By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Saturday, March 22, 2025
Photo credit: Nick Kyrgios Facebook
March Madness isn’t confined to college campuses.
Hard Rock Stadium home of the Miami Open and the NFL’s Miami Dolphins is a multi-sport multiplex where players kick around the soccer ball, some, including Coco Gauff and Emma Raducanu, toss a football in warm-up and others obsess on basketball.
Following his Miami Open victory over qualifier Jacob Fearnley today, Alexander Zverev was asked by Tennis Channel’s Prakash Amritraj to name the Top 5 basketball players on the ATP Tour.
Zverev, who is good friends with NBA star Jimmy Butler and who said he grew up playing hoops at Saddlebrook in Florida, did not hestite when naming the ATP’s best baller.
That honor goes to Nick Kyrgios, whom Zverev said sometimes played more basketball than tennis in his younger years.
Olympic gold-medal champion Zverev named these five ATP pros as best basketball players: Nick Kyrgios, Reilly Opelka, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Christopher Eubanks, aka Big Banks, and the top-seeded German named himself as No. 5 on the ATP starting five basketball team.
It’s not easy bleeding green, says Kyrgios.
In an article he wrote for The Players’ Tribune web site titled “Why I Bleed Green” Kyrgios detailed how a kid from Australia became a devoted fan of the Boston Celtics.
Kyrgios recalls staying up all night to watch Celtics games from tournaments stops in Portugal and China. Kyrgios calls the deal that delivered his favorite player, Kevin Garnett, to Boston one of the happiest days of his life.
“When the mega trade happened in 2008, and we brought in Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, that might have been the happiest day of my life,” Kyrgios wrote. “Garnett is like my spirit animal. He’s my favorite player ever.
“Every guy wants him on their team, but nobody wants to face him. He’s so intense. The way he approaches the game is unreal.”
While we do not dispute Zverev’s pick of Kyrgios as best tennis baller, we must make a case for Gael Monfils as a pivotal player on any ATP starting five basketball team.
The explosive Monfils earned the nickname “Sliderman” on the tennis court, but is truly a Skywalker on the basketball court.
You may recall the time Kyrgio and Monfils faced off in a game of one-on-one with both men showing masterful skills.
Tennis and basketball share a noted history.
Hall of Famer Billie Jean King played basketball before she took up tennis. Former NBA standout John Lucas played both pro basketball and pro tennis with WTT appearances.
Former Boston Celtics standout Gordon Hayward was a two-time all-state tennis player before focusing on basketball. Hall of Famer John McEnroe played point guard on his school basketball team and fellow Hall of Famer Pete Sampras not only owned one of the best serves and smashes in tennis history he could slam dunk a basketball.
