's personality not long after beating mister Brown, I play a practice match against my father. I'm up five, two, serving for the match. I've never beaten my father, and he looks as if he's about to lose much more than ten thousand dollars. Suddenly he walks off the court. Get your stuff, he says. Let's go. He won't finish. He'd rather sneak away than lose to his son. And so now he's ten years old, he loses a tournament. He says, how can losing hurt so much? How can anything hurt so much?”

    2026-02-04 · Founders · #411 Tortured Into Greatness: The Life of Andre Agassi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  33. “No captain, it's my father's job to seat people at the shows. Right this way, mister Johnson, nice to see you again, misses Jones. The MGM pays him a small salary and the rest he earns in tips. We live on tips which makes life unpredictable. And his father starts using his eight year old son as a tennis hustler. They go down to the local courts, they see Jim Brown, who just happens to be one of the greatest football players of all time. Jim Brown is a big hulking man. Andre's father goes up to him and tells him my kid is going to beat you. Let's play for money. And this is the conversation. My son will play you for money. I feel a bead of sweat starting down my armpit. Yeah, how much? My father laughs and says, I'll bet you my fucking house. I don't need your house, mister Brown says. I've got a house. Let's say ten grand. So they go back and forth. They wind up betting $500.”

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  34. “Harass my father. She nagged him since he was a boy and she often beat him. My father's past was sad and lonely and helps explain his odd behavior and his boiling rage. This goes on day after day year after year. I hear for a half hour, my head throbbing, my eyes tearing, hit harder, my father says. God damn it, hit harder, not in the fucking net. Tennis is his life, his reason for getting out of bed, his obsession. My father lies in bed and sees a court on the ceiling. He says he can actually see it there, and on that ceiling, he plays countless imaginary matches, and this is when Nit hits you when you're reading the book. He's tormenting his son to live out his own unfulfilled dreams. And Andre realizes that he has to do this because he's going to help his family, which doesn't have a lot of money, make money. They live in Las Vegas as a casino.”

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  35. “Years of hearing my father rant at my flaws, one loss has caused me to take up his rant. I've internalized my father, his impatience, his perfectionism, his rage until his voice doesn't feel like my own. It is my own. I no longer need my father to torture me from this day on, I can do it all by myself. And I think one of the most important lessons of this book, because you see, it's like, okay, well, why is this father like this? Where'd this come from? And the difference between Andre and his father is Andre's search to try to fix. Andre's not like this with his own kids. His father learned this from his mother and never stopped the cycle. My father's mother lives with us and she's a nasty old lady. She sang the same nasty thing she said yesterday and the day before and the day before that and she's saying it to her son. To Andre's father. This seems to be the reason grandma was put on the earth.”

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  36. “glass everywhere. Another time my father reaches across me and points his handgun at another driver. He holds the gun level with my nose. I stare straight ahead. I do not move. Such moments and many more come to mind whenever I think about telling my father that I don't want to play tennis, besides loving my father and wanting to please him, I don't want to upset him. I don't dare. Bad stuff happens when my father is upset. If he says I'm going to play tennis, if he says I'm going to be number one in the world, that is my destiny. All I can do is nod and obey before we get back into the story. I want to tell you about this conversation I had with John Mackey, who's the founder of Whole Foods. I spent a bunch of time with John, and he told me one of the craziest thing that anyone has ever said about this podcast. By the time I met him, he had listened to over a hundred different episodes and he said that if founders existed when he was younger.”

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  37. “He says harder. Every ball I send across the net joins the thousands that already cover the court, not hundreds, thousands. My father says that if I hit twenty five hundred balls each day, I'll hit seventeen thousand five hundred balls each week, and at the end of one year I'll have hit nearly one million balls. He believes in math. Numbers, he says, don't lie. A child who hits one million balls each year will be unbeatable. He's yelling directly into my ear day and night yelling in my ear. He turns around, sees me watching. What the hell are you looking at? Keep hitting, keep hitting. My shoulder aches, I can't hit another ball, I hit another three. I can't go on another minute, I go on another ten. He glares What the fuck are you doing? Stop thinking. No fucking thinking. Thinking my father believes, is the source.”

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  38. “And you could never possibly understand that unless you understand the relationship that he has with his father. I'm seven years old talking to myself because I'm scared and because I'm the only person who listens to me. Under my breath I whisper, just quit, Andre, just give up, put down your racket, and walk off this court right now. But I can't, not only would my father chase me around the house with my racket, but something in my gut, some deep, unseen muscle won't let me. I hate tennis. I hate it with all my heart, and I still keep playing, keep hitting all morning and all afternoon because I have no choice, no matter how much I want to stop, I don't. I keep begging myself to stop, and I keep playing. And this gap, this contradiction between what I want to do and what I actually do feels like the core of my life. My father yells everything twice, sometimes three times, sometimes ten.”

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  39. “Whichever place the grip four times and the strings seven times. Is it accurate to call it the same racket? Somewhere in those eyes, however, I can still vaguely see the boy who didn't want to play tennis in the first place. The boy who wanted to quit, the boy who did quit many times. I see that golden haired boy who hated tennis, and I wonder how he would view this bald man who still hates tennis, and yet still plays. Would he be shocked, amused? Would he be proud? Please let this be over. I'm not ready for it to be over.”

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  40. “And how will I ever be able to explain it to him the pain of losing, the pain of playing? It has taken me nearly thirty years to understand it myself, to solve the calculus of my own psyche. I sit quietly at the table, looking around the suite. It's like every other hotel suite I've ever had, only more so. Clean, chic, comfortable. It's lovely, but it's still just another version of what I call not home The non place that we exist as athletes. I go to the bathroom and look in the mirror. I stare at my face, a face totally different from the one with which I started, but also different from the one I saw last year in this same mirror. Whoever I might be, I'm not the boy who started this Odyssey, and I'm not even the man who announced three months ago that the Odyssey was coming to an end. I'm like a tennis racket.”

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  41. “Then came the pressure, the tiny space in my spine where the nerves are housed began to feel vacuum packed. The pressure built until I thought my back would burst. Pressure is how you know everything's working, the doctor said. Words to live by, Doc. I limp out to the living room of our suite. My son Jaden and my daughter Jazz see me and scream Daddy, Daddy They jump up and down and want to leap on me. They stop just before leaping because they know Daddy is delicate these days. Daddy will shatter if you touch him too hard. You're playing? Yes. And then after today you retire? Not if I win, son, if I win tonight, I keep playing. He hopes Daddy loses, hopes Daddy experiences the disappointment that surpasses all others. He doesn't understand.”

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  42. “Hate brings me to my knees, love gets me on my feet. Gil, my trainer, my friend, my surrogate father, explains it this way. Your body is saying that it doesn't want to do this anymore. My body has been saying that for a long time, I tell Gil, almost as long as I've been saying it. My body doesn't want to retire, my body has already retired. My body has moved to Florida and bought a condo. So I've been negotiating with my body, asking it to come out of retirement for a few hours here and a few hours there. Much of this negotiation revolves around a cortisone shot that temporarily dulls the pain. Before the shot works, however, it causes its own torments. I got one yesterday so I could play tonight. It was the third shot this year, the thirteenth of my career, and by far the most alarming. The burning sensation made me bite my lips.”

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  43. “Upon opening my eyes, I'm a stranger to myself. I run quickly through the basic facts. My name is Andre Agassi. My wife's name is Steffi Graf. We have two children, a son and a daughter, five and three. We live in Las Vegas, Nevada, but currently reside in a suite at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York City because I'm playing in the two thousand six US Open. My last US Open. In fact, my last tournament ever. I play tennis for a living, even though I hate tennis. Hate it with a dark and secret passion and always have. Then I say I'm not ready for it to be over.”

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  44. “I opened my eyes and I don't know where I am or who I am. Not all that unusual. I've spent half my life not knowing. Still, this feels different. This confusion is more frightening, more total. I look up, I'm lying on the floor beside the bed. I remember now I moved from the bed to the floor in the middle of the night. I do that most nights, better for my back. I count the three, then start the long, difficult process of standing, with a cough, a groan, I roll onto my side, then curl into the fetal position, then flip over onto my stomach. I'm a young man, relatively speaking, thirty six, but I wake as if I'm ninety six. After three decades of sprinting, stopping on a dime, jumping high and landing hard, my body no longer feels like my body, especially in the morning. Consequently, my mind doesn't feel like my mind”

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