Andre Agassi to write memoirs...

If there was ever a tennis player who could write a compelling memoir, it's the recently-retired champion Andre Agassi. He's a future hall of famer for winning all four of the sports major titles as well as the Olympic Games but more than that, he is a sports icon who had great appeal outside tennis and to several generations. While he started out as a brash kid with long hair and flashy clothes, he went on to become the most articulate sportsman and elder statesman the game has ever had.
It was announced late Wednesday that Agassi's memoirs are to be published by Alfred A. Knopf and were strongly desired by numerous publishers. Financial terms were not disclosed but bidding reportedly topped $5 million as publishers flew out to see Agassi at his hometown of Las Vegas, touring his Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, a charter school for at-risk youth, and then meeting with him at his office.
David Hirshey, senior vice president and executive editor at HarperCollins, one of the publishers that competed for the book, said the deal was more in line with what a former U.S. president would get.
"This is White House money," Hirshey said. "I can't remember the last time a sports figure got more than two million."
His book is not yet titled and no release date has been set.
Aggasi (pictured at right w/great rival Pete Sampras) said in a statement: "I recently had the privilege of meeting with top executives and editors from eight publishing houses. Everyone was very impressive, but in the end, I felt the strongest connection with (Knopf head) Sonny Mehta and his colleagues at Knopf."
Mehta calls Agassi's "an extraordinary life, and he has a great story to tell -- an inspiring story of determination, competition, and what it takes to become one of the greatest athletes of our time. Additionally, he is someone who has chosen to use his success as an instrument for change in the world."
In addition to the story of his tennis life where he went to teen prodigy to number one back down to number 141 then back up to number one. His downslide occured during his marriage to actress Brooke Shields in 1997 but his game was back on track for good by the time he married tennis great Steffi Graf who had retired from the game by the time they married. Agassi and Graf have a son and daughter together who have parents who have both won the Olympics, been ranked number one and won a combined 30 grand slam titles.
I look forward to Agassi's book. He is introspective and thoughtful and one of the few straight guys in the public eye who has never been afraid to show emotion or talk about his feelings.
He has simply been himself...