James Blake: The Great American Hero James Blake: The Great American Hero

Why Are They Famous?
James Blake: The Great American Hero
By Trevor Thompson
Sep 7, 2005

Watching James Blake at the U.S. Open this year is like watching a Disney movie unfold. In fact, a team of script writers would be hard pressed to come up with a better story line than the one furnished by Blake's life. If you saw the movie on a Blockbuster shelf, you would find a dashingly handsome young black man on the cover and on the back the summary might read: "Fire It Up One Time is the remarkable true story of a young pro tennis player who faced the prospect of retiring at the age of 24 after suffering career-threatening injuries and the loss of his father to cancer. Against all odds, Blake struggled to return to the game. One year later, entering the tournament ranked a lowly 107th in the world, Blake managed to beat the world's top tennis players and win the first Grand Slam title of his career at the U.S. Open."

Granted, I'm taking some liberties with Blake's story — after all, no one knows how this story is going to end. He's only in the quarterfinals right now and has three more grueling matches to win before claiming the U.S. Open title. But even if the story ends Wednesday in his match against Agassi, it will remain an inspiring one to the millions of Americans who have watched his incredible run.

Last week, I couldn't give two shits about James Blake. In my opinion, he was an over-hyped player whose fame resulted more from his chiseled features and stylish braids than his talent at tennis. I thought of him as the male version of Anna Kournikova. If any American had a chance of beating Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, it was going to be the former U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick or the grizzled veteran Andre Agassi, certainly not pretty-boy Blake who entered the tournament as a wild card and who has never progressed past the fourth round in a Grand Slam event.

So much for what I know. I didn't know, for example, that Blake was entering the Open with momentum gained from recently winning the Pilot Penn tournament in New Haven, Connecticut. I didn't know Blake's tragic back-story, about his injuries and the loss of his father, and the strength and determination Blake took from that. I didn't know Blake had shaved off his braids and was sporting a bald crown. And I didn't know he was skilled enough to trump No.2-seeded Nadal in the second round of the Open.

Luckily for Blake, there are people out there who know much more about Blake than I do. They are a band of loyal followers made up of his childhood friends who travel around the country and transform every tournament they attend into a wild party. This group calls itself the "J-Block," which is short for "James Block." If you have been watching Blake's matches over the past week, you have seen and heard them freaking out in the grandstands. They are wearing baby blue T-shirts that say "Fire It Up One Time" on the front and "Bam!" on the back. They scream insanely between points, sometimes visibly rattling Blake's opponents, like in Saturday's match against Nadal. They suck down Heinekens like frat boys and bounce and grind against one another as if they're in a mosh pit instead of Suite 236 in Ashe Stadium.

Such rambunctious behavior from his fan-club might seem like an anomaly for a player like Blake, who is know for his graciousness and good sportsmanship on the court (often clapping his racket for his opponent if he makes an outstanding shot). But these people are crucial to Blake. They have been his support network for years, ever since he turned pro in 1999. Unlike television audiences and fair-weather fans, they are cheering Blake even when he's not hitting forehand winners at the U.S. Open. They were supporting him when he was sidelined with a broken neck (an injury sustained from crashing headfirst into a net pole during a practice session.) They were there when Blake's father, who used to drive Blake from Connecticut to New York every weekend to play tennis in the Harlem Junior Tennis Program, died from stomach cancer. When Blake contracted a severe case of shingles that affected his vision and hearing and left half of his face paralyzed, some of the J-Block members would play tennis with him, even though Blake couldn't hit the balls back most of the time.

Blake acknowledges how important the J-Block is to his playing. "To hear them get fired up, it just makes it that much more emotional," Blake says. "If I'm down, I know I have them to count on to pick me up pretty quickly."

The cheering seems to be working. Blake's unbelievable performance thus far in the tournament combined with his triumph over personal tragedy has provided the U.S. Open a much more appealing story than the one American Express tried to sell us about Andy Roddick's mojo . . .or lack thereof. On Wednesday, the story may come to an end, but even if it does it will make for a terrific one, with Blake playing against his childhood idol, Andre Agassi. Blake says even if he loses against Agassi in the quarterfinals he'll be satisfied, noting that a year ago he thought he'd never play tennis again: "I mean, if someone had told me a year ago that I'd have to go out and lose 0, 0, 0 in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open to Andrew Agassi, I'd have said that I'd take it in a heartbeat."

In Blake, we have a perfect package: good sportsmanship, good looks, good talent, and a good old-fashioned underdog story. The cynical part of me would like to say something snide about how clichéd and tawdry it is, but such a statement would be dishonest. The truth is, Blake has given me a reason to keep watching the U.S. Open, and for once in my life I think I'll actually be rooting against Agassi, a player who was a childhood idol of mine as well.

More importantly, at a time when most of our attention is focused on the devastation and hopelessness caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Blake is living proof that tragedy can be overcome if the spirit is strong enough.