LeBron James made waves last week by making some pretty negative comments about the city of Memphis, Tennessee. While many in basketball and sports media have lambasted him over it, ESPN's Ryan Clark has a different take.
On the latest episode of his The Pivot podcast, Clark made the case that LeBron isn't solely responsible for the disdain towards Memphis and that he's just repeating what many others have already said publicly and privately. He believes that rather than moving the Grizzlies from Memphis to Nashville, the city of Memphis should do a better job of addressing the reasons so many people dislike it to begin with.
"The Memphis conversation has become silly, & it’s not LeBron’s fault. Many prominent players have echoed his sentiments. “We” the media have made it about community & culture instead of infrastructure. Basketball players live a bougie, max contract road life, but instead of imploring the Grizzlies to move to Nashville find a solution in Memphis. Also, If we going to ask athletes to speak on behalf of the community at all times a lot of others need to assess their choices as well!" Clark wrote on X.
Not good enough?
While Clark may have been speaking from the heart on the issue, that doesn't seem to be flying with the fans - particularly in Memphis.
"That's where you are wrong at. Nobody care if he said that he didn't enjoy playing at Memphis or staying at The Hyatt. He stared that Memphis should be moved to Nashville. That's the problem with his statement," one user replied.
"There is a difference between not liking a place and saying they should move to a different city. We don't care if he doesn't like the hotels nightlife food or even the people. But suggesting that our livelihood should be taken away because he doesn't like something That's a [problem]," wrote another.
"Come on, you have to understand why people in Memphis are upset. It's not because he doesn't like our city. It's because he advocated to move the team to Nashville to fit his preference and didn't give a damn about all the people that would be harmed by the move," a third remarked.
Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images
It's not much of an exaggeration to say that the Grizzlies are in a bad place right now. They've nosedived since making the playoffs last year and there's not much reason to believe that the tide will turn in the very near future.
Even so, there's no reason to believe that the owners will willingly move or that the NBA will compel the team to move.
