\n
![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/GettyImages-2161688204-e1720806708150.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/p>\n [ad_1]
\n<\/p>\n
The 2024 ESPY Awards ceremony was largely a celebration of a terrific year in women\u2019s sports. The South Carolina women\u2019s basketball team was named best team of the year, gymnast Simone Biles won comeback player of the year, and WNBA rookie phenom Caitlin Clark took home two awards\u2014one for best college athlete and the other for record-breaking performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But ESPYs host Serena Williams still made a point of highlighting disparities between men\u2019s and women\u2019s sports, most memorably in a joke directed at Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In her opening monologue, the tennis legend had fun with what she called \u201cthe craziest story of the year\u201d: when news broke this spring that the pitcher\u2019s translator stole more than $16 million from Ohtani to pay off gambling debts<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cSixteen million, y\u2019all,\u201d she said to the audience. \u201cMale athletes get paid so much more than female athletes, they don\u2019t even notice losing $16 million.\u201d<\/p>\n For years, Williams was the highest-paid woman in sports, but the 23-time Grand Slam winner retired in 2022. The year she announced she was stepping away from tennis, Williams made $45 million, making her the second-highest-paid woman that year behind fellow tennis star Naomi Osaka ($59 million), according to an annual Forbes<\/em> list<\/a>. But Osaka and Williams were the only women to break into the top 50 highest-paid athletes that year, landing at 19th and 31st respectively.<\/p>\n Ohtani, meanwhile, signed the largest contract in MLB history in 2023<\/a>, joining the Dodgers for $700 million a year for the next decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n Because of the way the deal is set up, Ohtani\u2019s on-the-field earnings for the past year topped just over $25 million, and the pitcher\u2019s total earnings were around $85 million, according to <\/a>Forbes<\/a>. <\/em>That wasn\u2019t even enough to land Ohtani among the top 10 highest-paid athletes that year, though. The Forbes<\/em> list was topped by soccer stars Cristiano Renaldo and Lionel Messi and golfer John Rahm, who raked in $260, $135, and $218 million in total earnings, respectively.<\/p>\n Since 2012, only four female athletes have cracked Forbes\u2019<\/em> top 50 list<\/a>\u2014all of them tennis players. In 2024, with Williams retired and Osaka missing tournaments ahead of giving birth to a daughter, the highest-paid woman was Polish tennis player Iga \u015awi\u0105tek, who made barely half of the $45.2 million needed to break into the top 50.<\/p>\n The joke about Ohtani wasn\u2019t the only time Williams brought up the lack of parity between male and female athletes. Later in her opening monologue, Williams teased ESPN about the network\u2019s lack of coverage of women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n \u201cI should be fair,\u201d she said. \u201cESPN does show women\u2019s sports when there\u2019s no football, or basketball, or baseball, or hockey, or golf\u2014or cornhole.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams also took a jab at Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, who drew widespread outrage this spring over remarks he gave at a commencement speech asserting that most female graduates in the audience were \u201cmost excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.\u201d<\/p>\n “So, go ahead and enjoy women’s sports like you would any other sports, because they are sports.” \u2013 Venus Williams<\/p>\n “Except you, Harrison Butker. We don’t need you.” \u2013 Serena Williams <\/p>\n “At all. Like, ever.” \u2013 Quinta Brunson #ESPYS<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/RhvxfiHUWN<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) July 12, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Addressing Butker, Williams said dryly, \u201cWe don\u2019t need you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n