Stephen A. Smith hasn’t been able to live down his critique of Serena Williams’ surprise appearance during Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show.
The sports personality took to X on Tuesday to respond to a user, who wrote, “A 57-year-old UNMARRIED man with a receding hairline who has never BEEN married mind you, saying he would divorce our greatest living athlete who has been happily married for 8 years to her very rich and loving husband—keep quiet forehead.”
Smith fired back, tweeting, “Please go back and look at exactly what I said. I was talking overall from a man’s perspective — highlighting what most men would think. I didn’t utter a single disrespectful word about Serena.
He continued, “No issues with folks getting upset of literal serious stuff one’s pissed about. This doesn’t qualify peeps. Come on. We were joking around on @FirstTake. Damn y’all! It’s not that serious.”
Smith made his initial comments on ESPN's First Take on Monday, the day after Serena shocked fans when she popped up to Crip walk to Kendrick Lamar’s Drake diss, “Not Like Us.”
"If I'm married and my wife is going to join trolling her ex, go back to his ass," Smith said, eliciting laughter from his co-hosts. "'Cause clearly you don't belong with me. What you worried about him for and you're with me? Bye. Bye."
Drake and Serena were rumored to be romantically involved years ago. Last summer, he revealed that his 2016 Views album cut, "Too Good" with Rihanna was about Williams.
A year after the album's arrival, in 2017, the tennis icon married Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and they welcomed their first child together that same year.
Drizzy and Ohanian have taken shots at each other in the years since. In 2022, when Drake called Ohanian a “groupie” on the 2022 Her Loss track, “Middle of the Ocean,” Ohanian clapped back on X. "The reason I stay winning is because I’m relentless about being the best at whatever I do—including being the best groupie for my wife & daughter,” he wrote.
Last summer, Lamar’s “The Pop-Out: Ken and Friends” concert presented the perfect opportunity for Ohanian to take a jab at the 6 God. Ohanian quote-tweeted a clip of Dot performing "Not Like Us" five consecutive times at the show with a famous clip of Kobe Bryant letting off some biting words.
“I’m going to beat you,” the late NBA legend said. “I’m going to let you know I beat you. And I’m gonna want you to reconsider your professional life choice.”
