Tennis great Serena Williams recently made a stop in an NBA locker room.
Earlier this week, Williams shared a social media video of her playfully crashing the Miami Heat’s locker room. Before the tennis icon left, she wrote a message on the team’s whiteboard.
“Yo, you wanna see something cool?” a TikTok voiceover asked before Williams said, “Winning on the team!” The voiceover then responded, “No? Well I’ma do it anyway.”
Serena Williams watches the NBA Finals game between the Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs at American Airlines Arena in Miami on June 12, 2014. (Bob Donnan-USA Today Sports)
The video then showed Williams writing on the board, “Serena was here. Kick butt. Go heat.” She then signed the message by simply writing her name “Serena.”
SERENA WILLIAMS, ALEXIS OHANIAN ANNOUNCE BIRTH OF SECOND CHILD
The six-time U.S. Open champion said she hoped she helped uplift Miami’s NBA team.
“I got caught in the @Miami HEAT locker room. Hope my HEAT players were inspired! (And I hope my message was not erased lol),” Williams wrote in her video’s caption.
Serena Williams in action against Elena Rybakina during the French Open on June 6, 2021, in Paris. (Robert Prange/Getty Images)
Miami seems to have taken Williams’ message in stride, as the team is currently on a six-game winning streak. On Tuesday, the Heat defeated the San Antonio Spurs 118-113 in the NBA in-season tournament.
Williams appeared to close out arguably the greatest career in the history of tennis when she walked off the court following a three-set loss to Ajla Tomljanovic in the 2022 U.S. Open.
Serena Williams arrives at the 54th NAACP Image Awards on Feb. 25, 2023, at the Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California. (Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
Many believed it would be her final time playing competitive tennis, but Williams has since hinted that she could one day return to the sport she dominated for decades. In September 2022, she talked about how she admired Tom Brady’s short-lived retirement.
“I mean, you never know. I’ve just been saying that I think that Tom Brady started a really cool trend,” Williams said with a laugh while speaking with “Good Morning America.” “And the way he did. Huge.”
Williams shares 6-year-old daughter Olympia and second daughter Adira with her husband, Alexis Ohanian. Adira was born in August.
