The beauty of the McEnroe/Serena Williams kerfuffle is that the guy has managed to troll the world even though he’s obviously correct. He may not be correct to the precise number in believing that Williams would struggle against the top 700 male players or that he himself could still place in the top 500 female ones but the underlying point, that male physiology gives men an overpowering advantage at the game, is so apparent that Williams herself casually acknowledged it a few years ago. How often do you see a national controversy erupt over a claim that’s wholly uncontroversial? Next we’ll be debating which NBA teams the WNBA champions could beat. We may pretend otherwise, but we all know the answer.

Just the Knicks.

Anyway, there’s only one place this McEnroe thing can possibly be headed. Someone start writing the contracts and making the pay-per-view arrangements.

“People always ask me, ‘Can you beat Serena Williams?’” continued McEnroe, who in one of life’s happy coincidences just happens to have that new book (“But Seriously”) coming out. “My girls don’t think I can beat her now. I thought I could beat her. She’s pregnant, so maybe I should play her now. I’d have a better chance. But either way, I wish her the absolute best. She’s the best thing that’s happened to American tennis in the last 10, 15 years.”…

Let it be noted that McEnroe called Williams “arguably the greatest athlete of the last 100 years” when she won Wimbledon in 2015 and also that he didn’t qualify that based on gender. On “CBS This Morning,” he was pressed to say where, at 58, he would rank. “About 1,200 in the world.”

Riggs/King II: This Time It’s Personal. Does Serena have any incentive to play McEnroe, though? If it’s competitive or — gasp — she loses, it’d be crushing proof that even a top male player 25 years removed from the sport can still handle the world’s undisputed best women’s player. And does McEnroe have any incentive to play her? If he loses, especially if he loses badly, he’s just an aging blowhard talking smack. Everyone would watch, though. If America must endure a travesty like the Mayweather/McGregor fight, why can’t we have Williams/McEnroe? C’mon. For charity!

"I'd probably be in the top 500 at least"

John McEnroe is asked where he'd be ranked in the current women's game 🎾🙈 pic.twitter.com/k5MAXsOqFj

— BBC 5 Live Sport (@5liveSport) July 7, 2017