Stephen A. Smith Defends His Comments About Serena Williams Amid Backlash

Sports analyst Stephen A. Smith has doubled down on his comments about Serena Williams, stressing that he meant no disrespect toward her.

Williams sparked a buzz after her cameo at Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl Halftime Show on Sunday.

The tennis legend crip walked to Lamar's "Not Like Us," a diss song directed at Drake, who Williams reportedly dated in the past, causing a debate as people wondered if she was getting back at her ex.

Smith received heavy backlash from many fans following his comments about Williams.

One of the fans who slammed the sports analyst didn't hold back in doing so, targeting his hairline.

The fan 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."

However, Smith responded to the fan on Wednesday, urging them to take another look at his comments and understand his point of view.

He wrote, "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."

Smith continued, "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."

Williams was among Lamar's surprise guests during his Super Bowl Halftime Show performance, with SZA, another of Drake's exes.

After Williams' "crip walk" dance at the Halftime Show sparked much buzz, Smith and other ESPN "First Take" co-hosts shared their thoughts about it during Monday's episode.

Smith shared how he would have felt if he was Williams' husband and saw her dancing to a diss track about her ex.

He said, "If I'm your husband, I'm thinking, 'Why are you up there trolling him—trolling your ex?'" If I'm married, and my wife is going to troll her ex—go back to his -ss."

Smith concluded, "Because clearly you don’t belong with me. What you worried about him for—and you with me? Bye. Bye."

Besides fans, Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian also defended her against those who slammed her for crip walking during Lamar's performance.

Ohanian, who hailed the halftime show as "pretty fantastic," shared a screenshot of comments made by sports commentator Jason Whitlock slamming Williams for crip walking after her victory at the London Olympics female singles tennis gold medal match at Wimbledon in 2012.

Whitlock said at the time, "What Serena did was akin to cracking a tasteless, X-rated joke inside a church. Serena deserved to be called out. What she did was immature and classless."

In addition to the screenshot, Ohanian shared a clip from Lamar's halftime show featuring Samuel L. Jackson, who portrayed Uncle Sam.

Uncle Sam exclaimed sarcastically, "Oh no, no! Too loud! Too reckless! Too... ghetto. Mr. Lamar, do you really know how to play the game? Then tighten up!"

Ohanian wrote in the post's caption, "Some of y'all have no idea how criticized Serena was for this same dance at Wimbledon 13 years ago and it shows.... This is bigger than the music."

Whitlock responded to Ohanian's post by slamming him for going at him rather than being mad at his wife.

He wrote, "This is Serena's husband, a true beta. He's mad at me rather than the wife Crip walking and still thinking about Drake. Simp."

Ohanian also responded to the sports analyst with a lengthy write-up. He wrote, "I get it—you're 57, and life didn't turn out the way you imagined. That kind of disappointment must be exhausting."

The Reddit co-founder added, "You're the embodiment of peaked in high school, spending decades chasing validation from strangers through Likes and Digital Hugs, only to find that no amount of external approval fills the void. I wouldn't wish that on anyone."

Ohanian advised Whitlock, writing, "Criticism only fuels your victim complex, reinforcing the comforting delusion that there's some grand conspiracy against you and your "brave ideas"—when in reality, you've just got terrible takes. It’s a cycle: outrage, backlash, self-pity, repeat."

He concluded, "This is a lonely road. There's still time to rewrite the ending — start by working on yourself first. You'll find that if you wake up every morning trying to be a little better, a little more curious, you won't have time for irrational hating — you'll be too busy winning."

However, Whitlock wasn't impressed with Ohanian's advice and shared a screenshot of his post on Instagram.

In the caption, he wondered why the entrepreneur was "fussing" at him. He wrote, "Why is Serena Williams’ husband fussing at me? Why not take it up with Drake?"

Whitlock concluded, "Don't be mad at me because Serena can't get over Drake. This makes no sense!"