The Josh Innes Show - Did 4 Nations Prove Anything?

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

I've seen people saying that the 4 Nations Hockey tournament was brilliant and could be a massive boom for the NHL. I beg to differ. It was fun and it was certainly a victory for hockey. But, it isn't going to help hockey in the long run. Hockey isn't going to be any more popular because of this. Really, this tournament benefitted from a happy accident. Hockey had a moment that was similar to the women's basketball moment a few years ago. Why do people care if teams go to the White House? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All righty, everybody. What's going on? I see that the right-wing media people are celebrating the demise of this Joy Reid. Apparently, her show got canceled. Here's the thing. Why celebrate someone's demise when ultimately, if you don't watch anyway, it doesn't impact your life, right? Do I think people like Joy Reid are bad for society? Yes, because I think she's just a dumb human and says dumb things and it's quite racist but like like oh my god that's great we don't have

to deal with the the tyranny of joy reed if you don't watch it who the fuck cares right like it's the same thing when people would bitch about like a a rush limbaugh like hey rush limbaugh's dead that's great well how does it impact your life? Like, who gives a shit? Like, if you're not forced to watch it, if it's not someone who's like your governing body, then who the hell cares, right? Like, now, again, I think Joy Reid seems to be a piece of shit and really stupid and a race baiter, all of the things I despise,

but it's not like my life is made better because Joy Reid doesn't have a TV show. The only shit I would ever see of Joy Reid is stuff that would pop up in my feed. I didn't ask to see it. It was just there because my feed shows me a bunch of shit that I don't care about. Like currently my algorithm is showing me a bunch of weird Angel Reese fans who are like fighting the good fight for Angel Reese. And I'm like, listen, I was on Angel Reese's side during the Caitlin Clark thing. I 100% believe that the Caitlin Clark thing was elevated and Caitlin

Clark became more popular. And for a brief moment in time, Angel Reese was popular and they were all going at it because of the racial component of it, because of the white people like Dave Portnoy saying that she was a piece of shit or whatever it was because of like white people who have no interest in basketball especially the WNBA are all of a sudden fighting the good fight for fucking Caitlin Clark so like like that's why that happened so I was on Angel Reese's side and I do believe a lot of the negativity she was getting because it was a black white thing you could disagree with me that's fine but it was I didn't have any problem with Angel Reese I had no problem with her talking shit I had no problem with her taunting Caitlin Clark had done the same

shit it was fine but now I'm at a point where I'm sick of Angel Reese because Angel Reese really isn't that good at anything and Angel Reese is like like this week like you either got to be the villain or you got to be you know the good guy right and if you're going to be the villain you have to accept that people are going to dislike you right you can't just be like a woe is me feeling sorry for yourself and I think Angel Reese does that sometimes like if you're gonna be the bad guy be the fucking bad guy and enjoy that they taunt you like you can't be selective when you enjoy that people talk shit about you you've got to always embrace it or not that's part of being the heel right and if you get your feelings hurt over it you're a chicken shit heel right so that doesn't really do anything for me. And I do think Angel Reese just says dumb shit on social

media, you know, and to her defense, she's like a young chick, but like she says dumb shit. And I'm like, okay, I find you annoying. I find all of your fans annoying. Like the WNBA moment is over. You're in this unrivaled league. Cool. But it's like, I don't give a shit. You had the moment, the moment passed. Like you're still doing endorsements and you're making your money. Good for you. You have found an audience. You have found a niche. You play in the WNBA. You do podcasts, you do modeling, you do all that shit and good. You're making a fuck ton of money relative to what you could be making driving door dash like me. So you're making a fuck ton of money. I'm, I have nothing against you from that angle.

I'm just sick of fucking hearing about you and my algorithm. It's everything that pops up. And part of it is, I guess I blame myself because I was watching these angel Reese videos, like my favorite on Instagram are these dudes who do these like intense highlight packages of Angel Reese, which are just videos of her missing easy layups. And these dudes yelling bang every time. If you've never seen them, you're missing out. They're fantastic and they're hilarious.

So maybe from watching all that now I'm inundated or because I've tweeted about Angel Reese before. Now my algorithm just shows me Angel Reese content that I didn't ask for and I don't want. And of course, the for you on Twitter, which is the worst thing ever, they know what to post to make you angry and want to respond. So when I get messages about Angel Reese being the double-double queen and how white people don't like Angel Reese, I'm like, my God, I don't want to respond, but it's so fucking stupid that I have to.'s the brilliance i guess of elon i guess the brilliance is here's what we do we find things that no one's thinking of but we know that they'll be annoyed by we post it in the for you category we make sure they see it then we make sure it's

something that will get this person to respond so then all of a sudden you know we're getting you know interactions and it's more valuable to Elon. Whatever. I don't give a shit. I have nothing against Angel Reese. I find her annoying now. I find the WNBA annoying. But whatever.

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It is non-withdrawable Pick six credits that expire in 14 days limited time offer see terms at pick six dot draft kings dot com slash promos so here's what i think of the wnba which i have not watched one minute of this year obviously the season hadn't even started they're in this this this weird league this unrivaled league that no one cares about somebody let me start here so somebody on my social media the other day because people are selective like you could post a million things about a million different things but the one thing that you post that pisses them off is what they'll focus on so the other day I posted a joke which was you know hey here's if you want to call it a joke. It was here's the people that stand the hardest for certain leagues.

So like hockey stands tend to be people who have like, you know, American flags in their bio and, you know, women's basketball stands or whatever. And NBA stands are those who put equality in their bio and whatever. Well, the only thing this guy from Houston saw was the basketball part of it. And he goes, basically intimated that I'm racist because I'm talking shit about the NBA,

which really the guy's a fucking moron because I watched the NBA. I was watching the Grizzlies last night get their asses kicked by Cleveland. I watched the NBA. I bet on the NBA. I have nothing against the NBA. In fact, I defend the NBA to an extent

when people are like, oh, they shoot too many threes. And I'm like, well, that ain't the reason you ain't watching. I mean, there's other reasons. But the idea that they shoot too many threes and that's why you don't watch is preposterous and stupid. But the only thing this guy saw is, oh, you're talking shit on the NBA because you're white. He goes, you don't like the hip hop culture. I'm like, go fuck yourself, bro.

Like, don't come at me with the you're racist because you're talking shit. I was talking shit about every non-football sport, which has been my point the last couple of weeks while people are wrapping themselves in the flag over the hockey thing and everything else. The only sport that appeals to the masses in this country and is talked about by the masses in this country and matters to the masses in this country is football. ESPN was like, yeah, we don't really need baseball. You know why ESPN? Do you think ESPN gave up baseball because it had value? No, they gave up baseball because it does nothing for them

because nobody outside of a couple of cities big picture cares about baseball. Now, the arguments I'll get is, well, I care about baseball. An occasional person will pop in. I like baseball. Yes, no shit. There are people who care and are passionate about these sports. But when I say nobody cares, I'm saying big picture. I hear people bitching about, well, if the NBA were on over-the-air TV and network TV, that would be helpful.

Would it? Are we really in an era where if you're on cable versus over the air or versus streaming? Dude, the NFL gets 20 something million people watching Thursday night football on Amazon. They got Christmas viewership on Netflix. 20 million people. People will find the game and they will find the sport if they want to watch the game or watch the sport. People don't care big picture about the outcome of most baseball games or most basketball games or most hockey games. They don't give a shit. There's too many games and the games don't matter. And in the case of the NBA, the players basically tell you

the games don't matter and that they don't give a shit. Hockey, nobody watches. That's, I think, been my favorite thing is credit to hockey. They found a way to get people engaged with this four nations but they also gumped their way into this four nations being a success what do i mean by they gumped their way into four nations being a success they gumped their way into it because they got lucky that canada booed the national anthem one thing we know about America, especially one half of America, and this was more the case like 9-11 era, not so much now because there's so much open America hatred and Trump hatred in our country, that there are a lot of people who are just totally content with being like, hey, fuck America, but you're American, you live here. Yeah, but we fucking suck, fuck us. So there's a lot of

people that feel that way. But like in 9-11 for instance everyone came together well i don't believe that's ever going to happen again because i believe we're too fragmented we're too separated social media won't allow it i've actually had that conversation with like smart political people who are like the only thing that's ever going to bring us together again is a true disaster i'm like no it won't like like i would say this fucking pandemic was a disaster you know what it did it continued to divide people nobody came together on that shit. Somebody can drop a bomb on Des Moines and people are still going to fight over it on social media.

I do not believe we are in a position where we will ever have a come together America moment. It just doesn't exist anymore. But anyway, so going back to the hockey, what got people people this is obvious like i'm not telling you anything you don't already know the people got into the four nations thing because of canada booing it's the same reason why people got into the wnba for five minutes or in the case of women's basketball they got into women's basketball for five minutes

why did they get into it because angel reese was mean to the white girl. And then the white people started running to the white girl's defense. And that's what made people in interested in this stuff for five minutes. That's all it was like if, if Angel Reese never looks over at Caitlin Clark and taunts her and says, I got a ring and you can't see me and all that shit. If that never happens, there's never any full-on, full-blown discussions about the WNBA or women's basketball. That's no knock on women's basketball, but how much real discourse are you hearing about women's basketball that isn't spurred by social media or ESPN forcing it upon you? You don't. It's not in the lexicon. It's not like it was when it was Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. It had a moment. It is okay to say that you have no problem with the WNBA existing. You have no

problem with women playing basketball. Go get yours. But it was in the zeitgeist and was a topic of conversation due to the racial component of it. And that's what drew people to the television. You can argue, but to me, it's indisputable. You cannot debate it. The only reason people were mainstream into women's basketball for five minutes is because of drama. We as a country respond to drama. So when Canada comes out and boos, all of a sudden, you're like, oh shit, you want to come at us? Well, watch this shit. Oh, they play Freebird as their goal song? Let's fucking go. Oh, they're dropping the gloves eight seconds into it and having multiple fights. Let's fucking go.

And that's what got the average person who doesn't give a shit about hockey to be interested in the United States versus Canada. That's what changed the whole thing that changed the course of everything. And that's why like nine and a half million people watch that championship game between Canada and US and people, you know, and championship game between Canada and U.S. And people, you know, and then they can't just take their victory. They can't just say, boy, that was a good win for us as a country and a good win for us as a, and when I say country, I mean, obviously I know that the U.S. lost, but it's a good win for us as a league that people paid attention to us for five minutes. No, it has to become a debate. And the debate has to be like,

Oh boy, is this going to spur people to watching hockey now? Is this a check game changing moment for hockey? I'll fill you in. It ain't. There's nobody who was in Tampa, Florida or Memphis, Tennessee that never watches hockey that now all of a sudden we'll watch

regular season, meaningless hockey because of this. It won't happen that way. I don't know what the ratings were like for those games when they came back to hockey on Saturday. My guess is very, very low. And my guess is that not one of those games had 9 million people watching. Most of them probably didn't have a million people watching them, if I had to guess. Why? Because it didn't really do anything to change the game for anyone. And it's the same with the WNBA. The WNBA may be more popular than it's ever been,

but that moment in time, that time capsule they were in with Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark and the racial back and forth on social media, it had its moment, and its moment was aided by drama. People in this country are addicted to drama. That's what people are into. Like that's why now other than football where you don't need drama, football, people are addicted to two things, drama and football. That's what people are addicted to. So football doesn't matter what the drama is. You have to have super duper drama.

And a lot of times it has to be controversial subject matter, politics or race to bring people into it. Otherwise, it just doesn't happen. There's always controversy. That's what people click on. That's why, like, you know, you see that the Eagles aren't going to visit Trump at the White House, right? Like, why does it matter? It doesn't. Big picture, a lot of teams don't visit Trump at the White House.

And moving forward, I guarantee you if another conservative president is in the White House, they're all going to turn down those invites too. That's the weird world we've created where if you're a right-wing president, you're a Nazi and you're Hitler, right? So you can't spend all this time calling one right-wing guy Hitler and then another guy gets in there and he's not Hitler. This guy's Hitler adjacent, right? So of course these guys aren't going to go.

Some of them do, some of them don't, but who gives a shit? I don't even think they should even have teams go to the White House. Why does it matter? We don't need this. Just like we don't need to see dudes go to Disney World and ride the fucking teacups after winning the Super Bowl either. But that's just a promotion. I don't need to see a football team go to the White House. But of course, that's a sexy thing to get people talking and fighting with each other on social media. It's sexy when you go into your for you category and you see some angry MAGA person saying, I'm never going to another Eagles game ever again. And I'm giving up my Eagles tickets. Right. Like like and that's sexy. Then everybody responds. We don't need you, Karen. And like it's all divisive shit and none of it really matters.

But that's what we get. And that's what social media is. And that's what the 4U category is. So anyway, all that said, back to the point of the hockey and back to the other sports that aren't football. The only reason that that... Don't spin it into, well, that four nations tournament was really a brilliant idea. It only looked brilliant because of something that was out of the decision makers control. They had no idea that Canada was going to boo the national anthem.

They had no clue. And if that doesn't happen, like, look, it's a happy accident. And you take advantage of it and you you take your victory, and you move on. But let's not act like, oh, boy, if the NBA did something like this, I mean, maybe they too would, you know, get an audience. They wouldn't. The only thing that would do that, first of all, there's no incentive for the American players to play the foreign players

because the foreign players want to be embarrassing. And as we've learned about basketball players, they're not going to do anything that's going to put them at risk of being embarrassed. Not going to happen. That's why these guys don't do the dunk contest. That's why they don't try in the all-star game because they don't want to be embarrassed. The one thing that would truly do it is if you took white dudes and they played against black dudes and that would be that kind of controversy that would draw eyeballs it would also be extremely racist and stupid so like that would be that would be the thing that would get the eyeballs i told you the other day my buddy was talking about um well you know what like what if they boo the anthem in basketball well the fans of the nba boo

the anthem they're a lot of them are just weirdo hipster liberal people anyway. So like they would be all for it. They join in, in the buoy and it wouldn't upset. Do you think the NBA players would be like upset that the national anthem got booed? They'd be like, who gives a fuck?

Cause I don't really give a fuck about anything. All right. Anyway, uh, more to come.