McEnroe was classic. More tennis players need to play with his fire and guts. Since McEnroe played nobody was really close to him as far as intensity and talent in one package. He was 160 pounds and nobody could touch his serve in his prime, due to a combination of speed, placement and deception of delivery.
And that umpire whom he called the pits of the Earth was the pits of the Earth. In baseball, the same kinds of statements are made to umpires all the time, and it is tolerated. McEnroe brought the baseball bench jockey mentality to tennis, and by doing so made it more popular to the common man and the less genteel. Before McEnroe, it was thought that tennis was a sport exclusive to the refined and the upper classes, like crew. McEnroe, a tough Irish kid from New York City, shattered that myth.