Stephen A. Smith Taking Heat For Calling U.S. City ‘Unsafe’ originally appeared on The Spun.
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith had some rather harsh comments about a particular U.S. city that got a lot of people heated.
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During today’s edition of First Take, Smith argued that the Memphis Grizzlies are having a tough time attracting top free agents like Jimmy Butler because the city is unsafe.
“You gonna tell folks why nobody wants to be in Memphis? Or you want me to do it?” he asked Markieff Morris.
“It’s a great sports town, great fans, great people,” Smith explained.
“But there’s an element there where cats like Jimmy Butler and others don’t feel like it’s the safest environment. I’m talking to the local authorities in Memphis.
“You gotta clean some of that stuff up because it’s dissuasive to NBA players. They have talked about it. I know, they’ve told me.”
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That statement drew immediate backlash from Grizzlies superstar Ja Morant, who criticized Smith for bashing the city he plays for rather than talking about the NBA Finals.
Morant’s response was a lot more polite than some of the others that were levied against Smith.
“So just dance around the real problem that everyone knows to be true. Instead blame the entire Memphis community for one NBA basketball players decisions that dismantled this organization and got coaches fired. Truth is the Memphis Grizzlies were on the right path for winning a NBA championship, but off the court showmanship was more important. The Memphis Grizzlies enabled cancer to dictate their decisions, that why NBA players don’t want to play for them. Why would a valuable professional athlete make a decision to play for an NBA basketball team whose star player is one incident away from being suspended indefinitely,” one user wrote.
Stephen A. Smith on the ESPN NBA Countdown live set at Intuit Dome.Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
“Dumbest take. There millionaires. They can get the best security! Stop making stories up. So dumb,” wrote another.
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“I know Memphis is bad but is it really all that worse than Detroit, New Orleans and Cleveland? Lol. Memphis ain’t the only rough NBA city,” a third wrote.
“I have visited Memphis over 20 times for games and other events and have never had an issue. Never seen an issue either.”
“But people want to play in Texas and South Beach? Maybe it’s just because Memphis is a small market with a star player that is injury prone and doesn’t appear capable of leading a team to a title.”
Related: Ja Morant Enters Counseling, Uncertain Return to Memphis Grizzlies
Stephen A. Smith Taking Heat For Calling U.S. City ‘Unsafe’ first appeared on The Spun on Jun 17, 2025
This story was originally reported by The Spun on Jun 17, 2025, where it first appeared.