Stephen A. Smith makes big claim about the NBA

March 6, 2023

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Stephen A Smith reports from the sideline

Dec 18, 2019; Philadelphia, PA, USA; ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith broadcasts before a game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Miami Heat at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

The NBA is investigating the incident in which Ja Morant shared a video of himself holding a gun at a strip club in Colorado, and Stephen A. Smith says the league should have no trouble at all gathering information.

Smith spoke on ESPN’s “NBA Countdown” Saturday about all the trouble Morant has gotten into recently. He urged the Memphis Grizzlies star to make better choices and also made an interesting claim about the way the NBA monitors players off the court. Smith said the NBA has connections with high-level law enforcement agencies and eyes everywhere.

“So many times, we don’t tell these players this. NBA has off-duty police officers. They’ve got connections with the FBI. They’ve got connections with everybody,” Smith said. “The NBA knows what you’re doing. They know who you’re doing it with. They know where you are. And they know how you’re conducting yourself at all times.”

You can hear Smith’s comments near the end of the video below:

I covered Allen Iverson for the first 10 years of his career. He took a lot of hits for the company he kept.

Ja Morant’s fault is his own, and I’m proud of him for owning it.

But he needs to get it together. pic.twitter.com/hDqLYNzmUo

— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) March 5, 2023

Smith has made a successful career out of being dramatic and exaggerating, but that is not the first time we have heard that about the NBA. Carmelo Anthony revealed last year that former NBA commissioner David Stern warned Melo early in his career about the league having eyes everywhere and told him he needed to straighten out his act.