The Josh Innes Show - Hicks vs. Knicks

Episode Date: May 28, 2025

The Pacers/Knicks series has been really great. It's made me revisit the "30 For 30" about the 90's Knicks/Pacers rivalry. First off, go back and watch some of the OG "30 For 30" docs. They are awesome. Second, watch this Knicks/Pacers series. It's fun. I love when we have an authentic "us vs. them" rivalry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Now, I'll tell you things I find interesting, things I find fun, things that I enjoy, TV shows that I enjoy, like my show Hacks is coming back for a fifth season. I don't know why it needs a fifth season because let's actually this is an interesting thing to discuss. So I've started rewatching some Californication which is one of my favorite television shows ever and Hank Moody is arguably the best character that has ever been on television along with Luther Van Dam from Coach and Arthur Spooner from The King of Queens. I love this show and I love Hank and it's a great show. If you've never watched Californication, the first couple of seasons are dynamic, but then what happens is it goes seven seasons and

arguably the last three seasons become less and less realistic, more and more kind of ridiculous, and that more kind of ridiculous. And that's kind of how that show ended in kind of a ridiculous way with like the seasons being kind of over the top. But I loved it because the dialogue was great and I just loved the character of Hank Moody. It just I love it, right? Well, I've been watching the show Hacks and I didn't start this show when it

initially started, but I began watching it when like either the first two, I think the first two seasons were out and I had never watched it. I'm like, hey, I'm going to watch this and it's actually a really good funny show. But what happens with shows like this is they start repeating themselves over and over. Like if you watch the last three or four seasons of Californication, it continues to be a story about like, oh, he's almost back together with his lady, but then he does something stupid and

he's not back together with his lady. So now he's gonna fuck everybody on the planet because that's what this character does in this show. It's you know, these two people fall like they're they're working partners, and they love each other one minute and they hate each other the next and like it that's the story over and over and over again and it just kind of gets tiresome like that's why you kind of have a respect for shows that know that maybe

you only need one or two seasons for a show like maybe it a television show only needs one or two years like if it's a sitcom a sitcom can go on for a billion years because it's 22 minutes and you're in and you're out. If you're doing a show like Modern Family, Modern Family was a show that I loved and I loved Modern Family and watched it until the very end. Very few shows that I start with when the show first debuted and rolled with until it went off

the air. That may be the only show I can think of that I ever did that with where first episode ever I watched it, fell in love with it on the first episode and watched it every freaking time it was on and I loved the show. But like most shows, the last handful of years of it, it goes from being great to just kind of going through the motions and you watch it because you love the show but it's kind of not the same. And that's kind of what you're getting with Hacks

which is coming back for a fifth season. Another show that I just realized has an eighth and final season is Big Mouth on Netflix. I watched the first episode of season eight of Big Mouth last night had no idea there was going to be a season eight of Big Mouth. But there's a season eight of Big Mouth cartoon. The similar is it's gotten kind of the last couple of seasons of it, but there's a season eight of Big Mouth. Cartoon, similar, it's gotten kind of the last couple of seasons of it, but I love the show. First couple of seasons of this show, spectacular shit. And the good thing is it's a cartoon, so cartoons are easier to keep

things fresh, but I laughed at the first episode of it this season, so that's another show that I would watch. I have no idea why I brought any of this up. Let me play some commercials and regroup. So, what should we talk about? No sugar added? Neutral. Refreshingly simple. When does fast grocery delivery through Instacart matter most? When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard? When

the barbecue's lit but there's nothing to grill? When the in-laws decide that actually they will stay for dinner? Instacart has all your groceries covered this summer so download the app and get delivery in as fast as 60 minutes. Plus enjoy zero dollar delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees exclusions and terms apply. Instacart. Groceries that over-deliver. Ah, now I know why. Because talking about I would never want to tell you like, hey, you must watch this or you're not a sports fan or whatever. That's how I feel about this Knicks

Pacers series. It's been phenomenal. The games have been great. They've been back and forth. There have been giant comebacks. And this series, rightly or wrongly, has taken me back to the mid-90s when it was the Knicks and Pasers and back-to-back years in those non-Michael Jordan seasons where they were just kind of going back and forth trying to get to the finals. Reggie Miller versus Patrick Ewing and John Starks. And so much so, in fact, that the other night before Game 3 of this series, I rewatched the documentary Winning Time, one of the OG 30 for 30s, which is another thing. You talk about shows that were once great and now get kind of stale.

If you go back and re-watch the early 3430s before they just kind of, you know, really this is everything. If you watch the early seasons of something, usually there's a lot more love and time and effort put into it and they're just better. The early 3430s which came out, I want to say starting in 2009. Some of these are just spectacular. Like that was a good one, the 30 for 30 about Reggie Miller and the Knicks and everything. But if you go back and watch the one about Marcus Dupree, it's freaking awesome. You go back and watch the two about the U,

especially the first one about the U by Billy Corbin was amazing. Like some of these documentaries, the one about the U by Billy Corbin was amazing. Like some of these documentaries, the one about how the band for the Baltimore Colts reformed as the Ravens band, that was a great one. Like early on, like they really put in effort. Then as you start mass producing these things, they go from being two hours or an hour and a half to being 54 minutes. And I don't believe that you could tell a good documentary story in 54 minutes. And they just get lazierier and the subject matter gets worse and they're not as good. The early 30s for 30s

are amazing to watch and I feel that way about a lot of things you know like if you go back and watch any kind of like a bar rescue if you watch the earlier bar rescues there's a lot more like you feel like you kind of get to know the people that run these bars more. Now it's just a churn and burn, in, out, in, out, and it's over, and it's like, I haven't watched one in forever because they're just not as fun anymore.

You can just tell that this guy, that Taffer's become very famous, and they're just trying to streamline this shit, and it's just not the same. So when you catch a show early, now, sometimes with a sitcom sitcom early is not always better because a show doesn't necessarily hit its stride in the first season. Like I'm a big Parks and Rec guy. First

season of Parks and Rec was okay. You get to season like three and four of part two, three, four like the middle seasons of Parks and Rec. Fucking phenomenal show like 30 Rocks. Same way. Maybe not phenomenal right out of the gate, but 30 Rock becomes great like as you learn the characters and stuff like that. So, but then you run into a situation like you run into with Modern Family where it's a show that has a lot of kids and as kids get older, their characters aren't as good

anymore, you know, so there's an issue. But anyway, I digress, I get, I meant to talk about the Knicks and the Pacers. Go watch old 30 for 30s. They're great. This series has been phenomenal. It's been entertaining. And I love when you get true differing types of cities, where you get New York and everything about New York and the celebrities of New York and the arrogance of New York and

this overconfidence of New York and the fans there. And then you get Indiana, which is kind of the ultimate NBA Hick town. I enjoy that kind of dynamic and it is taking me back like to that era of when I truly loved basketball. I loved the NBA in the mid 90s. I loved the Jordan era like I've we've talked about this a lot like when I was a kid there weren't 1000 channels yet cable. I mean I didn't live

in the Dust Bowl in the 1920s, but like I think you didn't have a thousand channels yet decent number of channels, but like if there was a baseball game on that was pretty much the one game like you might get the Atlanta Braves game on TBS and you might get the Cubs on WGN and if ESPN game they had a game but it's not like you could watch every game or listen to every game. Dude, when I had to listen to the Cardinals, I had to listen to it in my dad's car to listen to the

Cardinals. That was the only way to pick it up. So, I think it was a different world. So, you just embraced what was on. If the one sporting event that was on TV was the Utah Jazz and the Seattle SuperSonics, well, you watched the Utah Jazz in the Seattle Supersonics and you loved it and you embraced it. You enjoyed it. So that era of Reggie Miller when MJ came back and they played the Pacers on that first game of his return, I remember being glued to the television. I think it was a Saturday or a Sunday. It was a weekend game. It was the NBA on NBC. Jordan's fucking back and it was a huge deal. I

remember watching him take the last shot. It didn't go in but he had a shot to win the game. I mean just fun shit like that. So watching this Pacers and Knicks series does kind of have those vibes and you get like the not good versus evil but you do get a Hatfields and McCoys type of thing like Spike Lee still sitting courtside on the road in this series against Indiana. He's there and Timothy Chalamet is there and Ben Stiller is there and it's just fucking fun like like and the games have been great. The

games have not been great in the other series. You've had three blowouts and one relatively tight contested game. Every one of the games in this next series have had great storylines. They've gone up. They've gone down. Oh teams up 20. They've rallied a big fourth quarter rallies. It's a fun fucking series and the basketball is good and there's contrasting styles contrasting cities. Then last night you get Pat McAfee goes out and hypes up the crowd talking shit about Ben Stiller. Like it's just fucking fun.

And apparently that was a talking point today on WFAN. Let me read this story. As the Indiana Pacers were trying to close out game four against the New York Knicks with a victory to arrive on the precipice of winning the Eastern conference and earning a spot in the NBA finals, a familiar voice was booming through the stands at Gamebridge Field House. Former NFL punter and current talk show host Pat McAfee had the microphone and delivered a live wrestling style promo in front of the crowd calling out various celebrities rooting for the Knicks such as Spike Lee,

Ben Stiller, and Timothee Chalamet. McAfee closed out his speech by shouting, let's send these sons of bitches back to New York with their ears ringing. And the people went nuts. And you knew that like sons of bitches might upset somebody or whatever, but like that's fun shit, man. Like, there's nothing more fun than an us versus them vibe. And you can truly create,

the only way to really do an us versus them vibe is to either be facing New York or to just be the smaller market. You know like you can create the us like Philadelphia, New York. Yes, Philadelphia smaller than New York, but Philadelphia is a major American city right but like Indiana versus New York that is truly a different universe like people view. It's a flyover state Saint Louis versus New York is an is truly a different universe. Like people view it's a flyover state. St. Louis versus New York is an us versus them. Cleveland is an us versus them.

That's what makes this fun. It's like Green Acres versus, you know, before they moved out to fucking Hooterville, you know. On Wednesday's edition of Boomer and Geo, WFAN anchor Jerry Reco played audio of McAfee hyping up the crowd and book ended such by emphasizing how there was a feel of a feel indicative of wrestling within his discourse. Morning Show host Greg Gianotti explained that it is something McAfee is very good at something that is further

sustained substantiated by his role with the company as a commentator on its raw property. Quote, do you think most people really like Pat McAfee and he's got all these celebrities on his show? Do you think he went up to those guys beforehand and is like, listen, I'm going to call you sons of bitches, just understand I'm doing this for my own brand. I like you guys. Gina Notti questioned, does he pertain to McAfe. In fact, he surmised that such statements could perturb other people, resulting in co-host Boomer Asaius in delivering his opinion as it relates to the situation that unfolded late in the game. Quote, it's sports, Asaius said,

you get competitive and you got fans of each team. I didn't have a problem with any of it. I thought it was actually quite funny. I agree. I didn't see it when it happened, but I saw a video of it online. I'm like, that's fun and the people are into it. Like I root for the Memphis Grizzlies, right? When you root for a city like Memphis, it's always us versus them. If you're Oklahoma City, if somehow Oklahoma City were playing the New York Knicks in the finals, that would be an us versus them. You know? Like you can always create that vibe if you really want to. You know, like you can always create that vibe

if you really want to. Like Philadelphia loves to create this vibe that they're the little man and the whole world's against us and no one likes us, we don't care. You're a top 10 city in the country. Indiana is not, Memphis is not, New Orleans is not. You know, cities like that are not,

like that's not, Sacramento is not. Like this is the ultimate because they're great games and it's small town quote unquote small town versus the big city and it's the ultimate small town like even if it were Memphis like Memphis is more of an urban town it's more of a rap town it's more of a basketball town you know what i'm saying? Indiana is white bread USA. It's Hooterville. Like that's what Indiana is viewed as. That's what makes it kind of the ultimate dichotomy and makes it fun and makes it entertaining. Big celebrities versus Hicks. There was a sign

on inside the NBA after the game. There was someone standing behind the set and it just said Hicks versus the Knicks. Like it's fun and now it's a 3-1 series and it's going back to New York and again, I wouldn't tell you, oh, you're not a sports fan if you don't watch this, but it's entertaining shit and I'm enjoying watching it and it helps that the basketball is really fucking entertaining and the Pacers play an up-tempo style of ball where they're hooping and the

Knicks have a different brand of ball. Like it is fun and it's a 3-1 series. It'd be more fun if it were 2-2 and you were guaranteed a game 6. The Knicks have a chance to send it back to Indiana. I want it to go back to Indiana. The vibe in Indiana is fun. People overhype the New York vibe. Like oh you got to come to the garden. Well the Pacers didn't have a problem in the garden. They came back from 20-point deficits in both fucking games. They don't care. Go to Indiana though. Those people are rowdy and