The Josh Innes Show - Final "Inside The NBA"

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

I'm aware "Inside The NBA" will live on via ESPN, but Saturday night was the real end of the show. Once this show goes to ESPN, it will not be the same. It can't be the same. The final episode was so wonderful until Shaq decided to go into business for himself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Inside the NBA came to an end over the weekend after game six of the Eastern Conference Finals. We got the final TNT version of Inside the NBA with Shaq and Kenny and Charles and Ernie Johnson. And there will never be a better studio show than that. It is impossible. It was the best that there ever was. And it's not the OG studio show by any means, but it is the best that there has ever been and it did something that all sports should aspire to do, which is have fun and make people laugh and not be so serious and everyone has tried to replicate it in some way and you cannot. There is a magic about it and part of that magic was that it was on TNT and TNT kind of allowed these guys to do

whatever the hell they wanted in long form clips, right? It's kind of like the difference in a podcast versus being on the radio, right? Like, and I think I saw something about this from Bill Simmons about how he thinks being on ESPN is now going to ruin inside the NBA, which I tend to agree with. I think it has no chance of being fun there because ESPN is now going to ruin inside the NBA, which I tend to agree with. I think it has no chance of being fun

there because ESPN is no fun and they're going to foist Stephen A Smith into this and they're going to foist Kendrick Perkins into this and then whatever Lady Basketball people they're going to foist into it and it's just not going to be the same thing. There was almost an underground quality about it being on TNT because ESPN is the Empire and ESPN is the Death Star and ESPN just oozes corporate right and TNT kind of had that off brand because while TNT and Turner do have sports, they also air charmed reruns, you know,

or Bones or whatever airs on TNT in the morning. So like you kind of had this fun kind of underground, almost pirate radio vibe about it and be on at midnight. And you knew that they didn't have a hard out at midnight to get to, you know, whatever sports center, whatever. That's kind of what made it fun and made it unique and I don't think you can replicate that when you're going to have to do you know you got to end your show because we got to get to SportsCenter next there's not going to be that

free reign to just be as wacky I think it's going to even if it is as good I think a lot of people just by association are going to say that it's not as good if that makes sense. Let's play a couple commercials and we'll continue. The NBA Finals are finally here and after spending the playoffs all over the Pick Six app from DraftKings. Well, we're ready for the championship round and this is your last shot to win some real cash before the season ends. The simplest way to get in on the action is downloading the Pick

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like this is the golden era. It's kind of like when there's a band and you know the band has this great era of music and then there's still the band but they also make a lot of music that is fine but is never going to be the music that was like the best music they ever did like they're still there and they still tour and they still sing some of those old songs but those old songs don't feel the same anymore. The lead singer's voice is kind of shot. It's just a different thing. I'm sad about it. Like I was genuinely

sad. Now it might have been the booze talking, but when I was watching the last episode of it, I like watching the last episode of anything to see how people handle things. Last episode of TV shows, whether it's, oh, we're turning out the lights and walking out of the house or Seinfeld, they're in jail or whatever the fuck it is, you want to see how they end. Most shows do not end well because it's the end of something. Like I watched the final episode of Big Mouth, which is such a good show. If you don't watch Big Mouth on Netflix, it's like the perfect combination of gross out humor, but it's got tons of heart. It's a special fucking show. It really is and I thought the last episode of it was was fine but it's almost unfair to judge the last episode of a show because

no one ever really nails the last episode of a show. Some would argue like MASH did but like for the most part it's hard. It is hard to find a way to wrap up a show because there's a finality obviously about it and people then view that and go yeah, it never really lived up to it. Final episode, some final episode you don't even remember like recently they aired the last episode of the righteous gemstones and it was fine but like and I don't want to spoil anything for anybody on the righteous gemstones, but you mean to tell me for

basically four seasons of the show these people are the most self-indulgent scummy people you can imagine, then like we put a nice little bow on it at the end, like I don't like when that happens if they're scummy people. Like I heard Quentin Tarantino once say something that I found interesting. He was talking about the movies of Chevy Chase versus the movies of Bill Murray and the reason he preferred Chevy Chase and the reason he preferred Chevy Chase is because most of the time Chevy Chase at the beginning and end of the movie still ends up being kind of the jerk like at least in the 70s and 80s kind of world of the snarky movies of Chevy Chase. Chevy Chase was kind of the guy that at the end didn't really learn a lesson type of guy for the most part. He just remained Chevy Chase. Whereas Bill Murray spends an entire movie being like this kind of sardonic asshole but then at the end of it it's kind of wrapped together with a nice bow and like he learned a lesson. Like in Groundhog Day he's like this asshole the whole

movie and then one day he wakes up and he's this super nice guy and Quentin Tarantino preferred Chevy Chase over Murray and those kind of movies and I'm like I kind of get that like stick with who you are you don't have to put like the super 80s positive spin at the end of it where the guy learned his lesson like in Scrooge or something like that and it's good in a final episode of a show kind of to stick with what you are. But anywho, I'm watching the last episode of Inside the NBA on Saturday, and Ernie kind of gives the floor to each of the guys. They didn't do like the kind of sad emotional music or like a tribute video or whatever, because the show in

theory is not ending. That's going to continue. It's just going to feel weird and icky and gross. And I feel like ESPN is going to ESPN it and it's just not going to be as good but again, it's like when there's like a like and then that's not a good example either. I was going to say like when a garage band goes corporate, but that's not even the same like this is just this fun kind of underground world where like you almost feel like the NBA doesn't even see it

because it's at midnight on a Thursday on TNT. And like the Lord of the Rings is gonna come on at midnight after this. And you're like, there's something kind of fun and like pirate radio-ish about what they were doing. Like you felt like they were doing something that wasn't dirty, but something like, you know, the league probably didn't like in some instances.

Whereas on ESPN, it's a spotlight situation. I can't even find the right comparison, but it feels icky and I hate it. But last episode, you got Ernie Johnson sitting at the table. He says, all right, Shaq, you talk first and Shaq does typical Shaq bullshit. Says fuck just because he can, which I thought came off as tacky and I get that I myself am tacky and crass. But like he just said fuck just because he can, which I thought came off as tacky and I get that I myself am tacky and crass, but like he just said fuck just because he could, I guess? Like he could have said fuck any other time on TNT, but he says fuck here and basically sends out a warning to the ESPN people that they're coming. I don't really know why you need to already start shit with the people at ESPN.

That's what I'm going to really hate. Like you've got this fun fucking show and what's going to become is like, it going to be a war between god damn Stephen A Smith? Like I don't want that. You've taken this beautiful fucking thing and you're going to fuck it. So then Shaq does his little thing, whatever. Then he gives the floor to Kenny and Kenny says a nice thing. And then Chuck I thought did an amazing job because Kenny also had to say fuck just to show he could do it. But there's an authenticity about Chuck and I think Chuck more than Shaq and Kenny has an understanding of how important this thing was on

Turner and how important it was to Ernie Johnson whose dad was involved with Turner at TBS. It's in Atlanta. He's an Atlanta guy like how special it was and I thought I thought Chuck handled his part of the farewell so wonderfully and I loved it and and he was great and then you get to Ernie and Ernie is getting kind of emotional. You can kind of tell he might tear up a little bit but this has been this dude's life. I mean you're talking old school Atlanta Braves his dad Ernie Johnson Sr. was a broadcaster for the Braves. He

like before there was a Shaq, before there was a Kenny, before there was a Chuck, there was Ernie Johnson doing inside the NBA. There was Ernie Johnson doing all of this stuff. And like you like this matters more to him than any of these guys. Like Shaq, this show could have been on ESPN. It could have been on Fox. It wouldn't have mattered. Shaq came in in the back half of it and kind of rode with it and I get that they have relationships with these people but still it felt like it and it doesn't feel like it is a more important thing to Ernie because

this has been his entire life and he's associated with it and he gets emotional and has a nice little send-off and it would have been a perfect ending for it if they would have let it be but Shaq who is from the Jason Kelcey school of farting class funny guy couldn't just leave well enough alone couldn't leave it at like hey let's let the guy who's been here for the entire run of this show say say goodnight, fade to black, show over, couldn't do that. Shaq has to go, mic drop, everybody let's drop our mics and then like he and I think Kenny did it and the other two are like no. And I'm like, no offense dude, but this ain't your show. You came onto this show once you

retired in like 2012 or whenever it was, but this show for the for the last 25 years has been Charles Barkley, Kenny the Jet Smith, okay? Like you're kind of new to this and you're kind of fucking obnoxious. As much as I like Shaq, I bet Shaq is a wonderfully nice guy and a charitable guy and an LSU guy and I respect the shit out of him. I like him but Shaq is farting class funny guy and sometimes you just need to shut the fuck up and let a moment happen. You don't have to have the last word. You don't have to do a mic drop. You don't have to do all your little lame ass shit. Let Ernie have

it. The last words that were said on that fucking broadcast in its TNT iteration should have been from Ernie Johnson. That is a fact that is reality. But instead Shaq has to be like, hey guys, Mike Trapp, hey Mike Trapp, and then like two of the guys do it. It's similar to the other day when he was making the fucking Waterboy reference and kept saying, hot quality H2O Chuck, hot quality H2O. Like you're trying too hard to be funny. Funny comes from not trying. You know why Charles Barkley is so funny on these shows? Because Charles Barkley isn't trying to be funny. He's just a doofus and he says doofus shit and it's funny.

You try too hard to be funny and it's obvious. You're a fart in class kid. You are Jason Kelsey, people who are not actually funny, but you're so desperate like there's something missing in your life that you need this constant validation of people laughing that you try too hard to make people laugh at the shit you do and what ends up happening is it comes across as try hard and Shaq in the very last moments of the NBA on TNT and wanting to talk shit to ESPN and try to start some fucking war. Nobody wants a war between ESPN. It's not the fucking

NWO. Nobody wants that. You're not competitors. I was, I just hated it. I hate it because Ernie had it nailed and you knew it was important to him and you knew it was his moment and you knew he loved Turner. Like Shaq didn't give a fuck about Turner. Like yeah, they're the people that pay him. That's not his life. Ernie's entire life as a broadcaster has been involved with fucking Turner broadcasting and now he's over here dicking around with the ESPN to keep

the show alive. And he wants the last fucking Turner Broadcasting and now he's over here dicking around with ESPN to keep this show alive and he wants the last fucking word on this and he deserves the last word on this and Shaq has to try to Jason Kelsey it and Bogart the moment and I thought that was lame as shit I thought I didn't like it at all but and I worry about what this show is gonna be because like Jilly loves it her highest point of her life was having her tweet on the show so she loves it. So, I don't know, I don't think it's going to be good because nothing ESPN does is good. ESPN sucks. The content blows. And Simmons brought up

an interesting thing about how part of what makes the show work is that they have these long ass segments. They can go basically as long as they want on these segments, and that's where the real humor comes from. ESPN, everything is two minutes commercial, two minutes commercial. I don't know, maybe they'll be smart and they'll let them do what they want to do, but once they start forcing Stephen A on us, I'll have no interest in watching that. But anywho, more to come.