VIDEO: Martina Navratilova - Andre Agassi "Cheated The Game" With Drug Deception
Nov. 9 2009, Published 8:15 a.m. ET
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova responded to Andre Agassi's claim she was lacking compassion, after she criticized the men's tennis star for admitting to using crystal methamphetamine during his career.
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"I am a compassionate person, as I proved this morning when I rescued a tree-frog from my sink and released it into the wild," she said with a sly smile.
Navratilova said Agassi's admission, in his new tell-all book, that he used crystal meth in 1997 puts him "up there with Roger Clemens," meaning he's admitting cheating after the fact. Agassi, on 60 Minutes Sunday, said he was taking recreational -- not performance-enhancing -- drugs, and that he deserved compassion, not condemnation, from his colleagues.
Navratilova clarified her words comparing Agassi to Clemens, whose past achievements have been put into question by drug-related controversies.
"I was comparing Andre to Roger Clemens only because they both lied about having taken the drugs. I was never suggesting that Andre was taking performance-enhancing drugs, and that he was trying to cheat the game that way.
"It was the fact that he lied about it," Navratilova said. "He didn't own up to it and to me, he cheated the game in that respect."
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Agassi's tell-all, Open, hits stores Monday, November 9.