Let’s start with a disclaimer: There are a LOT of unknowns in this whole situation.

There was an e-mail published Tuesday night allegedly from Collin Johns airing grievances about Major League Pickleball. I can’t verify this was actually sent by Collin. To be honest, this very well could be some sort of AI fake written from Collin’s point of view – do we really know without hearing it from the man himself?

Regardless, it's worth reacting to.

What prompted this venting of frustration? I'm not sure. One thought I’ve had is the social media backlash for the way the Johns brothers played and acted this weekend at MLP Salt Lake City.

Here's a sampling of some of the reactions after watching the Johns brothers in Utah and the subsequent letter being leaked:

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If, indeed, this was Collin’s writing, I can’t get this gif out of my head:

via GIPHY

Here is the "letter" in its entirety, which has been leaked and circulated all over social media and on Reddit on Wednesday.

I despise MLP for a variety of reasons.

1. A top player like Ben is handicapped for being the best by having bottom tier players on his team. That’s the equivalent of taxing the very wealthy who worked hard to be wealthy, to the point of having to work harder than the average person to come out ahead. It’s unfair to penalize him like that.

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The Dink PickleballJason Flamm

2. The scoring system is designed to allow inferior players to keep the scoreline close and steal matches they don’t deserve to win. The advantage of returning outweighs how much better a team or player is. This keeps the scoreline close no matter what and the freeze allows the inferior team during the match to catch up arbitrarily. The scoring system is extremely dumb. Just because a system is widely used doesn’t make it a good one. A proper scoring system should give the better team a legitimate chance to demonstrate why they are better. If the underdog performs better under those conditions that day, they deserve to win. But not just because they stayed close and caught up at the end because of the freeze.

3. It is portrayed as a “team effort” even though the results clearly hinge on certain matches where you personally have no control over the outcome. In theory, Ben and I could’ve won every single one of our matches but with our women going 0 and NINE to start the season, we have no ability to do more than offset that. As good as Ben is, he can’t play more than two matches and four points at a time in a DB. He is at the mercy of the rest of his “team” that are the bottom tier of available players. It’s a “team” yes. But with certain players carrying the bulk of the load to lift up players who aren’t actually pulling their weight.

4. Singles might be exciting but it is not  the focus of many top players. It is suddenly deemed important for some reason and made to be a big part of the event. I say that as someone who is very capable in singles. I am personally fine playing four singles points at a time. But I don’t believe it should be as important as it is.

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Zane Navratil, co-host of the PicklePod and a member of the New Jersey 5s of Major League Pickleball, felt compelled to respond to the leaked e-mail allegedly sent by Collin Johns to MLP highlighting his grievances with the organization.

The Dink PickleballZane Navratil

5. Players, owners, GMs, and fans are permitted to behave in the worst ways at MLP. It’s part of the culture. You can scream, stare down, finger wag, taunt, cheat, and use pretty much any bush league tactics you want with very little risk of repercussions. It’s an accepted part of MLP. As someone who values a level of sportsmanship, I hate this part of it. It brings out the worst in people, and players who are normally quarterfinal level suddenly act like tough guy jackasses just because they have a better supporting cast than another top player. AL’s on court behavior was shameful against us. So it isn’t just lower tier players. It is a long list of guilty parties. This makes MLP unenjoyable to me and others who have similar views.

6. The venue selection is grossly unprofessional. This week was in a remote area of SLC at a facility without adequate spacing around the courts and horrendous lighting. The lighting is just so wrong. The Picklr literally put un-diffused lighting directly down the middle of the courts. Meaning direct LED lighting down the sight lines of the courts. This is absurd and grossly unprofessional to have players play a pro event in those conditions. Ben already has an issue with indoor lighting and this week was completely unworkable. You can’t compete if you can’t see the ball properly. Also, the last cumulative season event in DC was downright dangerous with where it was at, with no lights to finish matches within time constraints. The venue selection process is completely unprofessional by MLP.

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The Dink PickleballErik Tice

7. MLP just signed a ball contract with Vulcan. I’m aware they were under pressure to follow PPA on that. However, when it comes to standards for the players, this is a downright wrong. The quality of the ball affects the quality of play significantly which is unfair to the players and the fans. We don’t practice hard to perfect shots that no longer matter because the ball doesn’t bounce. And I don’t want to hear it is the same for everyone. It isn’t. The worse players benefit more because it is less about skill and more about luck. Pickleball also loses when our “top players” routinely whiff the ball. I’m sure that looks really good on ESPN when we can barely make contact. It’s infuriating and unprofessional.

8. Paddle testing in DC was an unmitigated disaster. Not only do we have standards that are completely out of control, we can’t even rely on the testing equipment used to be consistent. This general issue is as much a problem at PPAs so it isn’t regulated to just MLP.

I am aware that there are many staff members who work hard to make MLP happen and fans who like going to the events. However, if MLP is asking for professional effort on the part of the players, they need to be held to the same standard. And the above factors are legitimate grievances. Particularly the ones that are unprofessional standards like the venue and the ball. If they want to pay us to stay home so be it. But we worked to receive a contract that includes being paid for “team events”. We will fulfill our contract duties and sign paddles and go chase the Vulcan ball around on court if necessary. But don’t expect us to enjoy doing it.

There is A LOT to unpack here. Let’s go point by point.

On point No. 1

In the past, Ben has had the snake style draft as insurance (he still got a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th round of the draft). This time, it was an auction draft and for the most part, Ben PICKED HIS TEAM. It seemed like he picked his friends and people he would get along with over winning. Would we even be having this conversation if Carolina was good?

Additionally, the Carolina Pickleball Team didn’t spend all the money that was allotted to them in the draft. Instead, they spent $863,000 of the $1 million allowed. They chose Andrea Koop (43rd), Jessie Irvine (44th), and Collin Johns (47th). If they were willing to spend just $130k extra, this could have been the team (along with other options than the team they drafted). Ben Johns, Lacy Schneemann, Tyler Loong, and Vivian Glozman. This team would be near the top. 

On point No. 2

I actually agree here. The freeze does allow the teams who are behind a better chance to come back. This does three things in my mind:

• The lesser team does have a better chance of winning due to the freeze - bad
• The games have added drama due to the freeze - good
• The freeze adds pressure to the winning team - good

My suggestion on this is once a team hits 24, make the freeze for BOTH teams. Problem solved.

On point No. 3  

Yes, in theory, Ben and Collin COULD go 9-0 and not win many matches because the women on his team didn’t perform. This is correct. A few thoughts:

• Ben and Collin have a 64 percent winning percentage in men’s doubles, going 7-4 in the regular season (I am not even counting their two losses at Beer City Open). JW Johnson, Augie Ge, Gabe Tardio, and Hayden Patriquin all have better results in men’s doubles than the Johns brothers. So while they COULD go 9-0, they have thus far gone 7-4 (or 7-6 if you want to include BCO).
• The "lesser tier" players that Ben has to play with includes Collin. Collin is one of the worst men in the Premier Level because of his lack of mixed doubles abilities. Sure, the women on the Carolina team haven’t been great, but Collin’s lack of firepower must also put him in this "lesser tier."

On point No. 4

I also agree on this point. While I LOVE Dreambreakers, I think they are still worth too many points. Here is why: With the current scoring system, the Dreambreaker is worth two doubles match wins. 

How? Well if two teams go to a Dreambreaker, they have already each earned 1 point. The Dreambreaker is then worth another point to whomever wins it. Therefore, two doubles wins is equal to a Dreambreaker win in terms of how many season points a team earns. I think that is too high. To fix this issue, a Dreambreaker win should only be worth .5 points.

On point No. 5  

I think MLP is meant to be "rowdy" and Collin Johns doesn’t like it. To be fair, I do think recently it has gotten out of hand a little bit and MLP needs to reign in some of the trash talking, especially from the sidelines and from team personnel. 

I didn’t see what Anna Leigh did to Collin’s team during their match, and I am sure it was wiped from the upload if something bad did happen. I also wonder when he says, "unenjoyable to me and those with similar views," I wonder how many other players feel this way. I know it’s not a ton, but I also know it's not zero either.

On point No. 6  

Two different thoughts on this one:

• I have talked to a few different pros about the lighting at MLP Salt Lake City and not one person said it was bad. This could just be a Ben and Collin "REALLY hate indoor pickleball" thing.
• The D.C. venue pick was a very big miss by MLP. Players felt unsafe, they didn’t know the venue didn’t have lights and they had to move matches and not finish others because of this. Total miss on the part of the MLP.

On point No. 7

This one is tough. We agree on this: The Vulcan ball causes some VERY bad bounces, goes out of round, and overall, is not a great ball. I think most people can agree with this. I also agree that a ball of lesser quality does help the teams with less skill.

Here is my problem. Collin’s large salary is also partially offset by this huge Vulcan ball deal that was struck with the PPA and now MLP. They paid the most money to be the official ball of the PPA and MLP. I think it is well worth playing with an inferior ball for another six months rather than not having that extra money in the UPA’s coffers.

To go after the MLP for the Vulcan ball when the PPA also uses the same ball doesn’t make any logical sense. If this was a rant against MLP this entire point doesn't compute.

On point No. 8

I don’t think any sane person that knows what’s going on with paddle testing would disagree with Collin. The only people who might think paddle testing for the UPA is where it needs to be is PPL – the organization's third party tester – but I doubt even they think it’s where it needs to be. Agree here. 

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The Dink PickleballJason Flamm

The PPA and MLP both use the same paddle testing requirements, so I will repeat the last sentence from point No. 7: If this e-mail was all about MLP, this entire argument makes zero sense.

On point No. 9

There is no No. 9 in the letter, but this is the best way to address the last paragraph. I would venture to guess that out of the 88 players who are signed to MLP teams permanently, at least 70 of them love playing MLP. And guess what? There are another 20-25 who would kill to be on an MLP team. 

Personally, I would rather see the ups and downs of a Blaine Hovenier – who is newer to the sport, makes more mistakes, and loses more. However, he is a great team player – great energy, great encouragement, and he stepped up when his (temporary) team needed him to. 

If Collin is going to continue mailing it in and looking miserable in MLP, don’t make him play. Get other players in there who care and want to be there. It’s worse for the sport to see one of the top 50 players in the world act like he doesn’t care, rather than a top 100-125 give it everything they’ve got.