Tennis icon Serena Williams praised Michael Jordan during an incredible speech to aspiring athletes.Williams spoke at the graduation ceremony of Mouratoglou International School student-athletes. The school is owned by Patrick Mouratoglou, the coach of Williams and other stars such as Coco Gauff.Part of the speech was shared by Mouratoglou on Instagram. In the video, Williams is shown encouraging the student-athletes to always believe in their ability to succeed.“Believe in you, no matter what,” she said. “There are a lot of people who say, ‘you can’t do this’ or ‘you can’t do that’, or ‘you’re not going to be good enough’, or ‘you can’t’. Can’t is a huge word out there, but when someone tells me I can’t, really what that means is that they can’t and they will never do it. So that’s what they are saying.“What they’re really saying to you is that ‘I can’t’ and they’re trying to stop you from achieving your dreams. So don’t forget that. Whenever anyone says ‘you can’t’, or ‘you’re not good enough’, just know that you really are and they’re probably just jealous of you.”

The 23-time Grand Slam winner also referenced basketball legend Michael Jordan in her speech, as reported by EssentiallySports. Williams explained how Jordan played his sport because he enjoyed it, and not for the financial gain.

“I think of Michael Jordan and that guy never played basketball, to like, make money,” she said. “But he played because he loved what he did.”

“You could see the passion that he had when he was out there. He absolutely enjoyed every minute of that. So, I would definitely say that’s one thing that you wanna take with you is enjoy what you do and that is one way that you’ll able to find success.”

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Both Williams and Jordan are considered two of the greatest sportspeople of all time. The latter was a 14-time All-Star and six-time NBA winner during his illustrious career.

Aged 39, Williams is still on the hunt for a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam. Her next opportunity to claim another title will be at Wimbledon, which gets underway at the end of the month.

Having listened to her inspirational speech, Williams should never be ruled out of achieving her goal.