LeBron on playing the Grizzlies: “I’m f*ing 41 years of age. You think I want to do sh in Memphis on a random Thursday? I’m not the first guy in the NBA to talk about this. You guys got to move the team… go over to Nashville already.”
LeBron James will not sign with the Memphis Grizzlies.
An r/nba classic
LA Clippers LeBron wants to live in Hollywood, but doesn’t want to be under the shadow of Laker greats. LA Lakers LeBron wants to live in Hollywood, but doesn’t want to be under the shadow of Clipper goods.
LA Clippers
LeBron wants to live in Hollywood, but doesn’t want to be under the shadow of Laker greats.
LA Lakers
LeBron wants to live in Hollywood, but doesn’t want to be under the shadow of Clipper goods.
Reading these two back to back always gets me when this post comes up lol
My favourite post was why Howard should join the Bucks
ISH SMITH - IS A POINT GUARD kills me to this day 😂
People will ask you if you are a new linebacker for the Packers and you’ll respond “No, I’m the center for the Bucks” and they will ask you why you are here instead of in Tampa Bay practicing your long snaps.
I think about this line every few months and chuckle. The whole post is so good lol. Also the building with no windows so they made a small building of only windows to compensate. Thanks for making me read the post again. Incredible stuff.
18 YEAR OLD GREEK GUY - FREAK
LUC MBAH A MOUTE - LITERALLY A PRINCE OF CAMEROON OR SOME SHIT.
And Toronto: “LeBron will sign with the Toronto Raptors to check up on them and make sure they are ok.” 🤣🤣🤣
I mean, he does have to check on the town they renamed after him - he has responsibilities in LeBronto.
They don’t make r/nba shitposts like they used to
Seriously. Remember Hardens strip club performance metrics?
Or “Ish Smith: is a point guard,” or Ben Simmons Mona Lisa, or “Derrick Rose uniform on all 30 teams,” and so many more. All gold
lol brutal. can’t even entertain the notion.
OP must be feeling great today
LeBron James might sign with the Nashville Grizzlies
Or the Magic.
Orlando gives him LePTSD
Poor Memphis just constantly getting shitted on lmfaooo
Just another day for the league punching bag with spoiled ass stars and dickhead big markets
None of them actually care about social justice or wealth disparity.
Edit: yes, going out of your way to call a city poor and say they should lose their team is dickhead behavior, especially if you’re a fucking billionaire and from fucking Akron
“Spoiled ass stars” employs ja morant
Yea, /u/TitanTigers - why do you specifically employ Ja Morant?!
They definitely do. It’s only when it makes them more money, though.
Steph “NIMBY” Curry
It’s really not that deep buddy
Yeah I’m not a millionaire athlete and I also think Memphis sucks lol
Well except for the Bass Pro Pyramid
Average 1% commenter brain rot.
I just kind of thought about the “top 1% commenter” thing for the first time… these dudes are CONSTANTLY on here posting, and that flair is basically just a sign that says “I am online WAY too much”
Memphis is not the league’s punching bag.
The league would have to care about Memphis for that to be the case
Yea, my mind goes to Sacramento (sorry Sacramento)
Or the Bobcats I guess but theyre gone lol
No one wants to move to some repressive shithole like Tennessee or fucking Memphis
Yeah, Memphis sucks! Right guys? We all agree Memphis really, really sucks.
-Oklahomans, glad no one is pointing at them for once. (I am one, btw so I think I can say that)
I, for one, am glad to be from somewhere with a sterling reputation and absolutely no negative associations
Right guys? Right?
Punching bags, unite!
Was Memphis a thriving city when they decided to relocate from Vancouver?
Thriving? No. Larger than Nashville? Yes
Size of the city don’t matter; you need that cheddar in the city so people actually have money to go to the games.
Plus, LeBron makes a really good point. WTF am I going to do in Memphis besides smash hood rats and get robbed.
I lived in Memphis so I can speak on this shit
I visited Memphis once. It was fine. It also featured:
Random trashcans on fire
Not one, but two different, non-Jeep, vehicles driving around with no doors
The single saddest 2 mile stretch of road I’ve ever been on, Lamar Ave above I240 up to the Liberty Bowl
Some of the best BBQ I will ever have in my life
reminds me of when my friend and i were driving cross country and somewhere in the most desolate, barren wastes of New Mexico, we went through a literal abandoned town. it was creepy right up until actual tumbleweeds blew across the road, and then we just busted up laughing because we’d never actually seen that in real life, only movies.
Why can’t they do nothing? Sit in your hotel room. He’s in Memphis for what, 3 nights every year? Do they need to go to the club every night? Do they need 5 star restaurants every fucking night?
I’m a LeBron fan, but God damn this shit is so stupid and entitled.
I front know anything about Memphis but I’m sure it has something decent to eat at.. Every city does
It’s an elite city for barbecue.
One of my favorite nba experiences was catching a grizz-lakers game in memphis on a random weeknight wandering beal street. I was in laker gear, razzed by locals to a respectable degree, then invited out by them to a haunted brothel and an absynth bar. Super affordable and a ton of fun. No gangbangers though I was warned to avoid certain neighborhoods.
The world would be a poorer place without the grizzlies on beal street in my opinion.
As someone who is tired of getting shitted on, thank you. We love our team, our city is flawed but you can have a great time here.
I live in Memphis now and I’d be happy to tell you about things to do, but it doesn’t sound like you actually want to hear that
Have you ever done both at once?
risky tinder “date” at 1am. big nono in certain parts of the south…
I live in Memphis and have for a decade. Idk what you were up to here, but I am pretty entertained. Not much for a billionaire to do, tons for a regular ass person. Idk what else to tell you.
Nashville is bigger today, was that not the case in 2001?
Edit: the city proper was, the Nashville metro area was still larger than Memphis though which I’d imagine matters more for an NBA team’s media reach.
Another consideration for a league undergoing expansion is political– whether some city is already a big contributor to some current team’s fanbase.
That’s why there’s no 3rd NFL team in Texas (i.e. in Austin or San Antonio)– b/c of Jerry Jones.
an underrated part of how the Raiders ended up in Vegas is Jerry stepping in to “help” the process when Austin was being strongly considered
Nike factory is in Memphis I believe, or an official Nike/NBA warehouse or something like that. I think that’s a big influence for them being there.
FedEx was the main influence being there, it got to the point they wanted to tell the owners to rename the team the Express for FedEx Express.
Could be worse - just imagine the Memphis Priority Ground 2Day Savers
Nashville is so much bigger today it’s insane. Memphis definitely was more of a destination back in the day. I’m 30 and from Nashville and I remember going to Memphis for a trip and a Grizzlies game was always a big deal. Memphis just doesn’t have a lot going on for it right now unfortunately but they LOVE the grizzlies. It would be really upsetting if they moved. I also don’t like how everyone constantly shits on them. Let them be
Memphis was also chosen because it had an empty NBA ready arena (now a Bass Pro Shops) and a great college basketball fanbase because of Memphis U.
i’d probably be a much bigger NBA fan if vancouver actually got a fair shot at having a team
I’ve lived in Memphis for almost 30 years. Unfortunately no. It wasn’t thriving then, it isn’t thriving now. Its been stuck in a hamster wheel of crime, poverty, corruption and false starts for decades upon decades.
It’s one of the cities that just can’t seem to help itself.
I got lost there one time in 2002 on some CutCo business roadtrip. I remember thinking “Holy shit are we on the wrong side of town.” After an hour of driving I was just of the idea that every side was the wrong side.
Nah you probably were on the wrong side. North and South Memphis are rough. The central corridor is fine. East Memphis is fine. But North and South can be sketchy as fuck.
Thats like half the city tho
What’s the lore regarding the move from Vancouver? On quick glance, seems like a super cool sports city, the Canucks games are lit.
Their attendance was tanking, the team sucked, and there were a lot of players (most notably Steve Francis) who didn’t want to live/play there.
Which is honestly crazy because Vancouver is wayyyy nicer than many NBA cities. Anyone who’d rather live in Sacramento or Oklahoma City or, frankly, Memphis, needs to get their head checked IMO.
Fuck no
Been a fan a long time. Feels odd to see so many folks at different levels not just throw shade at Memphis as a whole (not basketball related) but even mention moving them. Definitely feels like there is a big conversation behind the scenes going on about it
It’s not odd at all, if you don’t handle problems teams will move eventually same as they did from Oakland
Yeah it reminds me of when the NHL was complaining about the Arizona Coyotes but that was 100% inflicted by the ownership group at the time.
What’s even weirder is they’re absolutely shitting on a city with a majority black population.
You’d think they’d want to build up their community instead of shitting on it.
Nothing to do with race and everything to do with money. It’s classism.
Lots of places in the South are majority Black, but that doesn’t make a place hospitable to Black people necessarily, as most of those places are in states controlled by heinously racist whites.
I don’t see them shitting on Atlanta
Do you think black people are morally obligated to defend objectively shitty things just because they’re “black”?
I ask this honestly. Have you ever been to Memphis? I’ve been five times. Each time I’ve left, I was thankful to be leaving. there’s nothing about Memphis that makes me ever want to visit Memphis again over practically any other city. Fist fights in chick FIL a, had a gun pulled on me in traffic for honking at somoene after they passed me on a double yellow and almost hit a car head on, etc etc.
I thought the people were nice and went to 2 games of the Grizzlies. I’d feel sad for them if they would leave haha.
I like having a small market team in Memphis especially over nashville
the players don’t, evidently lol
Too bad. I’m sure they’ll survive on the random Thursday.
100 millionaires will find a nice ass hangout spot, even in Memphis.
For real. If 41 one year old LeBron wants to choose the places he hangs out at on a random Thursday, his old ass can retire already. 🙄
If it were up to the players every team would be in LA, Miami, and New York so they can go clubbing and bang women with BBLs.
A lot of NBA playwrs just wanna operate in high society type stuff.
One of the Morris twins said it best that small markets like Memphis are nice for people who just wanna hoop and chill with their families.
Smallest market in the entire NBA
Yeah that dude don’t give a damn fuck about anything right now lool
the guy needs to go on sabbatical and play for a few EuroLeague, CBA, NBL and PBA teams
he never used his college eligibility 👀👀👀
God that would be so funny if he went to some mid major and then proceeded to win four consecutive national championships.
At that point idgaf about the ethics of it id love to see that lmao.
LeCinderella
Akron already has a decent program👀
Y’all want Savannah to k*** him or something lmao
Why on earth are you censoring.
Bob: “Doesn’t look like Lebron is going to be on the Grizzlies anytime soon”
Lebron: “Ya they know, their only chance was in 2003 if they woulda won the lottery and I might have pulled an Eli Manning and just not showed up”
lmfao
Our GM liked Curry and Harden and they both dodged us. I can’t remember which but one of them completely tanked a workout on purpose and the other had their agent straight up tell us no.
Yeah the wolves had two picks before curry was drafted but he said he wouldn’t play here
He said that about the Warriors too. Teams shouldn’t worry about what these guys say before the draft.
You know there’s a survey that many married women admitted they would’ve swiped left on their husband if they had met through dating apps? We are basically the basketball equivalent of that.
Did they survey Ayesha Curry 100 separate times?
Yeah iirc Steph’s agent was trying to get him drafted by NY.
Brutal
Meanwhile he spent most of his life in Cleveland
Cleveland is WAY better than Memphis. Amazing art museum, some wonderful neighborhoods.
I’m sure Lebron enyoyed the hell out of those art museums
Don’t forget the beautiful neighborhoods he can drive around
The whole NBA thinks Memphis is a dump
Bro my work has a facility 30mins from Memphis and it’s unbelievable that CA and even my co workers in WA have zero direct flight options to Memphis. It’s like they don’t even want ppl to go there
Just package yourself up and ship yourself via FedEx, you’ll get there by the next morning!
LMFAO. This redditor knows logistics hubs.
Because Delta fucked Memphis lmao. It used to be a NW hub with tons of flights everywhere. When they merged with Delta they moved everything to Atlanta.
It’s hard to overstate how much of a nail in the coffin that was for the city
Wow an actually intelligent comment
The Memphis airport (and city by extension) really got screwed by Delta is why there is very little availability. We used to be a hub for the airline Northwest (same way Atlanta is for Delta), but Delta merged with them in 2008 basically at the exact same time of the 2008 market crash; add in that we’re also like a 50 minute flight from Atlanta, we became a fairly redundant hub for Delta, so they stopped using us as one in 2013, and our daily flights basically dropped by like 75%.
I don’t remember it, but one of my research mentors said we used to have direct flights to Amsterdam (and I assume some other high profile places) and was a motivation behind him staying in Memphis at the time. We’re technically an international airport still, but Toronto is really the only international direct we have now.
Our airport 100% has the capacity to have more flights, there just isn’t really a demand for it I guess. We’re not really using half of our airport right now (The C wing is being renovated, and the A wing is basically unused; a third of B also never reopened from 2013 even after renovation).
It is the other way around. Nobody wants to go there so there are no flights as a result.
Had to go to Memphis every other month for 5 years. It is my least favorite city I’ve ever been to.
Honest question. What’s wrong with it?
It just sucks man (I’ve never been there)
He’s out of line but he’s right
High poverty rates (roughly 22–25%), intense violent crime, and crime rates three times the national average
So Ja was just trying to connect with the fans?
It stands to reason
It’s fine. Compared to other NBA cities it’s definitely smaller with less luxury amenities like clubs, restaurants and hotels. It does have great restaurants but they’re not Prime 112. It’ll be a local wing or bbq place. You have Beale but Beale doesn’t have a club where a bunch of Lambos will pull up. It’ll have regular ass dudes doing regular ass stuff. These dudes don’t really want to be amongst the regular people like that. The reason why the Grit and Grind guys were so loved were that you could see TA at the club or Zach at the wing spot and Marc obviously grew up there.
This is the core of it.
A lot of players wanna live like a celebrity, but Memphis is just a working class town with out that kind of stuff.
Most players who have played here genuinely enjoyed their time here and have often lived here after they left, but they werent the the type of guys who cared all that much about high society.
It’s extremely run down and unsafe. One of the most violent cities in the US.
I was in Memphis a couple weeks ago and was shocked at how much of a shithole it was. The downtown is a bunch of huge, crumbling, deserted buildings. Some googling came up with three main reasons.
I go to a lot of random cities for work as well. Sadly, Memphis was one of the worst. I mostly saw Main St from the conference center down to Beale St. it was rough. Nearly every building was abandoned.
Not trying to be a hater but that place has absolutely seen much better days
Before anyone dunks on Memphis, just know that Lebron feels the same about 95% of metro Los Angeles.
These dudes are happiest inside a narrow strip of LA, a narrow strip of Miami, or other very specific outposts.
Brian windhorst is that u ?
Ain’t nothing narrow about windy…..
sure, but that 5% of LA is easily larger than the entire city of Memphis
He yearns for the scenic strip malls of north east ohio
I live in Youngstown, one of the most violent cities in America, and violence is honestly no different than Cle, Dayton, LA, Oakland, Detroit , Chicago , Miami Memphis, Houston, ATL
All cities have their good and bad
Exactly. The comments here are hilarious, people acting like they are on the level of a LeBron.
I have a cousin in Memphis and had a blast when I went before Covid, If you took a screenshot of any moment I was there I wouldn’t have been able to guess I was in 1 of 20 cities. But apparently if you read these comments it’s basically Syria circa 2022 because LeBron said so.
Damn we just started a rebuild and half of the league is trying to move them out of the city.
Tbh, you guys being good for so long has kept the wolves at bay. They were always going to come after Memphis at some point - especially if it’s ‘just’ to move them to Nashville.
OKC is flying high now, but just wait until they suck and they can’t draw any talent. It’s not exactly a desirable metropolis.
The way those two cities acquired their teams might not sit right with certain people either.
Anyway, wish you guys luck. You’ve always been a franchise that has done things the right way
I find it hilarious (sad) that the NBA sphere of influence is full of goobers who are constantly hankering for teams to move.
For the NFL, a sport that most of its fans actually like, this type of chatter is non existent. (Sans the chargers, but they ain’t punching down at a smaller market.)
This existed with hockey fans with Arizona Coyotes. They wanted to move them out for years because “hockey doesn’t belong in the desert”, though that was mostly salty Canadian fans who wanted a team in Canada like Quebec or Hamilton. Then the NHL finally said to the ownership group to fix your shit or were leaving, they didn’t and they left and all of a sudden the fans feel bad for Coyotes fans losing a team even though they were the same people who were hoping they would move. Though I think they would still prefer Quebec City over Utah.
The Grizzlies have been in Memphis for 25 years, why are literally dozens of players and media people all deciding to start ripping the city in the last like 18 months?
They got marching orders from the head office because the owners want to rationalize a move. Also, Nashville is thirsty for more sports teams. They are seriously trying to say they should get an MLB team before Portland or Charlotte/Raleigh when not a single metric supports the argument.
MLB seem to want a team there too. I think the logic is around Nashville having tourism, high population growth, and easier fanbase adoption. Also, for MLB specifically the expansion is absolutely going to add a southeastern team but Nashville is probably easier for the Braves to stomach than a Carolina team.
Nashville barely supports the professional franchises they currently have.
I think one metric is that Nashville isn’t far as fuck from everything like Portland is
Billionaire paying for hit pieces so they can more easily buy the team to relocate? Or current owner trying to relocate?
Becuase the team and FedEx Forum are in negotiations to extend the lease and they’ve been going on longer than most expected.
Funny how everyone grandstands about wealth and inequality, minorities, and impoverished communities with their moral outrage on social media, yet shit all over Memphis
People will play it off as a joke, but the fact that he made the joke at a golf course surrounded by wealthy people is not a great look.
Dude is advocating that every fan in Memphis have their team ripped away from them because this loser can’t find ANYTHING to do with his infinite wealth.
You’re not wrong, Mr…. Nazzy Khan.
So fucking hypocritical. Memphis needs help and then LeCapitalist wants to get rid of one of the only things bringing tourists in. Disgusting
I mean he’s more so complaining about how he’s 41 years old and there’s nothing to do.
I’m not so sure he hates the minorities there.
LeBron is just a white girl at heart… wants to get drunk in Nashville
LeBron and Luka wanna be wearing white cowboy hats and taking pictures in front of giant wings
Drinking too much wine and screaming Tacooooo Tuesday
Man Memphis don’t deserve this 🤣
You ever been to Memphis before?
I have.
It’s not a bad city at all.
Bad parts, but if you’re not stupid it’s pretty great.
Exactly. This still feels like a coordinated effort. You don’t hear shit like that about Greennay and Buffalo and OKC even though they are worse cities. Something is weird.
There’s probably a social media push for the owners to get the team to Nashville.
And edgy 13-year olds who have never traveled anywhere trying to appear cool online.
The BBQ, music history, and quality of person you meet in Memphis is great. Throw in the Pink Palace, Botanic Gardens, and blue collar culture and you’ve got a really interesting place to live.
There is high crime, sure, but having any amount of street smarts or gut instinct should keep you from pretty much all trouble.
I find it hard to believe that living in Germantown, TN is meaningfully different than living in a Cleveland suburb.
Lived there for majority of my life yes we don’t deserve this. Yes we have problems just like in other nba city, Chicago, d.c , Miami, la, all got crime rate like us. We literally just don’t got attractions to say oh don’t worry it’s some fun this way.
Which makes it even crazier cause this mf is from fucking Cleveland. Ohio.
Not even lmao he upgraded to Cleveland from fucking Akron lmao
Spoken like someone who has never been to Memphis…
Memphis is the only city where i can get my dick sucked in broad daylight while eating soul food and watching some guy get shook down for money. Beautiful city
Sign this man up for the tourism board.
I grew up there.
Turns out, telling people what a city is all about when you really don’t know is annoying and weird.
Who wants a basketball team in Nashville of all places
Clearly they should move the team there so opposing players can have more fun!
Absolutely nobody, including Nashvillians
Yeah I live here and Nashville is not a basketball city at all bars will have college volleyball on instead of the NBA it’s crazy
No one. They can’t even support the titans.
I’d love if they came to Louisville, but hey… want a city like Memphis to enjoy an NBA team.
Everyone wants to say people just hate on Memphis, but Louisville is just flat out forgotten about as a city of over a million people. It gets treated like a big joke the few times it is brought up. They’d be a way better basketball market than Memphis.
It’s really unfortunate seeing many NBA players openly call for teams to relocate just because they want a “cooler” city to hang out in. Really doesn’t do much for the reputation that the league is full of spoiled brats.
Yeah no other sport complains this much about the cities it’s weird as hell to me. There were espn talking head and former players complaing about the finals last year.
Someone needs to listen to walking in Memphis
Next up on the Memphis playlist: Three 6 Mafia, Project Pat, and Elvis
One of the few true basketball cities in the US continuously getting shat on even by the basketball community.
The grizzlies have bottom 5 attendance right now and had bottom 10 attendance when they were good, just because they can’t get any other league to go there doesn’t make them a “basketball city”
Woefully ignorant of Memphis’ love for basketball
In total attendance, average attendance or capacity percentage? I think FedExForum capacity is around 18,000 so it’s never gonna be top 5 when teams like the Bulls, Knicks, Pistons, Lakers have 19,000-20,000 seat arenas
It feels like a coordinated effort at this point.
Honestly this is super shitty of him to advocate for. Memphis fans are dedicated and don’t deserve this shit
Bron you played in Cleveland lmao…
That’s essentially his home town though lol
It is pretty funny that he’s shitting on Memphis as someone from Akron
The problem is that Memphis has a much stronger basketball culture than Nashville.
Memphis has a culture compared to fake ass Nashville lol
Their home court advantage is insane, still remember how shook the warriors were in that series.
… like he can’t play golf in Memphis? Tf
Memphis actually has one of the best golf courses in the country lol. Spring Creek Ranch. Ultra ultra ultra exclusive.
The first leg of the PGA Playoff tour was in Memphis lol, he absolutely can.
Nashville’s pretty cool, but I personally liked Memphis more when I visited. If you like rock n roll and soul music, and better food, Memphis is the place in TN for you.
Let’s start with fixing the team name since there’s no wild grizzlies within 1,000 miles of Memphis
Not sure the Jazz scene in Salt Lake City is booming either
That one is so bad it’s hilarious, same with the Lakers.
It was the Minneapolis Lakers and New Orleans Jazz originally. Those team names are great for those cities. However they moved to the two places where those names least apply and didn’t change the name which is pretty funny.
The Utah Jazz being one of the most ironic and funny names in sports.
Aint no Jazz in Utah or lakes in LA either.
You guys don’t even have 76 players on the roster, stop talking.
God damn LeBron lmao. Chris Vernon is in absolute shambles right now
I’m not familiar with Memphis doesn’t every NBA player ends up living in the most upper class neighborhoods of all of these cities anyway? Jalen Brunson isn’t taking the subway and eating bagels in NYC. It’s hard to imagine they legitimately experience any of these cities enough to have such strong opinions, aside from the nightlife hubs like Miami, Atlanta, Houston, etc.
Wow. Another multi-millionaire who wants to rip an entire city’s beloved basketball team away from them just because it isn’t FaNcY enough for the one day a year that they visit?
And not just any city, but the blackest in the entire league? A city that black millionaires might want to uplift?
Clowns.
it’s wild as hell to see all these black american stars shit on the biggest city in the delta. fake jabronis.
Yeah but if Memphis was all sunshine and rainbows we would have never gotten Three Six Mafia, ever stop to think about that, LeBron?
Can someone please explain to me why there’s much hate for my hometown? What did we do? What is so bad about it? I don’t understand
I’m ngl it’s so disappointing to see NBA legends shit on Memphis
This brother is forgetting his roots, talking bad about Memphis.
I get it’s for a job. But it’s shameful him talking so bad about a predominately black city with such rich history, especially when he grew up in a similarly sad place.