LeBron James is over having to travel to Memphis, Tennessee.
The Los Angeles Lakers forward is currently playing in his 23rd season in NBA, which is truly insane if you think about it. There are now players in the National Basketball League that weren’t even born yet during LeBron’s rookie year. That’s longevity if I’ve ever seen it.
Many critics and analysts have been predicting James’ fall-off for the past couple of seasons, yet the 41-year-old continues to be one of the most dominant players in the game. And he’s even become a bit of a golf fanatic as of late, which recently led him to join YouTube golfers Bob Does Sports.
Before the guys ever got out on the course with LeBron, they started talking about how the NBA superstar’s body was feeling. He joked that, at his age, he always goes to bed available and wakes up doubtful. And then shortly after that, James took a shot at cities like Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Memphis, Tennessee. Once Memphis came up, LeBron took a moment to really rip the Tennessee town a new one… and suggested that the NBA should move the franchise to the state’s capitol:
“I’m f***ing 41 years old. You think I want to do sh**? Be in Memphis on a random Thursday? I’m not the first guy to talk about it in the NBA. We are all like, ‘You guys got to move.’ Just go over to Nashville. You’ve got Vanderbilt over there. You’ve got NASCAR. You’ve got a stadium… don’t they have a hockey team too? They’ve got everything.”
I do wonder how many others in the NBA – both players and those affiliated with other franchises – are calling for the Grizzlies to move to Nashville. If there was anyone that would be knowledgeable on that, it’d be LeBron James.
And hilariously, one of the YouTube golfers said that all of the Memphis Grizzlies fans out there can stop holding their breath about James coming to their team (like that was ever a possibility). LeBron jumped in afterwards and said that the only chance the Grizz would have had at landing him was drafting him all the way back in 2003.
Even then, he might have tried to find a way out:
“They’re only chance was in 2003 if they would have won the lottery to get me there. And I might have pulled an Eli Manning and not showed up.”
But what LeBron is saying with the whole Memphis-to-Nashville move is interesting. There’s certainly been others calling for it, and as Nashville continues to grow – and is currently vying for the 2030 Super Bowl, and hoping to bring an MLB and WNBA team to the city – it might make sense for the Grizzlies to move up the road to Nashville one day.
It’s pretty clear that LeBron isn’t the only one that dislikes visiting Memphis on business, and he certainly looks rather comfortable sharing his opinion on the matter. I’m sure others feel the exact same.
Here’s the full video in case you wanted to check out LeBron James’ golf swing:
