A compilation of many players with similar comments about Memphis as LeBron
Nobody cares what players say until LeBron says it lmao
All was needed was for the Goat to speak and now it’s an issue
What did Jordan say about Memphis?
“Where’s the casino”
There was a big post from Ant saying same thing a couple weeks ago
literally almost all these were talked about in our own sub.
Nah it was the other players whose efforts have shifted the Overton window enough for LePR to get his shot
people were talking about literally this exact thing last year when jimmy said he won’t go to memphis
It’s not really about that, Derrick White just talked shit about the hotel and said the food was good. Ant talked shit about the hotel but then said “shoutout Memphis” and defended the city when the host tried to bait him in further. The only guy that said “move the team” was Draymond, and he’s a known asshole who especially hates the Grizzlies, so nobody really takes him seriously on that. Lebron saying it is different.
Still don’t care
Such a false king
Memphis is taking a beating this week. Damn.
RIP to the staff at that Westin hotel lol
Sounds like a reasonable complaint and they should probably do something about it haha
Imagine the revenue generated by an entire NBA team and its staff staying at your hotel– rooms, room service, bar, others booking rooms because they know an NBA team is there, etc… So for Bogut’s stuff to be ruined by a faulty fire sprinkler without the hotel not making a big effort to compensate him for it, that’s a pretty bold action that shows the customer service is likely terrible.
That hotel hasn’t been used by NBA teams for years. There’s a new one by the arena that they use now
Just one hit after the other mane
Stay strong my dude
*For a hundred years
American’s are so braindead. Instead of shitting on places like Memphis, they should ask themselves why places like Memphis have been allowed to rot, much like the rust belt cities of the past.
Am I out of the loop or something? Are people mad Bron said Memphis isn’t a great city to play in?
It’s literally the most dangerous city in the country every single year. Why are people shocked by these statements?
Its not about just what he said necessarily its a broader thing.
There is a lot that goes into the relationship between Memphis and Nashville a lot of people outside arent privy too.
Memphis is a majority black, Dem voting city it a red state with batshit crazy state government that played a big role in civil rights movement. It gets shit on constantly by the rest of the state despite being underfunded for a while (although recently theres been some relief thank god), while Nashville gets continually helped.
There is a lot of racial and socio-economic tension that goes into lifting up Nashville while at the same time putting down Memphis that people in Memphis get really defensive about, so watching Lebron chop it up with his country club buddies while lifting up an increasingly gentrified town like Nashville rubs people the wrong way.
Everyone in Memphis already knows and agrees there needs to be improvement. There is even good steps being taken in that direction, but the narratives hurt more than they help.
Nashville is also a Dem voting city in a red state
Most cities are. It is less so than Memphis still and those two cities alone are not enough to offset the massively red suburban and rural areas of the state. The state representatives arent all from Memphis and Nashville and is largely very republican and well as the governor. The state government is differs from the internal politics of Nashville as a city.
And again, Memphis is over 60% black in a massively red state to Nashville’s around 20%. It plays a role
Nashville is a Dem voting city, but it’s less heavily dem voting than Memphis. It’s also significantly whiter than Memphis. It’s also significantly richer than Memphis. It’s also split up into 3 congressional districts, all of which are held by Republicans, whereas Memphis voters are concentrated into one Democratic-voting District. Nashville also hosts the heavily Republican state government. It’s not the same.
Sorry but i don’t agree. When you visit a city like Las Vegas, are you required to look up the history and socio economic status before you tell the homies that you had a good time?
No, but when being presented with more information about why a city is the way it is or has the reputation in does, it is generally accepted as good practice to have some empathy.
As for Lebron, I would think that someone like himself who reads Malcolm X, grew up in Akron OH, and even had a shoe with a colorway inspired by the Lorraine Motel in Memphis to have some awareness and tact.
Maybe he was caught up in the moment, it happens its fine, but his words carry weight lets be real.
who reads Malcolm X
Correction. He reads the 1st page only.
fair point lol
Wha does that have to do with why he said what he said though? It’s okay that he and other players don’t want to play there. It’s not a LeBron problem, it’s obviously a problem with your local government. No one gave a shit until LeBron said something.
Period.
He was asking to take away a source of community and jobs from a city that has historically been underfunded by a frankly racist and crazy state legislature and give it to a increasingly gentrified and coddled city so he because he was slightly inconvenienced. Its corny. Maybe he was caught up in the moment or whatever, but it was corny. The local government has its fair share of issues, but the state government has much more influence and power.
We did say something when the other players did. You must not have noticed until we had issues with Lebron because, understandably so, his words carry more weight than a “Derrick White”. Don’t be obtuse, its okay to criticize Lebron.
Appreciate you sharing this perspective even though most people are just using LeBron’s comment to make corny jokes about Memphis
Hell yeah man.
I think most cities with these kinds of reputations have the same core issues. We should be trying to shift the narrative from “haha look at this trash broke-ass city” to trying to uplift the culture and history that already exists and help fix the flaws so that they can thrive.
his words carry more weight than a “Derrick White”.
Derrick White also said “Memphis is the worst city in the NBA to travel to because the hotel sucks. The food is great though.”
Lebron said “There’s nothing for a 41 year old guy to do in Memphis, they need to move the team to Nashville.”
There’s a huge difference between those two statements. If Lebron had just said “I hate going to Memphis, the Westin sucks”, I don’t think people would be up in arms about it.
You can take away a team from a city without it being racist. These are all black athletes. Sometimes a city just has nothing to offer to rich athletes is all.
It’s a sports team ffs. If that’s the singular identity of your city, that reflects badly.
It is not the singular identity of the city, but sports build community and leisure and entertainment are great sources of spaces to gather and enjoy life when people might otherwise be struggling.
Is the sole purpose of a sports team to provide athletes an avenue to live a life of high society and luxury? Then we should relocate every team to Miami, New York, or LA.
I see you have a Warriors flair. Oakland, from what I understand, has many similar issues as far as reputation and the solutions to solve them.
He didn’t even say that he just said he as a 41 year old got nothing to do there on a random Thursday. I’m not even going to talk about the crime bc it’s a low blow and it’s sensitive but yeah
Yeah, I don’t know why people are surprised. Memphis is no where on any list of the best cities in the US, I’m sorry. It’s got a lot of great culture, and it has an identity unlike a lot of smaller cities, but we gotta remember the players are effectively tourists in every city but their own. They stay there a night, probably hit up a recommended spot or two, and then fly somewhere else. If your city does not give a good impression fairly quickly, they’re not going to like it. And Memphis does not give a good first impression, their infrastructure is simply not as good as the other places these players would visit. I would have guessed Cleveland is pretty bad too, but clearly Memphis is the worst.
And we can’t ignore the crime, it’s objectively one of the rougher areas of the country. That may be a sensitive subject, because it’s exaggerated by a lot of people, but it plays into the atmosphere of a place.
Honestly for me it’s about who said it. Bc Bron has this reputation of being this pr nice guy we rarely see the real him so him saying that was like wow really I’m sure if Charles Barkley said that everyone would be hee hee haa haaing. In fact even when Ant said way worse people was like “ahh that’s just ant man”
I bet he wouldnt like if someone said the same thing about Akron Ohio
Yeah I saw some people mad about it lol. It was like “how can you be mad you’re making millions of dollars.” Yeah that doesn’t mean you’re a robot that has no feelings about places lol.
Lot of people calling him racist against black people because he was golfing with white people when he said it. Some very unintelligent people, that usually coincides with being a bron hater
The ironic part is, those people themselves are the racists. Criticizing a man because he plays golf with white people is genuine racism.
seen as punching down, that’s all
There’s like 4 people LeBron is allowed to make fun of
Punching down? It’s Lebron James…he’s a Billionaire and one of the 2 greatest basketball players of all time.
The man can’t criticize 99.999999% of the world population without punching down.
I think it’s the fact the it’s the poorest blackest city in America
Basic google search says it ain’t even close to bein the highest danger 😂😂😂. Pretty sure dc is worse
There trying to make it a race thing on twitter
A motherfucker that doesn’t know the right “they’re” doesn’t understand the nuance of one of the only majority black cities in America being shit on in favor do the white culture capital of the USA? I’m shocked.
I thought white people didn’t have culture? What’s white culture exactly?
Man, you know there is no such thing as “white culture”. White people can’t even truly claim ownership of country music lol
That’s why Nashville nails it. Simply consumption.
We don’t give a shit about LeBron or anyone else shitting on Memphis, but LeBron and Draymond saying the NBA should relocate the franchise to Nashville is the issue that pisses us off. Fuck them.
It is a race thing whether it makes you uncomfortable or not.
How bad is this hotel lol seems like the biggest complaint. Renovate that mf
Other than nba teams, who else is looking for 5 star hotels in Memphis lol
No bread
You forgot some. Marcus Smart who was previously with Memphis said that they had the ugliest fans.
Then I dont remember the exact old NBA players but on some podcast they said Memphis was the worst city to live in
Bro played in Boston lmao
Boston is objectively a pretty great city to live in lmao
I think he’s referring to the ugliest fans
Not even true if you actually been here.
People see footage of Boston from the 1960’s-1980’s and assume it’s still like that lol
Again, very easily not true. There’s a lot of beautiful women up here, lots of them professionals as well.
First paragraph.
Still don’t agree but go off on how Memphis has more “beautiful fans” or whatever. I’ve lived in both places lmao
Yes he did. You’d be suprised
Boston is 25th most ethnically diverse city behind Los Angeles and is 7th most diverse major city in America. It has the highest foreign born black population and one of the highest immigrant percentage shares in the country.
It has tons of Cape Verdean, Dominican, Puerto Rican, Carribbean, etc people of who are generally really attractive.
yea its always very clear early on when people start dogpiling on Boston who actually has been there and who hasnt
He played for Memphis after he left Boston
…yes
Damn that’s funny coming from Marcus Smart who has to be one of the ugliest players of all time.
Strange take. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it, but there have been some ugly MFs in the NBA and Smart probably isn’t top 500.
There are rap lyrics about Tony Snell being ugly. Shout out $B.
Sam Cassell too
Smart is hideous tho 😂
If it’s one person I’ll say weird but it’s multiple guys Memphis gotta do better for itself first before being angry at these athletes
Just a huge difference between saying “i don’t like the hotel” vs “move the team to Nashville”
I mean it sounds like the hotel is garbage, but there’s nothing in Memphis worth leaving the garbage-ass hotel
I don’t mind people saying “that hotel sucks”. Bron and Draymond saying to move the team sucks. And it’s just not even necessary to say
Draymond is already a known asshole who hates the Grizzlies because of in-game stuff. Him saying to move the team legit might be kayfabe. Or at the very least, you can dismiss Draymond as a dumb asshole. Lebron saying it means a lot more.
Yeah I think if it were just hotel comments, or even just the story of players getting robbed just crossing the street to the arena, that’d be one thing, but it hurts extra to talk about moving the team to Nashville. If Bron just said Memphis was boring and left it there, I doubt people would still be talking about it so much.
Memphis is wild, that’s for sure.
But damn, they playing in Memphis face 😂
Memphis took out Young Dolph, so yeah if you have money, you need to be on the lookout in Memphis.
and Dolph was their own, that shit is crazy
He also had beef in the city with certain people which actually increased the odds of that happening not lowered it.
Wild is certainly one way to describe the most dangerous city in the USA for 3 years in a row now and has been top 5 every year for over two decades straight.
Grizzlies need to move to Nashville. Sorry, no disrespect to Memphibians but major sports leagues need to be in major, growing, desirable or legacy cities. Memphis is neither
Yeah man, let’s move them to Green Bay lmao
I second this and only because I can fly direct from PDX.
Disagree, country music is the largest reactionary cultural trend in the United States and should not be buoyed in any respect until it changes.
Memphis is a legacy. We have had pro basketball since the ABA days. We have and will always be a basketball city.
Can yall just change the name though? Let’s get a more appropriate name, ain’t no grizzlies in memphis
Should definitely officially be the Memphis Hustle
The entire west coast (except LAX) can’t even fly to Memphis direct
Fuck Nashville
Not that I necessarily want it to happen but I live an hour east of Nashville so I would actually be able to attend some home games for once lmao Memphis is a 5 hour drive for me. It’s quicker for me to drive to Atlanta.
Like Buffalo, Jacksonville, Portland, OKC, Green Bay, Cleveland, Detroit, and Tampa Bay?
I’d rather visit every single city you listed over Memphis.
Wanting to visit OKC over Memphis is a little crazy, ngl, and I was born and raised here
It’s close, I haven’t been in a couple years so I can’t comment on how much the downtown area has changed around the arena. I still enjoyed myself more there than I did in Memphis.
User error
Get outta your little bubble dawg you’re just making yourself look sheltered with this comment
Green Bay and OKC? You’re fucking reaching.
I am a GB fan so I’d have a blast if it was football season.
NBA players don’t wanna go to fucking Portland either but it doesn’t get media hit pieces every week. None of these dudes are gonna be anywhere but hotel suites and expensive restaurants for half their road games anyway
Portland has world headquarters for Nike and Adidas, so yes players do have things to do in Portland.
Portland has much better food over Memphis, easily a top ten and I’d have it in my top five in the country.
Yeah NBA players are gonna go head to Nike HQ for fun after a game lol
And bringing up food is funny considering that’s the main thing that absolutely everybody loves in Memphis
Nike athletes always head out to Beaverton when they are in town to visit the Nike campus. Not to have fun after the game, but to do business. Its actually very common.
Every city has good food, cities that make it their identity are weird.
I have visited many NBA cities and spoiler they all have amazing restaurants.
Have you ever seen those facilities? for a sneakerhead It’s basically Paradise. Not to mention all the free stuff you get just for visiting
They stay at the Ritz in Portland. That is why you don’t hear players bitching about Portland. Before that they used to stay at The Nines, a luxury brand Marriott property with a high end bar and restaurant on the rooftop.
Ah I see. We should lose the team because players can’t handle 1 night in a 4 star hotel suite instead of a 5 star hotel.
I didn’t say you should lose the team. You compared Portland to Memphis and I am telling you why players don’t bitch about their nights in Portland. There is a wide gap between the Ritz and a Westin from a millionaires perspective.
Not sure that Detroit and Cleveland should be included on that list
Green Bay is legacy and also not incredibly violent and ghetto lol
Jags should also move to Orlando but difficult sell because the bucs
Magic should just move to Tampa bro, wym?
Nah people shitting in Cleveland like that in 2026…it’s solid fr
I only go off of what Joakim Noah said in the 2010s
Detroit catching strays for no reason
Chris Vernon just dropped to his knees
Sounds like they just need a better hotel company to step in.
Yes but which company would want to come in completely renovate and spend the money on a hotel just for 30 ish rooms for 40 days out of the year?
Maybe a few more days due to playoffs
always punching down
Memphis is lit and has the worlds finest hotels
I’m from OKC and curious, why don’t we get this hate?
What about Indianapolis too?
probably don’t have ass hotels and much less dangerous
That’s fair. It’s pretty safe and I know there are some boujee hotels downtown
I think it’s just because Nashville is there (not taking a side on this lmao). Would Oklahoma or Indiana have a more populous/franchise team-ready city to host NBA games?
Ok, why not move the Cavs to Columbus?
Probably because the whole state of Ohio is unremarkable.
Cause they are basically the same size and that wouldn’t make any sense lol and Cleveland has vastly better sports culture
Eh, people sht on Cleveland all the time. It was even a joke in Trainwreck.
My answer was just speculation. I don’t actually know anything lol. But to answer your question I’d say because the Cavs are good, have high attendance, and solid brand recognition.
From what I have listened to when players talk about small market NBA city’s is that they are boring/nothing to do. Memphis is the only city where the complaint isn’t that it’s boring, they have actual issues with the city.
Not a fan of okc at all but you’re a rapidly growing city
Yall have been a good team for +80% of yall’s existence. Indiana has been mentioned as a “non-FA destination”, but they prolly have better hotels.
Because Paycom has an Omni hotel across the street.
The only complaint I have ever heard from our team is that they either loved staying in OKC or they hated it and both were for the same reason. Whatever hotel they stayed at is famous for being haunted.
ahh, the skirvin. i don’t think visiting teams stay there anymore. they probably stay at the omni across the street from paycom arena, nowadays.
The skirvin was being renovated for the last year but the Omni location makes more sense.
Vancouver would accept them back with wide open arms
Probably not. One of the main reasons the Grizz moved was because they had terrible attendance issues. Vancouver is also one of the most expensive places to live in the world in terms of salary to housing costs so I don’t know how citizens feel about a major league sports team stadium making houses even more unaffordable
Vancouver consistently had league median attendance. Source. For a while Vancouver even had higher average attendance than Memphis.
You highlighted one year throughout their six seasons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_Grizzlies#:~:text=Financially%2C%20the%20lockout,weak%20Canadian%20dollar
Could they not play at the same place the Canucks play? There’s definitely the probability of them wanting their own stadium if they were to come back. Also, Vancouver were awful the whole time, and the attendance isn’t to far off than now when they are just bad.
Just tryna figure out why everybody’s on Memphis like it’s the only small city with a team lol. Even more surprising is there ain’t even any Memphis born players fighting back.
I think it’s less the fact that it’s a small city but that it’s dangerous, not much to do, and the team doesn’t have a historical intertwining with the city. I say that because Green Bay is a small town but you won’t hear Complaints about it from NFL players (even though there really isn’t much to do actually)
I think it’s a little more intentional than just “Memphis is dangerous” especially for millionaire NBA players. Memphis is one of those cities where it’s dangerous when you put yourself in danger since a lot of people know each other. I’ve heard of more athletes being robbed/extorted/harmed in LA than most all these cities combined and it’s not brought up nearly as much
Tbf Memphis isn’t just a small town, it’s just not a destination city in any capacity. The Grizzlies are their only major sports team in the US even expanding to smaller sports; most other cities like that have some other level of appeal when you look at say Orlando or Green Bay even.
I do agree though that saying the team should move is pretty fucked up though.
Fuck sports teams moving. This shit only happens in the USA where capitalism is king. I watched my Chargers move because our nepo baby owner was mad taxpayers wouldn’t foot the bill or build an inconvenient stadium in the middle of downtown. Fuck Dean Spanos and owners who think they can move teams
The clippers and chargers should move back to sd
I’ve been to Memphis a few times and it was great every time I went. A lot of nasty strippers propositioning people though.
It sounds like 95% of their problem is the hotels. Maybe they should check out TripAdvisor next time.
The repeating and laugh at “stains AND shit” always gets me. lol
I’m honestly surprised they don’t just move to Nashville.
It’s a booming city and getting a lot of new residents. Seems like a no brainer financially speaking.
Do the grizzlies have attendance problems?
They move to Nashville and they lose a fanbase they’ve built for 25 years to go compete for eyeballs with two other pro teams and UT/Vandy etc
No one cares about the Titans though lol pretty sure I saw they had the lowest seat fill rate in the league. I see more people wearing preds merch than titans merch.
So why would anyone think they’d care about the Grizzlies
They probably wouldn’t unless they were a top team in the league again and then they’d act like they’ve been fans for 20 years lmao Happened with the preds too. No one talked about them and there were talks to move the team until Pekka Rinne came in and they were winning eventually making the finals.
Moving from Nashville to Memphis is less drastic than moving from Vancouver to Memphis
Marc Cohn in shambles
The way ant says ESPECIALLY WHEN WE GO TO MEMPHIS lol 🤣
Man fuck Nashville lol
Atlanta gets it.
I don’t remember exactly where I saw it, but I remember watching a video where a former player said the training facilities had no windows so you couldn’t even look outside
Generationally fucking up the bag. You have the market cornered on hotels for game night. How??
Seems like the hotels are the worst part. Wish players would advocate for better infrastructure in a city rather than saying the team should just move
I remember when ogs were mad he was eating fruit on the bench in the preseason or his shirt off before the game
Fuck em all
I wonder if Memphis has a better home court advantage over the years?
You need a job
Yeah, oldhead Jordan fans look for any excuse to tear down da King
I’m stunned that okc didn’t catch a stray in this video
Give me a break with all this. The players have a bigger problem with the city than that ownership group and how they make their money?
…but, hey, the duck hotel isn’t cool enough for them. Whatever, despite some of the issues, Memphis is awesome.
they don’t even stay in the musty duck hotel they stay at a brand new Hyatt Centric. it’s no five star hotel but it’s pretty nice if you look it up. a lot of the hotel stories players have shared come from the downtown Westin which was the old nba team hotel and it was ass.
Yeah, I know. Glad you posted it though. Just frustrated at the things the players fight for, or comment about, at times.
Complaining about the city of Memphis and hotel accommodations is just really lame.
The whole video I’m thinking ‘it’s unsettling that the whole world knows what hotel visiting players stay’.
Then the final edit is Theo Pinson saying a player got robbed outside the hotel
Was that publicly known?
Which player got robbed?
Everybody gangsta until they have to visit Memphis with their Gucci bags and 30.000$ exclusive watches.
Think you’re missing a zero on the watch value there.
It takes less than a single season of missing the playoffs for the whole world to demand a relocation. Such a joke. We’ve had a competetive team for like the past 15 years, but the two down years in that span everyone says Memphis doesn’t deserve the team. Such a joke. What the hell are the players even pissed about? It’s not like Detroit/Cleveland/Charlotte have incredible nightlife. God forbid a millionaire player has to stay in a Hyatt Centric for one night a year. Such a joke league. Imagine NFL players crying about not having shit to do in Jacksonville the night before a game.
They’re not complaining about night life. They’re complaining about the danger and the shitty hotels
the new team hotel is nice. the Draymond/KD hotel stories were about an old team hotel. the players don’t feel unsafe in Memphis, because they don’t go to any of the bad parts. like every other city in America there are bad parts and nice parts. a player is not gonna go out of his way to go to like Binghampton or Orange Mound. i guarantee you the push for Nashville is based solely off of nightlife and the women.
the players don’t feel unsafe in Memphis, because they don’t do to any of the bad parts
Buddy, they’re talking about people getting robbed walking from the arena to the hotel.
the hotel is on one end of Beale and the arena is on the other. the whole street constantly has a police presence. not like the players walk anyways, but even if they did it would be just as safe as Bourbon or Broadway. i’ve walked it alone plenty of times, day or night.
It has nothing to do with your success as a franchise. NBA players just don’t want to have to go to that dangerous of a city multiple times a year to play. Especially when they talk about how the accommodations are trash as well.
From an ownership/front office perspective, there is no reason to move the team. It is profitable and has a passionate fan base, but you can’t blame the players for not wanting to go there.
Let’s be honest, the city kinda sucks.
Oh boy, here come all the definitely well adjusted people who take negative comments about the city they were randomly born into personally.
Who hurt you u/therealpdgaming ?
From the flair I’d guess Nico
These fucking multi-multi-millionaire babies can’t handle 1-2 nights a year living the “regular” rich person life instead of the “ultra” rich lifestyle? Embarrassing group of stars huh. Spoiled rotten.