“Your joke about Shohei Ohtani who is a victim of massive theft was classless” - MLB fans criticize Serena Williams for joking about Ohtani’s theft

Tennis legend Serena Williams made unfiltered comments on Shohei Ohtani being defrauded by his former interpreter for $16 million at Thursday's ESPYs, leaving netizens upset. Williams was using the example to voice against the gender pay disparity. But it seems she went overboard, as fans heavily trolled the 23x Grand Slam champion.

Earlier this season, Ohtani was a subject of fraud by his former translator Ippei Mizuhara who was reported to have stolen $16 million out of the player's bank account without his knowledge. It resulted in Mizuhara pleading guilty on two felony counts in May.

The gambling scandal came to attention again after Williams used it on ESPYs podium.

Following her comments, fans took to social media to criticize the tennis star.

"Your joke(?) about Shohei Ohtani who is a victim of massive theft was classless. You owe him an apology," one fan wrote.

"nah it wasnt even a joke, they're clearly trying to tarnish his name and saying there's no way he wouldn't notice that money missing. Which is dumb how blindly they're making those accusations without knowing any context surrounding what kind of person ohtani is. And just how," another added to the context.

"You can learn a lot about the sensibilities of the ESPN "joke" writers & production team based on what they think is "funny" to greenlight. Just as women athletes being underpaid is not cool, neither is having one's trust violated and being swindled out of millions by a predator," another added.

The barrage on social media continued:

"Of course a bully thinks rules don’t apply to them," one wrote.

"Poor joke but I guess Ohtani's name would get a better reaction.😒," another added.

"Seeing a crowd laughing at the expense of Shohei Ohtani, a fantastic Asian athlete who wasn't even there, just doesn't sit right with me," another quipped.

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What did Serena Williams say about Shohei Ohtani at the ESPYs?

Serena Williams kicked off Thursday's ESPY event while taking a dig at Shohei Ohtani. She intended it to create awareness about the gender pay disparity in professional sports.

She mentioned that Ohtani, not being aware of the $16 million, was stolen off because male athletes are paid heavily and don't care about such an amount.

"One of the craziest stories in sports this year was Dodgers pitcher Shohei Ohtani," Serena Williams said at ESPYs podium. "He got $16 million stolen from him by his translator and didn't even notice. $16 million, y'all.

"Male athletes get paid so much more than female athletes. They don't even notice losing 16 million dollars because believe me, I would have noticed."

Despite all the right intentions, Serena Williams attracted negative reactions from fans for her comments.