Ja Morant Whines About Stephen A. Smith After ESPN Host Correctly Calls Memphis An Unsafe City

With the Memphis Grizzlies trading Desmond Bane to the Orlando Magic over the weekend, many questioned if the move signaled a complete rebuild of the organization. Naturally, it has led both fans and media members alike to discuss the possibility of the Grizzlies moving on from Ja Morant, the face of the franchise.

Morant managed to briefly hold off from getting involved in the rumor mill about his future with the Grizzlies, but Stephen A. Smith's comments during Tuesday's edition of ‘First Take’ appeared to light a fuse.

With the question ‘Should the Memphis Grizzlies move on from Ja Morant?’ plastered at the bottom of the screen, Smith asked co-host Marcus Morris if he was going to "tell folks why nobody wants to be in Memphis."

This led Smith to make a point about Memphis being an unsafe city.

"The people in Memphis, it’s a great sports town, great fans, great people, but there’s an element there where cats like Jimmy Butler and others don’t feel like it’s the safest environment," Smith explained." 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. That’s all I’m saying." 

While Morant didn't specifically mention Smith in his two posts on X, it's obvious who he is referring to.

While one could make the argument that ESPN doing a full-on segment about the Grizzlies moving on from Morant on June 17 in the middle of the NBA Finals is trying too hard to drum up conversation, drumming up conversation is the entire point of the show.

On top of that, Smith's claim that Jimmy Butler or other NBA players don't view Memphis as "the safest environment" is very easy to believe. 

Memphis is an incredibly dangerous city, and pointing that out isn't some sort of opinion; it's a literal fact.

Based on city murder and property crime rates per 100,000 people, determined by FBI crime reports, Memphis is the most dangerous city in the United States.

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Morant and many other Grizzlies players live well outside the city, although that hasn't kept the crime from reaching them. In February of 2025, Morant's Eads, Tenn. home was targeted as part of a crime spree where goods worth $1 million were taken.

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As someone who lived in the heart of Memphis for years who still has very close friends and family living in the city, I can speak on how dangerous and unsafe a place it is. Even if you're a Memphian who isn't personally involved in a violent crime, it's a guarantee you know someone who has been.

Living in Memphis, there is a feeling where you constantly have to be looking over your shoulder, no matter what part of town you're in or what you're doing. That's not just a feeling that randomly develops; there is a reason for it.

People who claim ‘Memphis isn’t that bad' are lying to themselves, naive, or completely ignore the very real problems that have long plagued the city. It's terrible that Memphis has landed on every ‘most dangerous cities in America’ list you can find, because the culture and people there who stick it out truly are world-class, but that doesn't change the fact that it's an aggressively dangerous place to live.