Serena Williams
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Serena Williams threw a comical jab at NFL kicker Harrison Butker during the 2024 ESPYS, delighting social media users.
The 2024 ESPY Awards were held live on Thursday (July 11), and Harrison Butker of the Kansas City Chiefs was the subject of one of the biggest laughs of the evening thanks to the host Serena Williams. Standing onstage with her sister, Venus Williams, and Abbott Elementary star Quinta Brunson delivered a raucous monologue all about how fans can enjoy women’s sports. “So, go ahead and enjoy women’s sports like you would any other sports, because they are sports,” Venus Williams said. “Except you, Harrison Butker. We don’t need you,” Serena stated. “At all. Like, ever,” Brunson replied.
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The crowd – which included the Chiefs kicker and his coach, Andy Reid – burst into laughter. It was another crack delivered towards Butker in response to his controversial commencement speech given to graduating students at Benedictine College this past May. In his remarks, he criticized those “pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America.” He touched on his opposition to the LGBTQIA communities, decrying transgender athletes in sports. The conservative Christian also congratulated the women graduates, but also said:“ I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.” The comments drew major rebuke of Butker from many in the public, despite quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Coach Reid defending him.
Serena’s stinging barb caught the attention of some who were derisive of the 23-time Grand Slam winner, with a few stating that women’s sports didn’t matter that much anyway. Many more, however, were highly supportive of her joke especially on social media.
We’ve gathered a selection of the best responses to Serena Williams’ slam of Harrison Butker below.
1. Gerren Petersen
2. Jubal A Early
4. Mona Eltahawy
5. Pammy Dee
6. Rachel Wilkins
7. Skylar Jordan
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. Calling all Serena Williams fans! Get ready to relive her most significant Grand Slam moments with a behind-the-scenes look of her […]
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Serena Williams shared a funny anecdote about trying to deposit a very large check at a drive-thru during her career.
Tennis great Serena Williams was beloved and respected for her drive, but in a recent interview, she shared a story about how her focus led her to have a mishap at a bank’s drive-thru window.
Williams was the guest on a recent episode of the highly popular Hot Ones series from First We Feast. During the interview, as Williams got to dig in on some spicy wings, at the 11-minute mark host Sean Evans asked: “Is it true that you rarely collected your winnings your first year on tour and then once tried unsuccessfully to cash your first million-dollar check in a drive-thru ATM?”
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“Yeah, those are all true,” the 23-time Grand Slam champion confirmed. “I never played for money, I played ’cause I loved the sport. I wanted to be the best. I wanted to win.” She continued, saying: “So my tax guy, he would be like, ‘You didn’t get your money?’ and I’d be like, ‘Oh, I didn’t get that one in Zurich,’ ‘Oh, I forgot that one in Moscow,’…I was just playing to win, and if I didn’t win, I wasn’t thinking. I was just so angry, that I wanted to find a way to get better and win the next time.”
It turned out that her focus led her to collect a very substantial amount of earnings. “I got my check and it was a million dollars,” Williams said. “Like, okay, I’m gonna go deposit it. I’d never really spent a lot of money. I was so serious. I don’t know what happened to me, I used to be serious. So I just went through the drive-thru … and the guy was like, ‘Uh, I think you need to come inside for this.’” Evans and Williams laughed as she said, “lessons to learn.”
The story was one of a few notable anecdotes that Williams shared, including a look at the stylish outfits she wore during her career including a denim suit she said was inspired by one that another tennis champion, Andre Agassi, wore on the court. Her Hot Ones appearance comes as her ESPN+ documentary series, In The Arena: Serena Williams makes its debut on Wednesday (July 10).
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Serena Williams praised Caitlin Clark’s approach to dealing with the pressures of being in the WNBA, including the press attention.
As Caitlin Clark’s rookie season in the WNBA has progressed this summer, she’s gotten a heaping amount of scrutiny from the press and has been the subject of social media squabbles. Tennis great Serena Williams can sympathize, and she expressed that sentiment while at the Tribeca Film Festival last Thursday (June 13). Williams, who was present for the premiere of the ESPN+ documentary series, In The Arena: Serena Williams, praised Clark for her poise so far and referenced her own experiences.
“I just love that she tries to stay grounded. She said that she doesn’t look at her social [media],” Williams said. “I get it. I don’t look at it either. It’s so important to continue to do what she’s doing. No matter what other people do, if people are negative, it’s because they can’t do what you do, basically. Hopefully, she’ll continue to do what she’s doing.” Clark has been the subject of heavy conversation during her rookie season with the Indiana Fever, especially as news broke that she wasn’t named to the senior women’s national basketball team.
“I was bullied. Things that I had to go through, people would be canceled for saying now,” Williams continued, referring to the intense media attention she and her sister Venus Williams received as they began their careers as adolescents. “My position in growing up, as a teenager, I kind of had to be guarded to kind of stay sane. Just [getting] so much press and doing everything I was doing and traveling the globe every year. It was every week. It was a grind.”
The 23-time Grand Slam champion has previously talked about her interest in WNBA ownership. Serena Williams is already part of the ownership group of Angel City FC of the NWSL. “I absolutely would be (interested). With the right market, I would definitely be super interested in that,” Williams said in an interview with CNN. As for Caitlin Clark, she has recently been more adamant about those using her name to demean other WNBA players. “People should not be using my name to push those agendas. It’s disappointing. It’s not acceptable,” she said Thursday to the press. “Treating every single woman in this league with the same amount of respect, I think, it’s just a basic human thing that everybody should do.”
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The life and career journey of tennis great Serena Williams will be the focus of a new documentary series to premiere on ESPN.
The news was announced on Tuesday (May 16), at the upfront presentation held by the Walt Disney Company in New York City. The series, entitled In the Arena: Serena Williams, was introduced by the superstar on stage. She told the audience that her reason for being there personally was that “you’re talking about building connections with fans and our family is super-obsessed with Disney.” Joking with the audience, she continued: “My big plan was to break my baby news at the Disney upfront, but the Met Gala got in the way of those plans.”
The series, she stated, would be “an unflinching account of my life and my 23 Grand Slam victories — not counting doubles.” It follows the highly-regarded documentary series Man in the Arena: Tom Brady, about the iconic NFL quarterback which also debuted on ESPN, going on to win the 2022 Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary Series. The network will be co-producing the series along with Tom Brady’s 199 Productions and Williams’ production company she has with Caroline Currier, Nine Two Six Productions and Religion of Sports. Gotham Chopra, who was involved in Kobe Bryant’s Muse, will direct.
The series description reads in part: “Several of Serena’s most significant Grand Slam tournaments and defining personal milestones are examined and decoded in detail. The series juxtaposes Serena’s spectacular on-court achievements and cultural impact with dramatic personal challenges. Through it all, Serena fights to maintain her place atop the tennis world while juggling the transformational experience of starting a family.”
There is no date announced yet for the series. A previous multi-episode series in 2017, Being Serena, was a striking and raw look at the champion’s pregnancy and birth of her daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian, Jr. It also gave an unflinching eye to the situation after Williams delivered her child via emergency C-section in addition to covering her marriage to tech entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian and the path back to competition in 2018.
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The slap heard around the world is a forever moment. For the first time Serena Williams has commented on when Will Smith put hands on Chris Rock.
As per The Huffington Post the tennis legend recently paid a visit to CBS Mornings. While the sports icon discussed a variety of topics surrounding her career, host Gayle King referred to the infamous Oscars incident. “King Richard had that moment at the Oscars, what did you feel about that?” she asked. The Compton, California native kept things classy and spoke to two huge moments were eclipsed by the slap.
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“I thought it was such an incredible film, and I feel that there was an incredible film after that with Questlove that kind of was overshadowed,” she responded, referring to Summer of Soul. “But, I also feel that I’ve been in a position where I’ve been under a lot of pressure and I’ve made a tremendous amount of mistakes,” she added. “And I’m the kind of person that’s like ― ‘I’ve been there. I’ve made a mistake. It’s not the end of the world.’” She also went to admit that reminded everyone that love is the message. “We’re all imperfect and we’re all human, and let’s just be kind to each other” she said.
Four months after the slap Will made an apology via his YouTube channel saying he is “deeply remorseful” for his actions. Since the incident Smith has been formally banned by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. You can Serena discuss life after tennis below.
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