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Fortune
Fortune
Seamus Webster

Serena Williams jokes nothing highlights the pay gap like the $16 million stolen from Dodgers pitcher: ‘Believe me. I would have noticed it’

Serena Williams smiles while holding a microphone at the ESPY Awards (Credit: Kevin Mazur—Getty Images)

The 2024 ESPY Awards ceremony was largely a celebration of a terrific year in women’s sports. The South Carolina women’s 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—one for best college athlete and the other for record-breaking performance. 

But ESPYs host Serena Williams still made a point of highlighting disparities between men’s and women’s sports, most memorably in a joke directed at Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani. 

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