Naomi Osaka idolizes Serena Williams and Kobe Bryant. Like Bryant, Osaka arrived at professional sports as a teenager, a product of an international upbringing, burdened by the weight of comparisons to a global icon, one of the greatest of all time.
In the same way that Kobe established his brand while enduring comparisons to Michael Jordan, Osaka has added new layers to roads Williams paved. Sports journalists and fans used to ask, “is Osaka the next Serena?”
No. Osaka is not the next Serena.
She’s the first Naomi, an athlete, self-aware social activist, entrepreneur and philanthropist who transcends sports and cultures.
Earlier this month, poet Amanda Gorman tweeted “See you soon legends,” to actor Timothée Chalamet, singer Billie Ellish and Osaka, her co-hosts at the 2021 Met Gala.
It usually takes athletes years, even decades, to earn legendary status. Yet Osaka, who wasn’t even born when Williams turned pro in 1995, arrived at legendary early. She’s only the second tennis star to co-host the mega-watt celebrity ball. It comes just two years after Williams co-chaired the event with Harry Styles and Lady Gaga.
That Osaka, 23, would already join an exclusive club that includes Williams, Gaga, Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney, Nicole Kidman and other A-listers indicates how quickly the tennis ace capitulated from relative obscurity to icon.
Naomi the Athlete Activist
In just three years since winning the 2018 U.S. Open, her first Grand Slam, Osaka has replaced Williams as the highest-paid female athlete in the world. According to Sportico, Osaka earned $55.2 million in 12 months. Just $5 million of that was in prize money. The rest came in endorsements.
Osaka is now a four-time Grand Slam champion and ranked No. 2 on the WTA Tour. Williams is No. 8. Naomi’s four Slam titles place her third among active players, behind Serena (23) and Venus (7), for most Slams won. Osaka has won more Grand Slam titles in three years than Serena has won in the last five years. Two weeks ago, Osaka won the prestigious Laureus Award for Sportswoman of the Year.
She’s grabbed as many headlines for speaking out about social justice as she has for winning tennis tournaments. Once considered quiet and awkward, Osaka speaks loud and proud when it comes to social justice. She’s more emphatic in her activism than Arthur Ashe or Serena was early in their careers. She joined the Black Lives Matters protest. During the 2020 US Open, Osaka wore masks adorned with BLM and the names of Black victims of police brutality onto the court.
Names of people such as Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, George Floyd, and Philando Castile.
Backlash ensued but Osaka remained focused and unbothered. She won the 2020 U.S. Open and the 2021 Australian Open. After the Associated Press named her the 2020 Female Athlete of the Year, Osaka said, “I am proud of my U.S. Open victory, but more so that I got people talking about the real issues.”
Osaka is aware of her international platform and the megaphone it affords her.
Born in Japan, Osaka plays tennis for her native country. She and her family moved to New York and Florida, but she now resides in the Los Angeles area in a $6.9 million house she bought from Nick Jonas.
The first Japanese player to win a Grand Slam, Osaka is celebrated in a country with a sordid history in its treatment of mixed-race citizens. In Japan, mixed-raced citizens are often called “Hafu”, a derogatory term to describe one’s non-Japanese parent as half as good. Osaka is aware of Japan’s racist past and present. In 2019, after Osaka won the Australian Open, a couple of Japanese comedians had to apologize for saying she looked “too sunburnt and needed some bleach.”
Naomi Osaka is unapologetically Black but simultaneously honors her mother’s Japanese roots and her father’s Haitian heritage. Despite this, her identity is constantly questioned. Why doesn’t she use her father’s name? She was also an American, why didn’t she play for the United States? Why doesn’t she play for Haiti?
She hopes that along with accepting her tennis triumphs, people in Japan will embrace a less homogeneous idea of what it means to be Japanese.
“I’m just trying to put a platform out for all the Japanese people that look like me and live in Japan and when they go to a restaurant, they get handed an English menu, even though it’s just a little microaggression,” she said in an interview with the Guardian.
Naomi is far too savvy at being Naomi, so don’t bother trying to pigeonhole her. She ignores reporters from Japan who pester her to give interviews in Japanese. Osaka takes questions in Japanese and understands the language. She prefers to provide answers in English and rejects attempts to use language fluency as a barometer of her birthright.
She’s also aware of how others want to weaponize her mixed-race heritage.
When she defeated Serena in the final of the 2018 US Open, some people tried to push the “demure Asian” vs. the angry black woman narrative. Williams’ beef was with the chair umpire, never with Osaka, who made it clear that she didn’t have an issue with her idol.
“She’s my tennis mom,” Osaka told reporters.
Unafraid to speak truth to power, Osaka called out former Japanese prime minister Yoshiro Mori, when he made sexist remarks as head of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics organizing committee. Mori resigned.
“I think for me, what it means is that there’s a lot of things I think people used to accept the things that used to be said, but you’re seeing the newer generation not tolerate a lot of things,” Osaka said in a post-match interview at the Australian Open. “I feel like it’s really good because you’re pushing forward, barriers are being broken down, especially for females.”
Naomi the Business
Off the court, Naomi is amassing a portfolio that rivals Michale Jordan’s of the 1990s. According to Forbes, Osaka earned $37.4 million in endorsements and prize money between May 2019 and May 2020, a record for a female athlete.
David Carter, a sports business professor at USC’s Marshall School of Business, told Forbes, “To those outside the tennis world, Osaka is a relatively fresh face with a great back story…Combine that with being youthful and bicultural, two attributes that help her resonate with younger, global audiences, and the result is the emergence of a global sports marketing icon.”
Osaka has deals with Nike, Levis, Louis Vuitton, Beats and Tag Heuer. She’s highly sought after but very selective with who she partners with.
“It’s important for me to represent things I actually believe in,” Osaka told Sheila Marikar of the New York Times. “I would never do, like, McDonald’s or Coca-Cola, because I don’t consume them.”
She added, “you can always tell when someone’s lying.”
Osaka seeks partnerships and ownership. She’s CEO of Kinlo, a new brand of skincare for people with “melanated skin.” She understands how the beauty industry ignores needs specific to women with darker skin. The name of the company combines the Japanese and Haitian words for “gold.”
The blueprint for her path to success was created by Richard Williams and adopted by Osaka’s father. In July 2020, Serena invested in the Los Angeles-based Angel City women’s soccer team. This past January, Osaka purchased a stake in the NWSL’s North Carolina Courage. To them, entrepreneurship is key to empowering women.
Osaka, also like Serena, leveraged her partnership with Nike to support causes dear to her such as Osaka’s “Play Academy”, which launched in Japan, Haiti, and Los Angeles.
Naomi the Future
Naomi Osaka has the potential to transcend sports and culture in a way Serena never could.
Brand consultant Cindy Gallop says Osaka checks every box. “She’s a spectacular athlete. She has a strong sense of social justice, she’s prepared to speak her mind,” said Gallop to the Times. “I hate, loathe, and detest terms like this, but she is, in quotes, diverse. She ticks every box. You can practically hear the brand managers thinking: ‘She is absolutely the right person to sponsor, right now.”
Osaka faces a tougher task if she wants to eclipse Serena in the record books. Serena excelled on all surfaces, hard, grass, and clay. So far, Osaka excels only on hard courts where she won all of her Slams. She’s yet to advance beyond the third round at Wimbledon or the French Open. This year, Osaka suffered early exits at Madrid and Rome, the two biggest clay-court tournaments outside of the French Open.
By age 23, Serena had won six Grand Slam singles titles, including a French Open and two Wimbledon trophies. She also had six Slam doubles titles and two in mixed doubles. Serena won the Sportswoman of the Year five times, her first at 19.
Osaka has work to do. Yet right now, she is the standard bearer for female international icons.
Naomi has succeeded by staying true to Naomi. And regardless of how many slams she acquires, she’s already cemented her place in history and secured her status as a legend.
