The Josh Innes Show - Cut Sports Commissioners Some Slack

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

First off, it's snowing in St. Louis. Once again, these doors have no concept of how to shovel sidewalks. I have been reading stories about how NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is a dope and the All Star Game was a disaster. Well, it was already a disaster. At least your boy is trying. Maybe the players should give a shit about anything..that may help. The same goes for baseball. The league may be trying stuff people don't like, but at least they are trying. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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cemetery providers owned and operated by affiliates of Service Corporation International. All right, friends, what's going on? It's Josh about 930 here on Tuesday. We got some snow coming down in St. Louis, maybe more later. So far, it hasn't been so bad. I went out there, woke up to some snow. I've shoveled it. I won't count on anybody else here in this area to shovel because they have no clue how to handle snow. So my sidewalk is nice and shoveled and my driveway is nice and shoveled. But these lazy bums in this neighborhood who have no concept of how to handle snow will probably leave their sidewalk snow covered for days because it's going to freeze because of the sub-zero temperatures

that we're going to be dealing with. So more than likely, if you're trying to walk around Kirkwood, Missouri, you're going to deal with treacherous ice situations because these lazy bastards, I don't even know if they're lazy or if they're incompetent or if they just have no clue, but it snowed like three times already this year. It snowed five or six times since I've lived here in two years. You would think people would understand and have some concept of how to deal with snow. Like, why would you not be out there right now shoveling like an inch of snow? It's an inch of fluffy snow, right? This isn't wet, nasty, heavy snow, and it's not seven inches. I woke up this morning, there's maybe two inches of snow, right? So I didn't even need a shovel. I got out the long patio broom and just got it out there and

I pushed it all around into the yard and made some space, throw down a little salt, bada-bing, even did the sidewalk, even though I don't have to because nobody in this neighborhood does it I still did it because I have proper snow etiquette these people do not have proper snow etiquette I'm a good honest to god I shouldn't do it I'm the asshole we've had this conversation before I'm the asshole I'm the dipshit that's out there like hey guys watch this I'm gonna go out and shovel the sidewalk knowing that nobody else's sidewalk is going to be shoveled. Knowing that. I don't know if that makes me a good person or if that just makes me a doofus. It makes me a dope. I think it might make me a dope. I'm ashamed of myself looking like a dipshit out there shoveling the sidewalk when there's going to be snow, ice, snow, ice. Oh, nice area of shoveled.

Snow, ice, snow, ice, snow, ice. I should get some sort of community award. They should put a sign in my yard that says, this is the one guy that shovels his sidewalk. Even if it's like a dunces type thing, like this is the dipshit that wastes his time shoveling the sidewalk, knowing the rest of us will not do it.

Throw me a bone. Like if you're at home right now like let's say you're not at work whatever if you're just at home and you're in kirkwood missouri and you wake up to like an inch of snow put on your fucking shoes put on your sweatshirt put on your jacket grab your gloves get your galoshes and go out there and just get rid of it so it's supposed to snow more later and it was supposed to be a lot of snow i think it's supposed to snow more later. And it was supposed to be a lot of snow. I think it's kind of tapered down or moved down. So fortunately, we're not going to have to deal with a ton of snow, I don't think. But I've got to go throw down the puppy-friendly ice melt so Ross's feet don't explode.

I guess that's what happens when a dog steps on normal ice melt. I believe I've heard that his feet literally explode. And we do not need a dog that's missing four paws. So that's what you wake up to today. I'm irrationally annoyed by the people in this neighborhood. Shovel your damn driveway. Shovel your sidewalk. Have some courtesy.

Be a decent human. That's like one thing I'll say about Philadelphia, man. We lived in Philly. And of course, they're used to snow. I mean, not like this place never gets snow. We're not in the Bahamas. We're in the Midwest. We're in St. Louis.

It snows a decent amount. But in Philly, like the second it started snowing, people are out there shoveling because you're dealing with like, you know, an inch an hour or some shit. You got to get out there and just keep going. Like in some of those times that we had the most snow in Philly, I'd be out there, you know, in the first, as it's coming down, like, oh, there's been about half an hour. Get out there and shovel the half inch of snow that's out there. And that's just what you do. People understand

that's what you do, but not here in St. Louis, not here in Kirkwood, Missouri. These rich people couldn't even be bothered to pay the neighborhood kids to come out and shovel. Do that. I've seen Facebook posts on the community Facebook that's like, hey, my high school kid is trying to make a couple extra bucks if you want him to shovel your driveway, shovel your sidewalk. Well, I'm not seeing it. So these bums don't want to pay to have someone else to do it, and they don't want to get off their lazy asses and do it. And you know who gets punished? Ross. That's who gets punished. So I want these jabrons to look at Ross and his beautiful scruffy face and tell him why he can't go walk around the damn neighborhood.

Oh, it's because the sidewalks aren't shoveled and these damn lazy bastards aren't shoveling them. Look in his face and tell him why. Look at his beautiful little scruffy beard, which, by the way, Jilly's trying to find a name for him on Instagram. She wants it to center around his scruff. So like Ross McScruffles or Scruffy Ross or something like that but anyway that's a different topic for a different day let's play some commercials all right if you're ready to win some real cash during the basketball playoffs you got to check out pick six from DraftKings when it comes to basketball payouts, DraftKings Pick 6 posterizes the competition, including price picks.

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Like people didn't like the All-Star Game format. But by the way, they never liked the All-Star Game. People will bitch about the All-Star Game no matter what. It's like a rite of passage. It's a tale as old as time. People are going to bitch about the NBA All-Star Game. They're going to bitch about all All-Star games. That's just the way it works. But I'm reading stories about how shitty Adam Silver is. And I'm reading stories about how like one anonymous GM or somebody said that

he's obsessed with tournaments and in-season tournaments and play-in tournaments and everything else. And we haven't seen any indication that it's really beneficial to our league at all and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Let me tell you what would be beneficial to your league. Getting players that seem like they give a fuck on a night in night out basis. You see, this isn't very difficult. I'm not a brilliant person. I'm moderately smart. I'm smart. Like I got some common sense. There's also parts of me that are really stupid and things I don't know and I'm well aware of that but common sense would tell me this and I feel like I have a good amount of common sense common sense would tell me that maybe people would be interested in basketball if the players who played it acted like they gave a fuck more often than they actually do

which they don't so I don't know how the commissioner of the league, who obviously views this as a problem, that's why he's trying as many gimmicks as he can, that's why he's trying in-season tournaments and play-in tournaments and tournaments in the All-Star game. The reason he's trying this is because he's trying to keep from hemorrhaging the audience the NBA has. That audience that really is hemorrhaging because people like LeBron and other dipshits don't seem to treat this like it matters. Now, we all know this. Regular seasons in most sports are pretty obsolete. And we don't have a world now where people are held captive on a Tuesday night. They can do a thousand different things on their phone. They can watch a thousand different TV shows on streaming platforms. They can go to the movies

if they choose. They can go to dinners. They can do a bunch of different shit. But most importantly, they have their phone and the internet and streaming services that keep them from having to just sit in front of the TV flipping, flipping, flipping. All right, I'll watch the Grizzlies and the Jazz tonight. They don't care about that kind of shit anymore. People are not going to be consumed by regular season basketball or regular season baseball or regular season hockey. They're just not going to. So, I mean, maybe you go into it under the assumption that you're just not going to have big regular season audiences anyway, but what doesn't help is the superstars don't seem to give a shit, right? So we can sit here and blame the commissioner.

The dude's doing what he can with what he's got like I'll defend him like you can say that the format for the all-star game sucked and I agree the format for the all-star game sucked I would rather watch them go out and play a full game where they're shooting shots from 75 feet and I'd rather watch that it'd be better for betting purposes it'd be better for a lot of stuff so and most importantly betting stuff so I'd be totally for that whatever right but the reality is you're never, there's nothing you can do. That's going to get people to tune into that game. They're not going to, you've lost them. They're not coming back. They're not held captive. They can see LeBron and Anthony Davis and Anthony Edwards and John Morant and go down the list of great NBA players. They can see them night in, night out.

Them playing a half-assed game against each other is not going to drive people to watch it. So I kind of feel bad for Adam Silver because what's he going to do? You should at least give him credit for fucking trying. I'm not trying to give the guy a participation medal here, but you should at least give him some level of credit for attempting new shit. Because obviously people shit on the way the all-star game was before because, oh, the guys don't play and it's 200 to 195 and, and, uh, you know, people are shooting half court three pointers and there's no defense and blah, blah, blah. So people are going to bitch about that. And then the guy tries something new and people bitch about that. I actually give the guy some form of credit for

trying something different. You know, I give baseball credit for trying to speed up the game or do whatever. Some people don't like it. The purists don't like it, but you know what? You got to try different shit. The problem that the NBA runs into that say, you know, the NHL doesn't run into is that these dudes seemingly don't give a shit, and they will tell you they don't give a shit. They have a ton of power. They know they have a ton of power. The commissioner seemingly has no power due to collective bargaining agreements and everything else. So these guys are just going to sit around and pull a pud and not give a shit until the playoffs. And that's not good for the product, but maybe people wouldn't watch anyway. But if

you're looking for the best solution to the problems you have right now, and that's, you know, unless you put like little people on trampolines and shit and play slam ball with little people, whatever it is, have topless girls out there. You know, if you're looking for realistic solutions, the most realistic solution to the NBA's problems would be guys giving a fuck and openly giving a fuck and you need to find a rivalry you want to know why and it really needs to be a race-based rivalry and the reason that's the case is look at the WNBA the only reason anybody was even remotely interested in the WNBA for five minutes is because you had Angel Reese versus Caitlin Clark in college and the only reason that

made any sort of news is black versus white and you can't tell me any different that's an inner that is an argument that I will not even bother entertaining I'll entertain most arguments but if your argument is uh no Caitlin Clark was a star because she was good at lady basketball well I got some oceanfront property for you pal because it's not true the reason things blew up is because you had a fucking race war between white people and black people on social media, between Clay Travis and dudes that are bishops in the black church that you've never even heard of. You're like, bishop such and such is going off about how Caitlin Clark's overrated. And then there's Clay Travis and Buck Sexton talking about how great Caitlin Clark is and how Angel Reese is awful and Barstool is saying she's a piece of shit and that's why that became a thing so you kind of hey by the way what led to the biggest era of the NBA ever a white versus black deal like I'm not look you're not going to force that type of thing but that's what you need you need some sort of rivalry and that rivalry has to be driven by passionate dudes that want to beat each other like magic and bird didn't hate each other but magic and bird had a rivalry

and the other wanted to win you don't really feel that about a lot of these guys when you watch you don't think they give a shit and you know the regular season doesn't matter to them so it just it doesn't feel like you're getting anything out of that. So really the fix, if you're the commissioner, if you're Adam Silver, your fix is somehow putting a heart in these guys and making them want to play. And if they don't want to play and they're not interested and they half-ass it

and they load manage, then the people are also going to tune out. We talked about the baseball shit also going to tune out. You know, we talked about the baseball shit that people want to change. Like we, you know, I'm a big proponent of the golden at bat rule. I think it's a great rule that gives you an opportunity to bring up the best player in the biggest spot in the game. That's what you want to see. Like, can you imagine if in basketball, Oh, we've subbed out Michael Jordan. Shit. MJ is not going to be in with the game on the line. That's fucking stupid. Baseball is the only sport where you are not guaranteed to see an elite player, the best player in crunch time. Now, some would argue that's the best part of baseball and that's fine.

We can debate that. You can debate the designated hitter. You can debate the pitch clock. You can debate the shift. Debate all that. Those are all debatable points. And I would entertain a debate there, but what's not debatable is that baseball is the only sport where if you've got Bryce Harper on the team, let's say he strikes out in the seventh inning to end the inning. You're more than likely not going to see Bryce Harper in the ninth inning, potentially of a one run game. And wouldn't you like to see Bryce Harper in the ninth inning of a one run game game as opposed to whoever the slap-hitting shortstop is or whatever? That's a good idea. And you might say, well, this is absurd and they're killing baseball. Well, baseball's already dying, guys. That's the reason they have to make these kind of moves. The reason the All-Star

game has to have a tournament is because the NBA all-star game ratings and the attention for it and the interest in it are dying. So they're forced to try things like you. Like again, I can't believe I'm defending the commissioners on this, but to rip them is so easy and lazy at this point. It is easy and lazy to sit here and just say, these commissioners have lost it. No, look at the fucking dudes making millions of dollars to play these games that seem to be uninterested. Look at baseball and tell me why baseball has to make this decision to try to make the games more interesting, to speed them up. Because we, the consumers, aren't as interested anymore. So they're looking for ways to remedy this. So I don't blame the commissioners for this.

What are you supposed to do? You try new things and if new things don't work, the NFL tried to have reviews of like pass interferences after the Saints got screwed in the playoffs. Then they went away from that. You know, so like you try things. There's nothing wrong with trying shit. When they wanted to move the extra point back, people were vocally against moving the extra point back. Now people don't care. Look, the new kickoff in the NFL, the NFL kills everybody else yet. They still try to innovate. I didn't mind the new kickoff rule. I thought it was fine. And I think in theory, it could lead to bigger plays. I don't like the fact that you're not allowed to kick an onside kick until the fourth quarter. I think that's stupid. And I don't like the idea that

you have to tell people you're kicking an onside kick. I think that's stupid, but at least you're trying different things. That's the biggest league in the world. That's the NFL. The NFL is looking to innovate. So if the NFL is still looking to innovate and they bend over the rest of the sports leagues in this country, then of course those other sports leagues need to be trying to innovate. You innovate or you die. It's not like you can just sit back and look at the great numbers the NBA is pulling and the great interest the NBA is pulling, you can't because it isn't there. There's a great disparity between the interaction the NBA gets on social media versus the number of people who actually consume and care about the product. It's staggering because every day you'll see something trending from the NBA and people love

to talk about trades and people love to talk about free agency but when it comes down to the actual games unless I'm eight foot tall just gets yammed on by Anthony Edwards or John Morant no one gives a shit and that's the problem they're running into so they have to try to remedy these things I saw Jonathan Papelbon who I think might be fucking stupid Jonathan Papelbon said something along the lines of how baseball and hockey are going to overtake basketball and interest in the next couple years. Talk about recency bias. The NHL has one moment with this cool all-star game that lasts a week. And look, if Canada wouldn't have made it to the championship, I think that interest level would be way down. Canada did get in, so let's fucking go. Canada, U.S. on Thursday, and that's going to be fun.

But there ain't no way in hell. Like, maybe baseball becomes more popular, maybe. But they're all sinking. It's not like baseball's going to become popular because baseball's doing something to become more popular. The NBA just eats itself. And hockey ain't ever going to be more popular than either one of those sports it's just a dumb hot take like that's the definition of a hot take that is an uneducated uninformed stupid opinion the NHL has one moment where some people watch

a game because it's in this fun you know tournament these guys give a shit so it's fun to watch and then you get people talking about how popular the nhl is and it isn't so either way uh all right let's play well actually let's wrap this one up and uh we will get to some other stuff