Days after her surprising guest appearance at Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance, many talking heads have used it as an opportunity to criticize the tennis legend...including ever-controversial sports pundit Jason Whitlock.
The mess started when Williams’ husband Alexis Ohanian hopped on X to casually praise the show, writing, “Pretty fantastic halftime show.”
Later, he then explained why it was so significant for Serena to crip walk while on stage, posting, “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.”
Then, out of nowhere Jason Whitlock decided to chime in, and responded to Ohanian’s post, saying, “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.”
While Whitlock may have thought he got one over on Ohanian, the founder of Reddit was prepared with a clapback: “I get it—you’re 57, and life didn’t turn out the way you imagined. That kind of disappointment must be exhausting. 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 continued, “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.”
Read the entire of Ohanian’s response below:
The impetus for Ohanian feeling the need to defend his wife started with Stephen A. Smith, who said on Monday, “If I’m married and my wife is going to join trolling her ex, go back to his a**, ‘cause clearly you don’t belong with me.”