The Josh Innes Show - ASG Black v. White Part 2

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

Let's continue this talk about the black v. white all star game. I played basketball. I grew up around this stuff. Nick is right. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So say what you want. That opinion was not outlandish. And it sounds outlandish when it comes from, you know, right-wing-leaning sports talk guy that's on XM and says run over the Black Lives Matter protesters. When it's that guy saying shit, then yes, it sounds kind of fucked up. But when Nick says it, you're kind of like, no, like, the opinion doesn't change. And the idea of it being a success or failure, that part of it doesn't change. but when you get someone like Nick who's got a national platform that's very left weighing and all that shit,

it sounds absurd and it sounds like typical Nick doing typical, you know, black versus white shit. But it wasn't wrong. Like if you line those guys up today and you said it's black versus white, like it's a shirts versus skins or something. Whether it's with your besties or date night, get to all the hottest concerts with GoTransit. Go connects to all the biggest entertainment venues and makes it affordable with special e-ticket fares.

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Because look, I played basketball growing up. You know this. When white dudes would start to hoop, first of all, white guy was always white boy, right? That's how this always went. You were always white boy. No matter what your name was, your name could be Steve Smitherson. It did not matter. You were white boy.

Even if your dudes knew you, you were white boy. That is how it always went. So, like, if you're out there on the court and you're playing, like, and you're playing on We're Brulley High School and we're playing Cecilia High School. If I went out on the floor and everybody had to call out who they're guarding. So it's like, I got 23. I got ever. I got white boy is how it always is.

And you could always tell that like if a white dude did something, the black dude would get a little bit more intense because there is a pride that goes along with beating the shit out of white guys in basketball, particularly basketball. Because basketball is like the black sport. Like a white quarterback is good. You kind of accept that because white quarterbacks are good. If a baseball player is good and white, basketball is a different universe because basketball is the black game.

That is the black dominated game. So if you lined up out there against dudes and started making baskets and started hooping a little bit, that would piss these dudes off. I always give you the story about the time that I scored 19 points and went three for three from downtown. What I don't tell you is that the majority of that shit happened in the first half before the black guys got pissed. Like once the black guy that was guarding me decided, holy shit, this guy can hit shots. Like, they started checking the shit out of me. There were no more opportunities for me to knock down wide open fucking three-pointers. That did not exist. Once I started hitting shots,

those dudes were like, the fuck you're going to hit anymore. Because I went three for three. And I want to say those three threes may have been like, I don't remember if they were in consecutive possessions or not. I think two of them were. I don't know if they were three. Like, They were all in the first half. I forgot how quickly they all came. Because it was a blur. It was my greatest sports achievement ever. But when you get these dudes, and like I told you this, the dude, a black guy was guarding me.

We're running the flex offense. I catch the ball up at the top of the key. I'm supposed to look for someone cutting through to the basket from the corner. If that's not there, there's going to be another guy that's going to come off a screen. So someone's going to pick down off the post. Guy's going to come up and catch the ball around the opposite. elbow of me and I'm supposed to pass the ball to him, then I'm supposed to go down, set a screen, open up, flare out to the corner, and then when the ball is rotated, I go through.

I makes it sound like I know a lot about basketball when I say this. I'm using, you know, industry jargon here. But, and that's how the play's supposed to work. Motherfucker sagged. So the motherfucker's going to sag on me. I mean, he sagged hard, too. He's like, this fucking white dude in the goggles ain't going to hit a shot. So I caught it at the top of the key and I said, fucking, I'm just going to shoot. And I shot it and I made it. Second time the guy sagged again. He's like, this guy ain't going to hit another one.

Like, good luck. You ain't hitting another fucking shot against me. And sure shit I did. Third time I did it again. And by that time, this motherfucker was all up in me. Like, he was smooth up in my ass. And that's what happens. Like when white dudes start doing shit against you,

you start to check them a little bit harder because there is a pride that goes along with that. Nick is 100% right about that. 100% slam dunk. nailed it. And it was said kind of jokingly and they're all kind of laughing on the show. I think it was on with Lebitard or whoever it was he was on with. But it is 100% real.

And I know this because I lived it and I played it. I was always White Boy. And when White boy we hit a couple shots, you knew you were fucked. Because if you hit a couple of plays and embarrassed some black dude once or twice, oh, home boy's going to start checking your ass and then you ain't going nowhere. I remember in a practice once.

I forgot how it went. But like I was, you know, like, dude, I was a six foot three center. You know what I'm saying? So we had a dude on our team. Like in the first two years I was in school, like all of our, like we had dudes. Like our guards were six foot three. Like these were dudes that eventually went on to play like some college basketball. These were legitimately good players.

And one of our dudes was like six foot 11. And I remember one time I scored on him in the post. We were running some plays. and I scored on him in the post twice. And like it was a, like the fact that I was hitting hook shots over this guy. I'm six foot three. He's six 11. The fact that this fucking ball went in the hoop is, is divine intervention.

And by the time I hit the second, everybody's like, oh, shit, scooby shit. Third time I try that shit, it got thrown to the fucking wall. Like, it just how it works. Like, that's the game. And that's what I grew up around, right? Like, none of this ever bothered me. none of this ever offended me. Like, when you grow up around it, that's kind of how it goes.

Like, you're a white dude. I know who gets picked last almost every time and pick up basketball? White dude. Particularly the white dude in glasses. Like, you have to go out and earn it, man. Like, as a white dude that plays basketball, you have to go out and earn that shit. And by that shit, I mean the respect. Whether you think that's fair or not, whether you think that should be the case,

that's the way the game works. Like, to have, like, because instantly, when a white dude walks onto a basketball court. Every black dude out there assumes that dude's trash. And if he's not trash, he's certainly a dude that you can, that you are better than. Like, that is how it always works. And that's how it will always work. It will never change. So you have to, like, when you go out there, you're instantly trying to earn the respect of these guys. Like, do you think the first time Luca walked onto an NBA court or a court around American black basketball players, they were like, oh, this dude can hoop? They don't care what you

were doing when you were 15 years old in Latvia or whatever the fuck you're hooping? All they know is what's going to happen here. But see, you get them mixed on a court in an All-Star game and it's like, whatever. Like there's Luca, but he's also with LeBron. If you get a team on the floor and it's black versus white, it would be like that it'd be the most, it would be the most bizarre television event ever, first of all. Like it would be a huge television draw. And it would be a huge talking.

point and the dudes would ball out hard because the last thing you want to do is a group of black dudes roll out lose to a bunch of white dudes see what happens when you take it to your boys after that you will be a laughing stock so Nick was right

and of course every story I've seen about it I've seen all these people posting like oh they're up to Nick right oh what an idiot blah blah blah blah blah and I'm like no he's right you're wrong he's right his opinion is very good on that because I've heard that from other people. He's not the first person I've heard that from.

And that's the usually when you get those kind of controversial opinions, he ain't the first person to think of that. I told you, Dino fucking Costa, this dude that I was listening to doing nights on Sirius XM one night, I vividly remember hearing him say that. And I'm like, that's wild. But I'm like, he's actually right. It's wild, but he's right. But the All-Star game itself, I thought was pretty good. Like, I thought it was entertaining. I didn't watch a second of the dunk contest and I never will. The dunk contest, not only is it a situation where, like, the biggest stars are no longer doing it. I just don't know what dunks you have left.

So you get a bunch of no-name dudes out here dunking. Like, to me, once you've jumped over a Kia for a dunk, it's kind of like, now, what do you do? Like, what are we doing here? Like, it's, I think it's a burnout thing. I think people, A, there are no stars. Now, if you thought, like, this was this guy, McClung or whoever the dude that's, like, the professional dunker and that's all he's good at, it's one thing to have those guys, but people want to see the stars doing shit. I think part of the problem is you're also in an era where a lot of the dudes are not known as star dunkers either.

I think we're in a weird phase of the NBA too where the star players, like we're in a downtime in terms of star players in the NBA. Like once LeBron's gone, like you got the KDs and he's part of that past era, Chris Paul just retired, for instance, or was retired. retired. But like, you're getting to this era where like, these guys are stars for the NBA, but are they true global stars? Like, Luca is a true global star and so is the Joker. But like, Jason Tatum, very good NBA player, champion, MVP type guy. How big of a star is Jason Tatum? How big of a star is Jalen Brown? How big of a star is Donovan Mitchell? How big of a star is Lori Markinen? How big of star is, go down the Cooper

Flag. Like, Cooper Flag may become a star. He's a rookie, so who knows? But how many of these people are transcendent stars? Like LeBron, whether you like LeBron or not, LeBron was and is a transcendent star personality. LeBron is the dude.

LeBron is the chosen one. He is the king. He is on the cover of Sports Illustrated when he's 16 years old. He is that dude. So he follows. followed Kobe and Kobe followed Michael and like there was a huge star. Those guys like the Joker doesn't want to be a star. You know, Luca, there's a language barrier I think with Luca that's a factor.

There's a lot of things where the NBA doesn't have that dude. You lack that guy. The NFL will, even if the NFL doesn't have that dude, the NFL is the NFL and it can survive. Baseball currently has Otani. You know, like there are dudes that are the dudes that are the, dudes. The NBA didn't have that. But back in the day, not only did you have dudes that were dudes that were transcending crossover stars and had this appeal. They also wanted to compete against each other, and they wanted to be in the dunk contest. And they wanted it to matter in that way that you just

don't get anymore. So the dunk contest was nothing. I didn't watch. The three-point contest, didn't watch one second of it, didn't care. And then you had the games. And I thought the format for it was a good It was a fun format. It was an interesting format. And if the last game would have been even remotely competitive, I think there'd be a different taste in people's mouths about it. The problem is, the format was great, but the last game wasn't competitive. These games are coming down to the last shot. And there was competition.

They were playing defense. And as we said earlier, like, it's kind of ridiculous that you have to blow people for trying on defense. But they tried on defense. And there were big moments. And Wimby was shook. By losing, he was shot. Now, do I think that, you know, it's an accomplishment to draw, you know, 87% more people than you had last year and your highest viewership since 2011? I think there's something to be said about it.

Like, I think if you sit there and try to compare shit to what it used to draw, you know, back in the 80s and 90s for any sport, that's a fool's errand other than football. Baseball ain't drawing the numbers it used to, not even close. The NBA is not drawing the numbers it used to, not even close. Hockey's not drawing the numbers it used to, not even close. That's just the way of the world. You know, so I think that's stupid, and I think that's what lazy people do. Lazy people, here's the thing about numbers. You can make numbers say whatever you want the numbers to say.

If you want the numbers to say that the NBA sucks right now and no one cares, you can make those numbers say the NBA sucks right now and nobody cares. If you want to say that the NBA is on the rise because of this, you can. Because, I mean, there's no negative in 87% improvement year to year. I mean, that's incredible, right? There's not a negative that exists with that. Just like if I want to look at that number and I want to say, yeah, but it's because it's on NBC, you could make that argument. I do think that the NBC factor plays a big thing.

I know we talked about this earlier. I am shocked by how important it is to still be on NBC, CBS, Fox. You know, it's wild to me that that still matters, but apparently it does. And the numbers were up huge because of that. the format helped. The USA versus the world helped. But, you know, I was impressed by it. They brought, you know, the round ball rock back. I find that funny, too, like, you know, John Tesh had to play for like half an hour while they did the starting lineups, and he was doing round ball rock. And I'm sitting there thinking to myself, like, how many of these dudes who are in this All-Star game,

where the average age is probably 25, maybe? And that might be a little generous. but 25. How many of these dudes that are sitting out here right now give two fucks that there's some guy playing this theme song that mattered to so many people growing up? Like how many people of these players are like, cool? And how many would rather be hearing some shitty Kendrick Lamar mumble rap? Yeah. Because for me, growing up, Round Ball Rock was the tits. Like that. I mean, the intro for the NBA on NBC was the goat. It was the all-time iconic. Now, you could argue whether it's the greatest theme song of all time. And it's up there. I mean, it's right up there. I think the NHL on ESPN hockey is great. I mean, there are great theme songs. But, like, the intro, and then you have Bob Costas and then, like, the light up, the neon peacock. And, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.

Like, how many people give a shit other than, like, some viewers? Like, I think the viewers, like, the nostalgic viewers care. How many of the players are like, yeah, it's the NBA on NBC? Like, how many, like, did Donovan Mitchell watch the NBA on NBC? Did, I don't know, did Cooper Flight? Cooper Flike obviously didn't watch the NBA and NBC. He has no fucking clue. How many of these guys actually watched and cared about that?

Then Bob Costas. They roll Bob Costas out there, and he says one of the more self-serving things. Like, well, the NBA All-Star game is back on NBC for the first time in 20-whatever years. And I'm back on NBC for the first time in 20-something years. I'm like, who the fuck cares? Who's watching this? And it's like, thank the fuck Christ. Bob Costas is back.

Probably nobody. But he was back. Anyway, more to come.