Serena Williams hosted the 2024 ESPY Awards, and while she touched on Drake’s beef with Kendrick Lamar, her views on Harrison Butker, and her beef with Maria Sharapova, a statement about Caitlin Clark has garnered much backlash.

The 2024 ESPY Awards aired on July 11 on ABC. Williams opened the show with an opening monologue about the WNBA rookie.

“Caitlin Clark had an amazing year and is nominated for three awards,” Williams began. The stars in attendance applauded as Williams appeared to praise Clark. But, as Williams told the second part of the joke, she appeared to receive somewhat of a mixed reaction. “You are the Larry Bird in that you are an amazing player, you have ties to Indiana, and white people are really crazy about you,” the tennis icon quipped.

Though Williams touched on a wide range of topics throughout the night, and many were pleased with her effort, some Clark fans criticized Williams for introducing the topic of race during her joke.

“Why bring race into it?” one person wrote on X. Another person responded to the question by suggesting that Clark’s race contributed to her appeal. “Because race is what’s driving Clark’s popularity,” they wrote.

One viewer questioned whether Williams’ joke was “appropriate.”

“So if a white person made the same joke about her? At the ESPYs? Appropriate? Shannon Sharpe wouldn’t blow a fuse? Now I hope it registers a tiny bit…Funny is read the comments..all races like her including whites,” the social media user said.

“Has Serena Williams always been so racist, or is this a new thing? Trying to be relevant, new fan of race essentialism or what?” a social media account asked.

“Serena: How crass can U be: “CAITLIN CLARK, white people love you!”Not funny, contrived, archaic in intent, insensitive, classless, ignorant, & crude.(Charles Barkley, LeBron & other black people like me–LOVE CAITLIN.) Perhaps you should give up hosting forever?!,” said another angry fan.

“I’m hoping the writers wrote all of their material instead of the Williams Sisters,” an X user wrote. “Everyone was considering Serena to be non-black while she was at the Vogue Runway a month ago. So I guess ESPN had to bring back her blackness with the TOTALLY UNNECESSARY racial joke about CC. If this were the 1970’s or 80’s it would have been sort of funny. But not now with this ridiculous separation between black and white people.”

“Not they called Serena Williams jealous of all things. People get upset about anything relating to CC,” tweeted a fan.

“Serena Williams was joking about Caitlin Clark earlier. She doesn’t hate her & has already given her praise,” said another.

“Uhh, the truth isn’t divisive. It’s the truth Karen. A lot of White ppl, like you, worship Caitlin n live vicariously thru her. It’s funny, you guys think we can’t see it. I’m glad Serena told some of the truth, she clearly triggered u,” an X user replied in defense of Serena.

Another X user addressed a Black Caitlin Clark fan who took Serena’s comments to mean that Clark’s fans are solely white.

“Ain’t a damn thing wrong with comparing Caitlin to Larry Bird (a legend!!!)…Serena didn’t say “only white people”…of course, Black people love Caitlin and Bird too…there is absolutely nothing to stir up here,” they wrote.

During the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival in New York, Williams praised Clark for her social media discipline. “I just love that she tried to stay grounded and that she doesn’t … look at her social [media],” Williams told The Associated Press on the red carpet on June 14. “I get it. I don’t either. And I think it’s so important to continue doing what she’s doing.”

Williams attended the festival for the premiere of her docuseries, “In the Arena: Serena Williams.” In the film, Williams discussed how she navigated a high level of media attention from an early age.

Others even brought Williams’ husband, Alexis Ohanian, into the ESPYs controversy.

“Serena’s husband is white,” someone wrote.

Ohanian co-founded social media platform Reddit. He is a Brooklyn, New York, native and his surname is Armenian. The couple share two children.

Clark was nominated for three ESPYs: Best Women’s Athlete, Best Women’s College Athlete, and Best Record-breaking Performance. Two-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson beat out Clark in the best women’s athlete category.