While crime is generally down across the United States in recent years, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith believes the reputation of one American city is a barrier for attracting NBA players.

On a recent episode of his show ‘First Take’ on the network, Smith spoke at length about the issues preventing players from migrating to one city in the south that just saw a key contributor traded away.

Speaking with Lakers forward Markeiff Morris and his brother, former NBA player Marcus Morris, Smith discussed the trade that sent Desmond Bane from the Memphis Grizzlies to the Orlando Magic.

At one point in their conversation, centering around if the Grizzlies should trade away superstar Ja Morant to do a deeper re-build, Smith asked the Morris twins if they wanted to open up about why they might not want to play in Bluff City.

‘You going to tell folks why nobody wants to be in Memphis?’ Smith said. ‘Or you want me to do it?’

After Marcus said he’d have no problems playing in Memphis, Markeiff wanted to hear Smith’s reasoning.

So, Smith explained his thinking: ‘It’s a great sports town, great fans, great people,’ he began.

‘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,’ Smith told the brothers. ‘They have talked about it. I know, they’ve told me.’

Earlier in the season, before he was traded off the Miami Heat, swingman Jimmy Butler was so desperate to be moved that he said he was willing to play anywhere – except for Memphis. Eventually, he was traded to the Golden State Warriors.

After hearing about this discussion, Morant put out a series of tweets proclaiming his love for the city.

‘& ima be in dat 901 [bear emoji] source : ME!!,’ Morant said in a first tweet, referring to the city’s area code of ‘901’.

He then followed that up with a pair of tweets: ‘talkin bout the grizz more than the finals [laughing emoji] with these [cap emoji] ahh sources.’

Morant replied to his own tweet, saying, ‘instead of focusing on the performances we seen from jdub/shai , tj/siakam, how this series is going . we say sumn negative about a city/team on a national level.’

Smith didn’t point to any specific issues, but Memphis does have a reputation for being one of the most dangerous cities in the country.

According to US News & World Report, Memphis topped their list of the most dangerous places in the country.

However, according to local reports, violent crime in the first-quarter of 2025 was at the lowest it had been since 2020. 

2023 saw a record high of 398 murders in the city, but 2024 had a 25 percent drop to 296 according to local station WREG. 

A report from the city showed that in the year 2024, the total crime rate dropped 13 percent, the homicide rate dropped 30 percent, the motor vehicle theft rate dropped 39 percent.