As Serena Williams moves closer to winning a grand slam this week at the U.S. Open in New York City, quietly in the background, mural artists commissioned by Gatorade have been immortalizing the tennis queen on buildings in the borough of Brooklyn.
The murals, which are part of Gatorade’s “Serena 21” art series, honors the world’s greatest athlete with paintings on Kent Avenue and Grand Street in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. The paintings were designed by Vault49, an ad agency based out of New York City.
There are murals dedicated to each of Williams’ 21 grand slams.
Along with the murals, Gatorade has released a retrospective video of a young Serena, who wasn’t short on confidence.
“If you were a tennis player, who would you want to be like?” the interviewer asked.
After the question is asked, viewers are shown Williams throughout the years, from her triumphs to defeats, then the camera returns to a young Williams as she answers the question.
“I’d like other people to be like me,” she stated.
And now, after all these years, Williams has inspired people of all ages and backgrounds. No wonder people call her the greatest athlete ever. But it would have been nice if the murals were in an area of Brooklyn where little black girls could see her greatness, and not just a bunch of hipsters in Williamsburg.