SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco‘s bad rap as a city overrun with criminals, addicts, and the homeless has led to big business, residents, and tourists looking for the exit ramp.

Now, its lengthy list of problems is being blamed for driving away professional athletes considering signing with the city’s professional sports teams.  

The Northern California hub has been getting hammered by former NBA star-turned-sportscaster Charles Barkley who has been asked to rein in his smack talk but has refused to pull punches about the conditions. Barkley, never one to be shy about his opinion, recently went on an anti-San Francisco rant after it was announced the city would host the NBA All-Star Game in 2025.

“Hey Reggie, if you had a chance to be in the cold [in Indianapolis] or be around a bunch of homeless crooks in San Francisco, which would you take?” Barkley asked Indiana Pacers legend Reggie Miller, who was announcing the game with him on TNT. 

When commentator Taylor Rooks said off-camera, “We love San Francisco,” Barkley shot back, “No, we don’t,” prompting a back-and-forth with Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green about safety in the city. When Green said anyone could walk around unharmed on the city streets, Barkley sarcastically agreed, saying the statement was true as long as the person was wearing “a bulletproof vest.” 

It wasn’t the first time Barkley has gone after San Francisco.

When Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals between the Warriors and the Dallas Mavericks was delayed in 2022 due to a leak from the roof of the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Barkley claimed, “You know the bad thing about all this rain? It’s not raining in San Francisco to clean up all those dirty-ass streets they got there … all that dirtiness and homelessness, y’all, man, y’all gotta clean that off the streets.” 

But it’s not just Barkley who has a problem with San Francisco. 

Former San Francisco Giants star catcher Buster Posey, who is now a member of the Giant’s ownership group, raised eyebrows when he claimed baseball phenom Shohei Ohtani might have chosen the Los Angeles Dodgers over the Giants because of the city’s drug and crime problem. He claimed in an interview with The Athletic that safety is among the top concerns free agents consider before signing. 

“Something I think is noteworthy, something that unfortunately keeps popping up from players and even the players’ wives, is there’s a bit of an uneasiness with the city itself, as far as the state of the city, with crime, with drugs,” Posey said. “Whether that’s all completely fair or not, perception is reality. It’s a frustrating cycle, I think, and not just with baseball. Baseball is secondary to life and the important things in life. But as far as a free-agent pursuit goes, I have seen that it does affect things.”

While there are some notorious parts of San Francisco like the Tenderloin district, the area around Oracle Park, where the Giants play, is among the safest in the city. It’s within walking distance of luxury 5-star hotels, boutiques, and upscale restaurants and breweries. There is also plenty of public transportation and for the most part is well lit. 

Despite the high-profile criticism, more and more people are coming to the city’s defense. 

Infielder Matt Chapman signed a three-year, $54 million deal with the Giants this month and said he purposely “chose to come [to San Francisco.]”

“I think everybody’s different, everybody has different things that matter to them, but I’m from California,” he said. “I played in the Bay Area. I’m comfortable here. And people say what they say, but I think at the end of the day when you look at the franchise, they want to win.”

Chapman added that he doesn’t “see why people wouldn’t want to come here” and that  “a lot of people have reached out and said they want to come play here and told me that.”

In December, the Giants signed South Korean outfielder Jung Hoo Lee. His agent, Scott Boras, also pushed back on claims that athletes were keeping away from San Francisco.

“There are issues including homelessness near the ballpark in San Diego, in downtown L.A,” Boras told NBC Sports. “To identify that only with San Francisco is really unfair. In any of the major cities, we’ve got issues. Chicago, New York, whatever. The players’ major focus is the structure of the organization and winning and competing. The biggest issue the Giants have is the fact that the Dodgers are getting better. Players want to know if they come here, will they be able to compete with the Dodgers? And now Arizona. That’s the real major question that San Francisco has to answer.”

City leaders have also come to San Francisco’s defense.

Democratic mayoral candidate Ahsha Safai told SFGATE that while the city was solid, it still has room to improve, like the three teams Barkley played for during his 16 years in the NBA. 

“We have the talent, we have the desire — we just need a new head coach to lead our city!” Safai said. 

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Kyle Smeallie, chief of staff to District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston, offered up what he thought set Barkley off about San Francisco in the first place.

“Our city rules — big baby Barkley is just mad he never got a ring,” Smeallie said, adding that the Warriors have seven NBA championships under their belt.