"Maybe the star turn’s absence will finally torpedo an annual eyesore that needs to be put out of its misery?"

Murray (who is the heavy favorite to win) can't be bothered to attend the BBC sports personality of the year contest because he has more important things to do. If he can't be bothered should the event be scrapped?

---

GOOD old Andy Murray.

Just when it seemed impossible to love the Scottish sporting colossus any more he goes and delivers an epic custard pie to Auntie Beeb and Middle England.

The invitation to the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards may have landed in his email inbox but it might as well have gone straight to his spam folder.

Thanks, but no thanks, said our Andy. He’s got better things to do with his time. Like winning proper titles.

That’s what makes Murray special. Of course it would be nice to go and get a pat on the back from the Establishment, but that’s not his style.

He can’t waste two days out of his brutal schedule to get his belly tickled by folk who’ve hardly tripped over themselves to back him in the past.

Who needs the Sports Personality of the Year Awards anyway? It has hee haw to do with sport and even less to do with personality.

Maybe the star turn’s absence will finally torpedo an annual eyesore that needs put out of its misery.

It’s the sporting event of the year for people who don’t like or know anything about sport.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Andy was right to give the event the body swerve – it’s long past the time the rest of us did the same.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/tennis/michael-gannon-andy-murray-doesnt-2918011

HE, it's not often you post a link praising Andy Murray. That writer doesn't like SPOTY much!

hawkeye wrote:

GOOD old Andy Murray.

GOOD old You-Know-Who.

I really like the show. It is just sports stars patting each other in the back, but it's a good review of the sporting year. He will win the award I suspect and it'll be a nice endorsement of his much improved relationship with the British public.

I love that he isn't going. His rationale? "If I reach the AO final and get to a fifth set and run out of energy, I'd hate to think it was because of the 4 or so days training I missed to attend an award ceremony. This part of my year is important to me, especially this year recovering from surgery"

I love that attitude. More interested in winning tennis titles than popularity contests. I will be watching the show though, as usual.

It's an event organised by the BBC, so instinctively I dislike SPOTY.

I am however, a big fan of Andy's attitude. His lack of interest in, and frequent surliness to the media was something that initially put me off him. Now it's perhaps the thing that I like most about him!

Pretty poor article from the Daily Record which obviously showcases the writers dislike of SPOTY. Here is one that includes some of the players thoughts.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2521360/Andy-Murray-wont-attend-Sports-Personality-Year-award-stay-Miami-training-camp.htm

Seems a sensible decision and suitably diplomaticaly dealt with to me.

I agree with Danny in that SPOTY is all a bit back slapping but I like watching it as it brings back sporting memories (some of which I'd like to forget) for the year. So I'll be watching all be it that as I'm out when it starts it will be on time delay. I'll make sure I don't come on here before I've seen the result though. I wouldn't want HE rushing to raise a congratulatory thread to Murray (if he wins) to spoil the suspense.

As expected he wins SPOTY! Congrats.

He looked quite emotional about it all. Surprising, but nice to see. A deserving winner.

Also he's had his teeth whitened. Murray going all Hollywood on us!

The article's wrong in that winning SPOTY does matter to Murray for his commercial interests. But the criticism of the show is spot on - it's truely dreadful. I cringed the whole way through. It's time to retire it...in it's current format at least.

Whitening your teeth is a liberating experience, Danny... you start to smile at jokes that aren't funny, smile at photos, smile at weddings, smile when retrenched, smile senseless at funerals...

I think it's a first step into self obsession KR. You watch, within a year he'll have a hair transplant, a nose job, a style advisor...

He'll have pigment injections in his skin and claim it's a disease. He'll build a fairground in his back garden. He'll buy a pet monkey...

Mark my words, the Murray we know is gone.

Danny_1982 wrote:He'll have pigment injections in his skin and claim it's a disease. He'll build a fairground in his back garden. He'll buy a pet monkey....

And win Wimby in a 5-set Thrilller.

To be fair... He really does need to do something about his skin.

YvonneT wrote:The article's wrong in that winning SPOTY does matter to Murray for his commercial interests.

Exactly! Whilst Murray has been secretly running up and down in Miami despite all that talk of playing team tennis in India and having the one exhibition he had planned canceled presumably because of lack of ticket sales. Rafa and Nole were off having holiday fun in South America raking in the $$$$ (Rafa was reputedly paid $10 million for his time there and I'm sure Nole didn't go away empty handed). All this after all the stories in the press about how much Murray would earn post his Wimbledon win.

Life can be very cruel. In the end its not what you do its the way that you do it. Although Murray can console himself that he will make far more in endorsements than Richard Krajicek, won more in prize money than Ann Jones (who I think won a £5 Harrods voucher) and has a trophy as evidence of his popularity.

kingraf wrote:To be fair... He really does need to do something about his skin.

What are you talking about? Judy only suggested a career in tennis for him because she realized he was "no looker"  

The best thing about the programme is the showcase it gives some of the other winners, notably the basketball couple who won the unsung hero's award (or whatever it's called).

Could have done without Clare Balding though, but that's just a personal taste as I think the only sports she really understands involve horses.

hawkeye wrote:

YvonneT wrote:The article's wrong in that winning SPOTY does matter to Murray for his commercial interests.

Exactly! Whilst Murray has been secretly running up and down in Miami despite all that talk of playing team tennis in India and having the one exhibition he had planned canceled presumably because of lack of ticket sales. Rafa and Nole were off having holiday fun in South America raking in the $$$$ (Rafa was reputedly paid $10 million for his time there and I'm sure Nole didn't go away empty handed). All this after all the stories in the press about how much Murray would earn post his Wimbledon win.

Life can be very cruel. In the end its not what you do its the way that you do it. Although Murray can console himself that he will make far more in endorsements than Richard Krajicek, won more in prize money than Ann Jones (who I think won a £5 Harrods voucher) and has a trophy as evidence of his popularity.

How did you find out about Murray's "secretly running up and down in Miami"? It was supposed to be a secret.

"In the end its not what you do its the way that you do it". Yes it is HE, yes it is...

JuliusHMarx wrote: Yes it is HE, yes it is...

No it isn't JHM, no it isn't  

If you say so. Certainly Murray can console himself with the SPOTY award. Because after winning the Olympics, the USO and Wimby, he must have been quite disconsolate.

I hear he was devestated Julius. "Worst year of my life" he said.

Saved only by being crowned GQ's man of the year!

Strange decision for Murray to choose to attend several times in person when he had little chance of winning and was just there to maybe pick up 2nd or 3rd prize at best but not to bother to attend when he was a cert to win it.

I personally would have given the award more respect and arranged my scheduled to meet it. Yes, it's 2-3 days out of your schedule to attend (certainly not 4) but I would have planned a UK training camp or planned the Miami training camp to end after the award, or start before.

I must be honest - I thought the headline was a cryptic crossword clue.

hawkeye wrote:

YvonneT wrote:The article's wrong in that winning SPOTY does matter to Murray for his commercial interests.

Exactly! Whilst Murray has been secretly running up and down in Miami despite all that talk of playing team tennis in India and having the one exhibition he had planned canceled presumably because of lack of ticket sales. Rafa and Nole were off having holiday fun in South America raking in the $$$$ (Rafa was reputedly paid $10 million for his time there and I'm sure Nole didn't go away empty handed). All this after all the stories in the press about how much Murray would earn post his Wimbledon win.

Life can be very cruel. In the end its not what you do its the way that you do it. Although Murray can console himself that he will make far more in endorsements than Richard Krajicek, won more in prize money than Ann Jones (who I think won a £5 Harrods voucher) and has a trophy as evidence of his popularity.

And yet faced with a choice between improving his commercial interests (by returning to the UK for SPOTY) or improving his tennis interests (by remaining in Miami to train), he showed exactly where his priorities lie, and it seems he's got it right to me.

YvonneT.  I don't believe for a minute that returning to the UK to pick up this award would affect his training (see Henman Bills post) but doing so would have been in his best long term interest.

hawkeye wrote:YvonneT.  I don't believe for a minute that returning to the UK to pick up this award would affect his training (see Henman Bills post) but doing so would have been in his best long term interest.

Mmm. Think Andy Murray and his coaching team would know more about what may affect his training and on-going fitness than people posting on 606V2.

Returning to the UK would certainly affect his training. The flights alone would cost him a day or so, not to mention the time zone changes etc.
Agassi detailed how he trained on Xmas day as a normal day, in the hope that one or two rivals might take that day off, and thus it would give him an edge.
To needlessly disrupt a training regime would be foolish and to expect otherwise is slightly naïve. These guys leave nothing to chance at their level.

Agreed. He also is recovering from back surgery. A long flight would not have been good for that either.

It would affect his training but whether it was a material impact is obviously a matter of opinion - but our opinion cannot be based on the same level of understanding as Murray and his team, as Calder points out.

Murray is beyond reproach then. No sorry I can't do the washing up it will affect my raquet hand. Ha ha!

None of us know how if at all breaking training to collect the award would have affected Murray (and it could have affected him in a positive way). Also none of us know if the training excuse was genuine or not. We can all only speculate. My guess is that it wouldn't based on the activities of other players and Murray's plan to break his training to play an exhibition in Barbados a few weeks ago (the exhibition was cancelled). It might have felt like a bit of a chore though...

Sometimes I feel a bit sorry for Murray as I imagine he really doesn't have a clue about why he isn't popular and then I remember that he has a huge entourage of people giving him advice and helping him do the right things for himself and I   because he must ignore the advice. A bit of petulance is understandable in someone that the world has been unkind to but in someone as fortunate as Murray it just looks spoilt and ugly.

Sorry I forgot he is now hugely popular as he has the trophy to prove it  

He wasn't that fortunate at school though was he?

I seem to recall Federer telling the umpire not to tell him the f*cking rules - spoilt and ugly?

Rafa barging into his opponent when losing - spoilt and ugly?

Djoko smashing his rackets - spoilt and ugly?

Ferrer hitting a ball towards a baby crying in the crowd - spoilt and ugly?

Frankly HE, your attitude towards Murray is pathetic.

I'm fairly certain Miami to Barbados is a much shorter journey than Maimi to Leeds.

As for the rest, I'd guess Murray has a fair idea of why he is less popular than some other sportsmen. Where he has been misunderstood then he can try to correct the perception, but for people who prefer a more outgoing personality, he can't really change himself to please them so he is as well just being himself.

Don't think he would have played in Barbados even if it went ahead. According to reports he only started 'hitting points' in practice at the beginning of December. The Barbados tournament was before that.

JuliusHMarx wrote:

I seem to recall Federer telling the umpire not to tell him the f*cking rules - spoilt and ugly?

Rafa barging into his opponent when losing - spoilt and ugly?

Djoko smashing his rackets - spoilt and ugly?

They are all human as is Murray. But Federer and Nadal are media dreams and their popularity is sky high. Djokovic to his credit is eager to learn and understands that he is not just being paid huge amounts of money to hit tennis balls (He does still have some learning to do). Murray by comparison acts spoiled and petulant and to an outsider looks like he thinks he knows it all as he doesn't appear to take advice that must be readily available.

hawkeye wrote:Murray by comparison acts spoiled and petulant and to an outsider looks like he thinks he knows it all as he doesn't appear to take advice that must be readily available.

I suspect confirmation bias plays a massive part in your conclusion.
You want Murray to live to your rules, despite your not knowing what it takes for him to play at his best, which is, after all, his job. His popularity in the UK at least is confirmed by the landslide victory in SPOTY.
On court he often berates himself (not the umpires, line judges or his opponents) and off court he conducts himself politely, quietly and with class. He does not assume a false persona to ingratiate himself with others, nor does he need to since he is decent, honest, nice fellow.
He is not debonair or multi-lingual as Fed is, nor does he have his effortless charm.
He does not have Rafa's good looks and smile.
You judge him astonishing harshly for being no more than an outstanding tennis player and a nice person, who respects others and is respected by his peers and those who know him.

As I said, it's a rather pathetic attitude to have.

Can't imagine Lendl would have stayed for two years coaching any player who acts "spoiled and petulant and doesn't appear to take advice"
But hey, don't let facts get in the way of your jaundiced view [yawn, yawn]

JuliusHMarx wrote:
He is not debonair or multi-lingual as Fed is, nor does he have his effortless charm.
He does not have Rafa's good looks and smile.

Do you think being "debonair" or multi-lingual or being good looking or having a nice smile is what makes Federer and Nadal popular? Do you think people are that shallow? Nonsense! They are amazing tennis players but in addition to that they have charm but charm isn't effortless. They put a lot of effort into charming their audience and people generally want to be charmed. Their effort is appreciated. How much effort does Murray put in to be charming? By this I don't mean being false or fooling around but putting effort into doing things like attend an award ceremony that was centered on him. Pro tennis isn't just about training and hitting balls. Without an audience it wouldn't exist.

Tennis would be a difficult sell if future players adopted Murray's attitude rather than Federer and Nadal's.

hawkeye wrote:

JuliusHMarx wrote:
He is not debonair or multi-lingual as Fed is, nor does he have his effortless charm.
He does not have Rafa's good looks and smile.

Do you think being "debonair" or multi-lingual or being good looking or having a nice smile is what makes Federer and Nadal popular? Do you think people are that shallow? Nonsense! They are amazing tennis players but in addition to that they have charm but charm isn't effortless. They put a lot of effort into charming their audience and people generally want to be charmed. Their effort is appreciated. How much effort does Murray put in to be charming? By this I don't mean being false or fooling around but putting effort into doing things like attend an award ceremony that was centered on him. Pro tennis isn't just about training and hitting balls. Without an audience it wouldn't exist.

Tennis would be a difficult sell if future players adopted Murray's attitude rather than Federer and Nadal's.

People say exactly the same things about Fed (smug, arrogant, egotistical, sore loser) and Rafa (surly, self-centered). They're pretty much as wrong as you are about Murray
Andy Murray won SPOTY by a huge margin. How? By being unpopular? By making tennis hard to sell? What a load of rubbish!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/sports-personality/25393172
"Andy Murray a man of whom all of Britain should be proud"

What you fail to see is that Murray sets a far better example than, say, you do, in how to conduct oneself in public. if people judged internet forums by the rubbish you post about Murray you'd make internet forums a hard sell.

Julius. How is it your supposed to conduct yourself on internet forums? I forgot you are a bit of an expert in this field   

I conduct myself just fine thanks   

Anyway shouldn't we be sticking to the topic? Murray won SPOTY by a mile and has won Wimbledon and the US Open and a gold medal and everyone felt sorry for him when he cried and all the journalists (especially Harman) tell us how nice he is (off court) and how he has lots of friends (including Novak and Rafa) and is really funny and has a cute dog and a cute girlfriend and is really rich. All this you would think would make him an easy sell. In fact there was a lot of speculation about exactly how much money he would make from sponsorship but it hasn't happened. He is not an easy sell he is a hard sell.

Why do you think this is?

You can conduct yourself anyway you like on internet forums - that's the point. You can post complete rubbish if you want to, and accept (perhaps even hope) that people will treat it as such.
Your persistent anti-Murray Wummery over the years has shown this forum in a bad light to many posters, regardless of how well you may think you conduct yourself on here.

Murray is an easy sell. He simply chooses not to sell himself quite as readily as others do. Perhaps that's a good example to us all. He seems to be concentrating on his job, not his endorsements or his media profile. Perhaps that makes him a better role model for aspiring tennis players. His dedication to the sport helps make tennis an easy sell, not his dedication to his Rolex or his underwear.

I will just ignore your attempts to WUM... but I will say I disagree with your opinion.

Murray is a hard sell. The proof is out there. Federer and Nadal do more than sell themselves they sell the sport that's part of the job.

I liked what Andy said in his acceptance speech about knowing that he's not always the easiest person to support and having a boring voice.

I thought that showed self awareness, modesty and also that he's not trying to be someone that he's not.

I don't think Andy has the type of personality or temperament to be globally popular in the way that Federer and Nadal are and nor will he attract as much media interest as the more extrovert Djokovic.

But I think he will be very popular in this country by the time he ends his career (SPOTY shows he is already pretty popular). He's been hard for the wider public to "get to know" but there's not much to dislike about him - he talented, successful, hard-working and a nice, funny, honest but somewhat shy guy.

Well put Murdoch and Julius.

For a kid who survived a school massacre, grew up to be a superb sportsman who doesn't drink, never smoked, is polite and well mannered, dedicated totally to his profession, reached the top of the game but couldn't quite win the big prizes... So he worked even harder, improved his weaknesses and eventually got there despite all the pressures that come with being the only top British tennis player...

It's actually an easy sell. He could milk that story and earn a fortune. That he chooses not to sell it (I believe the two tearful sentences that he spoke in this years documentary is the only time he's ever spoken publicly about what happened to him as a kid) makes him go up in my estimation.

He's probably the finest example we have as a sportsman in this country of how anything is possible. And his reluctance to sell himself adds to that. Total dedication to his sport, and forget the glamour that comes with it. Now that's someone kids can look up to.

I see "he" is still killing this forum, no wonder regular posters are disappearing.

Julius has described her as pathetic, the word I would use is sad.

Just as we'll the likes of Andy or Neil Harman don't see some of the rubbish she posts, and as for Rafa & Roger knowing that "he" is a big fan of theirs - the mind boggles!

hawkeye wrote:I will just ignore your attempts to WUM... but I will say I disagree with your opinion.

Murray is a hard sell. The proof is out there. Federer and Nadal do more than sell themselves they sell the sport that's part of the job.

Murray also sells the sport. There is no proof at all that Murray is a hard sell.
Yes, Federer is an easier sell because of his natural personality, his extraordinary winning record and his aesthetically pleasing game. So Murray is a harder sell than Fed - so what? So Murray is less 'publicly' likeable than a chap who is extremely 'publicly' likeable, because he is more introverted and doesn't like the spotlight as much, and not quite as good a tennis player - so what?

Fed was second only to Mandela in the popularity stakes. Your argument is that Murray isn't as popular as Fed - again, so what, he doesn't need to be, nor can he be expected to be up there with Mandela.

Does any of that explain your years of distorting the truth about Murray, the selective and misrepresentative quotes, your snide digs at him and his family, all the time and effort you put in to knocking him down at every opportunity. No - only you can explain why you do that, but you have yet to do so. Fair enough, you don't have to, but don't think you're somehow pulling the wool over people's eyes with your holier-than-thou, who me act, when it's apparent to everyone that you're more or less just a politer, smarter version of homogenised.

Ask Ross Hutchins what he thinks of Murray - ask him whether he thinks Murray is a person worthy of the endless cr@p you throw at him.

I think hawkeye has given a reason why she doesn't like Murray which is just to do with the on-court behaviour (the muttering, berating himself, addressing his negative feelings towards his camp, swearing etc). I understand why if you don't like him, all the media fawning would be quite annoying. Should it be so annoying that it results in such a negative reaction to every mention of him in the media, however benign? Probably not. That side of her does indeed reflect badly on her.

hawkeye wrote:

JuliusHMarx wrote:
He is not debonair or multi-lingual as Fed is, nor does he have his effortless charm.
He does not have Rafa's good looks and smile.

Do you think being "debonair" or multi-lingual or being good looking or having a nice smile is what makes Federer and Nadal popular? Do you think people are that shallow? Nonsense! They are amazing tennis players but in addition to that they have charm but charm isn't effortless. They put a lot of effort into charming their audience and people generally want to be charmed. Their effort is appreciated. How much effort does Murray put in to be charming? By this I don't mean being false or fooling around but putting effort into doing things like attend an award ceremony that was centered on him. Pro tennis isn't just about training and hitting balls. Without an audience it wouldn't exist.

Tennis would be a difficult sell if future players adopted Murray's attitude rather than Federer and Nadal's.

Interesting comment but the reason why Murray was in the position to win SPOTY was due to the fact that he realised quite early in his career that pro tennis was actually 'about training and hitting balls' if he wanted to get to the higher levels. He knows that a pro tennis career is limited in timescale and has commited himself to making as good a fist of it as he can. As he implied in his interview he would much rather spend Christmas with family and friends but knows he has to make these sacrifices. In an interview done after SPOTY but was on tv next morning he was asked if he would be celebrating his win that night. His answer was unfortunately not as he had a session in the gym on his schedule.

He doesn't have the charisma of Federer. However he does show a good example in that to suceed in pro sport you don't just need talent. You also need hard work and total commitment.

Calder106 wrote:

hawkeye wrote:

JuliusHMarx wrote:
He is not debonair or multi-lingual as Fed is, nor does he have his effortless charm.



He does not have Rafa's good looks and smile.

Do you think being "debonair" or multi-lingual or being good looking or having a nice smile is what makes Federer and Nadal popular? Do you think people are that shallow? Nonsense! They are amazing tennis players but in addition to that they have charm but charm isn't effortless. They put a lot of effort into charming their audience and people generally want to be charmed. Their effort is appreciated. How much effort does Murray put in to be charming? By this I don't mean being false or fooling around but putting effort into doing things like attend an award ceremony that was centered on him. Pro tennis isn't just about training and hitting balls. Without an audience it wouldn't exist.

Tennis would be a difficult sell if future players adopted Murray's attitude rather than Federer and Nadal's.

Interesting comment but the reason why Murray was in the position to win SPOTY was due to the fact that he realised quite early in his career that pro tennis was actually 'about training and hitting balls' if he wanted to get to the higher levels. He knows that a pro tennis career is limited in timescale and has commited himself to making as good a fist of it as he can. As he implied in his interview he would much rather spend Christmas with family and friends but knows he has to make these sacrifices. In an interview done after SPOTY but was on tv next morning he was asked if he would be celebrating his win that night. His answer was unfortunately not as he had a session in the gym on his schedule.

He doesn't have the charisma of Federer. However he does show a good example in that to suceed in pro sport you don't just need talent. You also need hard work and total commitment.

 

 

That too is an interesting comment though I find it hard to agree with it.. if it is NOW that Murray has decided to be more committed its only since he has had Lendl as his coach.. (the man stands for no nonensense). The bottom line is that Murray has ONLY JUST grown up. Nadal/Federer/Djokovic have always been more mature than Murray. Lendl kicked the little boy up the backside and made a man of him

hawkeye wrote:

JuliusHMarx wrote:
He is not debonair or multi-lingual as Fed is, nor does he have his effortless charm.
He does not have Rafa's good looks and smile.

Do you think being "debonair" or multi-lingual or being good looking or having a nice smile is what makes Federer and Nadal popular? Do you think people are that shallow? Nonsense! They are amazing tennis players but in addition to that they have charm but charm isn't effortless. They put a lot of effort into charming their audience and people generally want to be charmed. Their effort is appreciated. How much effort does Murray put in to be charming? By this I don't mean being false or fooling around but putting effort into doing things like attend an award ceremony that was centered on him. Pro tennis isn't just about training and hitting balls. Without an audience it wouldn't exist.

Tennis would be a difficult sell if future players adopted Murray's attitude rather than Federer and Nadal's.

yes, as you prove time and time again

I would love to have a 'Altenative universe' machine to see what HE would have said if Murray HAD left training to attend the awards

'Shallow Murray focuses on popularity rather than tennis'

Would be my guess