"Dominoes, Kanye, dominoes"- Martina Navratilova applauds Adidas for dropping Kanye West after his anti-Semitic comments
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova has applauded Adidas for terminating its partnership with Kanye West.
Adidas worked on the YEEZY clothing line with West, who formally changed his name to Ye last year. The rapper recently faced a lot of criticism for his remarks on Jews and for fomenting antisemitism. Numerous requests have been made to major sponsors like Adidas and others to stop endorsing the rapper following his comments.
Amid growing pressure, Sportswear behemoth Adidas stated Tuesday that it was severing ties with West.
"Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech. Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness," a statement from the German company said.
"After a thorough review, the company has taken the decision to terminate the partnership with Ye immediately, end production of Yeezy branded products and stop all payments to Ye and his companies. Adidas will stop the Adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect," it added.
And there it is. Adidas officially announces it's dropping its partnership with Kanye West.
Two very long weeks later. https://t.co/krZH0kCYfl
Martina Navratilova, who was among those calling for the dissolution of Kanye West's endorsement deal with Adidas, praised the company on Twitter in light of this.
"Dominoes Kanye, dominoes… And well done @adidas!!!" Navratilova wrote.
Dominoes Kanye, dominoes…
And well done @adidas !!! nytimes.com/2022/10/25/bus…
"Nancy made me feel like Chris took something away from me" - Martina Navratilova on how she learned to beat Chris Evert
Martina Navratilova discussed how Nancy Liberman, a great in American basketball, inspired her to defeat Chris Evert in an old interview with Bob Costas.
Liberman, according to her, made her feel as though Evert had taken away her top spot and she needed to wrest it back.
"It was not just with Chris, but with everybody else. But with Chris in particular," Navratilova said, adding, "Nancy made me feel like Chris took something away from me, which was the No. 1 spot. To get it, you have to get it from her. So you have to not like her, because otherwise you won't get it."
She also mentioned how her and Evert's relationship was impacted by Liberman's suggested approach.
"Nancy told me she would be talking trash on the changeovers. I was like, 'You can't do that, this is tennis'. But she did get me tougher mentally when I just really wanted to win and I felt like Chris took it away from me and I have to get it back. So there was some friction because of that," Navratilova stated.
Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert's rivalry is widely regarded as one of the best in tennis history and also sports in general. They faced each other a whopping 80 times, with Navratilova leading the head-to-head 43-37 and 36-24 in the finals.