This morning Tuesday June 17, 2025, ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith made some very disparaging comments about the city of Memphis and the Memphis Grizzlies on First Take, suggesting that NBA stars don’t want to play there for a wild reason.
“There’s an element there where cats like Jimmy Butler and others don’t feel it’s the safest environment,” Smith claimed. “I’m talking to the local authorities in Memphis, you’ve got to clean some of that stuff up because it’s dissuasive to NBA players. They have talked about it, I know, they’ve told me.”
Memphis has become known for its high crime rate in recent years. Smith’s claim is that directly impacts whether NBA players sign in Memphis or not.
Grizzlies superstar Ja Morant didn’t take kindly to those comments, responding to Stephen A. and expressing his disagreement in a post on X a few hours later.
“Talkin bout the Grizz more than the finals with these cap ahh sources,” Morant wrote. “Instead of focusing on the performances we’ve seen from [Jalen Williams] and [Shai Gilgeous-Alexander], [T.J. McConnell] and [Pascal Siakam], how the series is going. We say [something] negative about a city/team on a national level.”
Morant expresses a popular frustration with sports fans in regards to sports media: the tendency to focus on drama and headlines rather than celebrate the unhearalded stars of the sports world.
Stephen A’s Comments Come In the Wake of Big Trade
Stephen A. Smith is talking about the Grizzlies despite them having been eliminated for the playoffs for about a month because they just traded superstar guard Desmond Bane to the Orlando Magic on June 15, 2025 in exchange for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Cole Anthony, four draft picks and a pick swap.
Smith seems to be hinting that Bane wanted out of Memphis, and that in addition, players have expressed hesitations to him about playing in Memphis before, including Jimmy Butler specifically.
But Bane never publicly expressed any dissatisfaction with the city of Memphis or the Grizzlies organization. Bane and Morant even expressed their disappointment in being separated in a series of Instagram story posts.
So, it’s unclear what thread Smith sees between the Bane trade and his opinion that Memphis struggles to attract free agents, especially because Bane’s departure was not a free agent deal, but a trade that came out of nowhere and that Bane had seemingly no voice in.
Morant Also Assured Fans He Isn’t Leaving Memphis
Stephen A. Smith’s comments also came during a segment on the ESPN show First Take titled “Should Grizzlies Move on from Ja Morant?”
Ja Morant shut down any rumors that he was departing Memphis in another post on X.
“And i’mma be in that 901,” Morant wrote. “Source: ME!!”
Grizzlies fans have had a rough few days seeing fan-favorite player Bane depart. But they can rest assured knowing that Morant isn’t going anywhere.
And not only is he staying put, but he’s proud to play in Memphis, as much as Smith may claim that no star wants to play there.
Perhaps he should listen to his co-host: Marcus Morris said that he would have been more than willing to play in Memphis had the Grizzlies tried to sign him during his career.
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