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ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith has responded after coming under fire for his comments about Serena Williams dancing in Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show.
During an episode of the sports analyst’s First Take podcast on Monday, he explained that he wouldn’t have wanted to be the tennis legend’s husband because of her dating history with Drake — Lamar’s rival and the subject of his Grammy-winning diss track “Not Like Us.”
“If I’m your husband, I’m thinking, ‘Why are you up there trolling him — trolling your ex?’” Stephen said. “If I’m married, and my wife is going to troll her ex — go back to his ass. Because clearly you don’t belong with me. What you worried about him for — and you with me?”
After receiving intense backlash for his remarks, Smith issued a statement on X on Tuesday. “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,” the post began.
“I didn’t utter a single disrespectful word about Serena. 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.”
“Everybody knows that she and Drake were together at one time, and it seemed like everyone wanted to get their lick,” he added.
Reports about Williams and Drake being involved romantically first emerged in 2011 but intensified in 2015 after they were spotted kissing at a restaurant in Cincinnati following Williams’s win at the WTA tournament.
Although Williams never publicly confirmed the relationship, Drake sang about their romance in his 2016 song “Too Good.”
On his podcast, Smith’s co-hosts were quick to disagree with him.
“If you with Serena Williams, you’re going to be a kept man anyway — don’t start that,” former NFL player Ryan Clark chimed in.
“I think [Alexis Ohanian] is doing pretty well. He founded Reddit and then he sold Reddit for a big chunk of change. I think he OK,” former Broncos tight end Shannon Sharpe said about Williams’ husband, who later praised the halftime performance on X/Twitter.
Meanwhile, on The View, Whoopi Goldberg tore into Smith over the comment.
“Why wasn’t it, ‘Damn, Serena was great’? Why is it about some ex-boyfriend she hasn’t thought of?” she asked on Tuesday. “All you can think of is her ex-boyfriend? I don’t understand. Why would you even think it was [about Drake]? Why would you think she’s not smart enough?”
“She got a chance to do something she wanted to do, and she went and did it,” Goldberg continued. “Instead of saying, ‘Damn, that was kind of great,’ you’re bringing it back to some old stuff.”
