By L.P. LUPO

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pardon me while I sit out the canonization of Andre Agassi.

I admit I rooted for Agassi in recent years.

I even was rooting for Agassi in the U.S. Open.

In fact, I was rooting for him until the middle of the third set of his five-set marathon match against Marco Baghdatis in the second round of the tournament last Thursday night.

That was when Agassi taunted the charismatic Cypriot by intentionally fanning on one of his shots that he knew was going long.

In that instant, I recalled what a self-indulgent jerk Agassi was early in his career.

Back then, Agassi carefully cultivated the image of a two-bit rebel.

He disrespected the tradition of tennis. He avoided Wimbledon because of the wearing of the requisite whites and shunned the Australian Open. He also had a habit of tanking it in the smaller tournaments after counting his appearance money.

Pete Sampras was the talented and dutiful player but deemed boring by the tennis press.

Agassi was the flamboyant, likeable bad boy who brought excitement to tennis.

Flash forward about 15 years and members of the tennis press were still idolizing Agassi, only this time as the grand old citizen of the game.
Even the casual tennis fan bought into the overwrought script.

It is too bad Agassi’s bad form against Baghdatis did not intrude on his teary-eyed farewell Sunday.

It is too bad that the dots of his career were not connected.

You could argue this shameless self-promoter simply reinvented himself as the van-driving family man and noble citizen of tennis.

He certainly raised the notion with his well-choreographed exit, intended to milk as much adulation out of his last moment as possible.

By announcing his retirement earlier this summer, Agassi turned the 20,000 fans in each of his last three matches into a prop to his self-adulation.

His self-adulation reached a new low with his loss to Benjamin Becker, as Agassi gave a blubbering, quivering speech in the manner of Lou Gehrig, complete with a 1930’s-style sound system that echoed.

His stadium speech was followed by a post-match interview, in which he spouted the cliché about how much he “gave back” to the game.

I am not sure he gave back more than, say, John McEnroe, Sampras, or even Ivan Lendl.

I am not even sure what exactly Agassi gave back to tennis.

No one said, not even the sycophantic tennis media with its sports cliché book in hand.

Many athletes before Agassi have retired quietly and with far greater class.

Perhaps most telling in his post-match interview, Agassi made nary a mention of his worthy opponents over a 20-year career, despite repeated invitations. It was all about me, me, me.

Few athletes ever have retired with greater hubris and narcissism.

You wonder: Why does the media become such fans around entertainment celebrities?

This is the same media that prides itself on being tough. Well, okay, it is tough on conservative politicians, corporate spokespersons and CEOs.

The day after his maudlin departure, the U.S. Open gave us the 378th replay of Agassi’s stadium speech and more testimonials from other players.

Enough already.