Serena Williams’ Super Bowl moment had been 13 years in the making.
After winning the Gold medal during the 2012 Olympics, Williams, who was raised in Compton, Calif., celebrated with the crip walk, a dance move popularized by California gangsters.
So when Compton’s own, Kendrick Lamar, landed the Super Bowl 2025 halftime show honors, his team reached out to Williams to link the two Compton natives.
“When @kendricklamar and team called and was like ‘we’ve been trying to do something forever, what about this? We loved your crip walk at the Olympics after you won the gold medal,’” Williams captioned an Instagram video providing viewers a behind-the-scenes look at her day.
“I’m like Super Bowl? Are you serious? When in the world would I ever be able to dance at a superbowl? (Never) let’s do it!
“I knew my winning dance after the @olympics would pay off one day.
“End of story.”
The pay off resulted in Williams crip walking in front of a lamp post on the Caesars Superdome field while Lamar sang his Grammy-winning Drake diss track “Not Like Us.”
Williams and Drake actually dated in the 2010s, adding a spicy twist to her appearance. The rapper even revealed he wrote his hit song “Too Good” with Rihanna for Williams.
The cameras showed Williams dancing twice during the song before Lamar transitioned to “TV Off.”
“That was crazy,” Williams said in the Instagram video.
“That was the best 10 seconds of my life. Ten seconds!”
Williams’ recap video — set to the instrumental of G-Unit’s “Poppin’ Them Thangs” — showed how even arguably the greatest women’s tennis player ever can still get nervous in front of a big stage.
The world’s former No. 1 retired from tennis in 2022 and won 23 major women’s singles championships during her illustrious career.
“Showtime, baby,” Williams said while practicing her dance moves in her trailer in a shirt featuring the late Kobe Bryant in Dodgers gear. “We got this.”
Williams continued to practice her dance moves on the sideline before eventually making her way onto the field, where she had a lamp post all to herself.
She wore a tennis-themed blue-and-white ensemble for her brief part.
“I was focused,” Williams said after someone commented how they kept her on longer than expected.
“I ain’t letting that 15 seconds of fame go. I gotta get famous for something.”
Most — we’d guess Drake didn’t — have seemed to enjoy Williams’ cameo, although famous ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith said he would not be pleased if his partner trolled their ex like that.
However, Williams’ husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, had no issues.
“Some of y’all have no idea how criticized Serena was for this same dance at Wimbledon 13 years ago and it shows….,” he posted on X on Monday. “This is bigger than the music.”
