Stephen A. Smith Rips Into Serena Williams Over Tennis Star’s Bold Attempt to Troll Ex-Boyfriend Drake
Serena Williams’ cameo is one of the most highly discussed moments from Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance on Feb. 9. The legendary tennis star made a surprise appearance during Lamar’s performance of his “Not Like Us” diss track aimed at his nemesis, Drake. Rocking a two-piece, blue and white tennis skirt outfit, Williams c-walked to the villainous beat with a mean mug on her face. Many found the moment to be another iconic dig at Drake, being that he’s Williams’ ex, and he’s beefed with her and her current husband Alexis Ohanian. However, “First Take” co-host Stephen A. Smith did not support the move.
On Feb. 10, Smith told his co-hosts Shannon Sharpe, Ryan Clark, and Dan Orlovsky why he felt it was inappropriate for Williams to be backing Lamar’s diss track.
“If I’m married and my wife is going to join trolling her ex, go back to his ass,” Smith said. “Because clearly, you don’t belong with me. What you worried about him for and you with me? Bye-bye.”
Fans commented on Smith’s response with mixed reactions.
Under an X post of Smith’s critiques, one person said, “If you’re dense enough to believe that was the only reason she was out there, you deserve to be wifeless lol.” Someone else wrote, “lmaoo SAS wanna be Shannon so bad, at least do your research before you run your mouth.”
Others who supported him wrote, “I hate when Stephen A right.” Someone else said, “He lowkey isn’t wrong but why is this on ESPN.”
Williams briefly dated the Canadian rapper back in 2011 but seemed to revisit their romance back in 2015 after TMZ released pictures of the two sharing a kiss. After both splits Drake mentioned the 23-time Grand Slam singles winner in at least two of his songs. The first being his 2013 single “Worst Behavior,” and in 2022 he picked a fight with Williams’ husband by calling him a “groupie” in his song, “Middle Of The Ocean.”
In Drake’s song “Too Good” featuring Rihanna, he didn’t mention Williams, but in an old clip released on his website of archival footage, Drake tells his mother that the 2016 hit was about him and Williams.
While Drake may have partially been the motive behind Williams’ performance on Sunday night, there are more layers to why she took the stage. The mother of two is from Compton, which is also where Lamar is from.
Secondly, the moment was possibly a reference to the backlash she received after her 2012 win against Maria Sharapova, where she did the c-walk as her celebratory dance move after winning the Olympic gold at Wimbledon. However, Williams was slammed by reporters at the time because of the dance’s affiliation with the Crips, a prominent Los Angeles gang.
When a reporter asked her about the dance, multiple outlets reported that she said, “It was just me. I love to dance. I didn’tknow what else to do. I was so happy, and next thing I know I started dancing and moving. I didn’t plan it. It just happened.”
After freely hitting the move on stage with Lamar, Williams posted a video from backstage. She said, “Man, I did not crip-walk like that at Wimbledon. Oh, I would have been fined.” Then added, “It was all love.”
