The Josh Innes Show - Lady Sports v. Mens Sports

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

It appears we will not have a Battle Of The Sexes type event at this years NBA All-Star game. Does anyone actually care? I'd love to see the All Stars of the NBA take on the best of the WNBA in an actual basketball game....5 on 5...full court.... What would the WNBA team's total over/under be? Why is it so hard for some to accept that there is no issue with mens and women's sports being separate? Why do we always have to find some women player and say "Oh, she could play with the boys"? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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So, hello. Good to have you guys along. Let me see here. What's been going on in the world? I'm just going to go to ESPN.com right now and see what stories pop up. Let's see. ESPN.com. NBA drops Steph Curry, Sabrina Ionesonescu three-point showdown.

Oh, no! How will all of us ever live if we don't get to see a contrived battle of the sexes between men and women shooting basketballs? There will be no Steph Curry-Sabrina Ionescu rematch at All-Star Weekend. The NBA announced Thursday that the three-point shooting event, one of the highlights of last year's All-Star Weekend. The NBA announced Thursday that the three-point shooting event, one of the highlights of last year's All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis that brought together two of the biggest stars in the NBA and WNBA, is not going to be part of the lineup in San Francisco. So the NFL decided that racism's over, so they're not ending racism anymore,

and now we've decided that men and women shouldn't shoot basketballs together in the NBA All-Star game. What is wrong with the world? Talks went on for weeks to try to make it happen, even stretching into All-Star Week itself. It seemed more than logical that a rematch would occur. All-Star Weekend is on Steph Curry's home floor, and Ionescu, who plays for the WNBA champion New York Liberty, how many of you knew that, is a Bay Area native who grew up watching Curry and the Warriors. We weren't able to land on a plan we thought would raise the bar off last year's special moment, said Mike Bass of the NBA.

We all agree not to proceed and will instead keep the focus on All-Star Sunday's new format. Curry said he wanted the rematch to occur, and there were talks in making a two-on-two format this year involving Klay Thompson, Curry's former Warriors teammate and WNBA Rookie of the Year Caitlin Clark. But Clark's representative said last month that she wanted her first three-point contest to come at the WNBA All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis and would not participate in a special challenge. Like, my God. Like, guys, who gives a fuck?

I look forward to getting into a world where we don't have to pretend that anybody gives a shit about not just the WNBA, which nobody cares about, or the NBA for that matter. I watch the NBA because I bet on it and I like the Memphis Grizzlies and I have the NBA League Pass mostly because I bet and like the Memphis Grizzlies. So you watch these games sometimes and whatever. But let me ask you a question how difficult would it be to make things work out like let's start here so the idea is that this three-point contest isn't happening because they couldn't find a way to build off of last year's amazing event so what they're doing is saying okay we can't make it how can we make it better all right we can't

find a way to make it better then we find out that they just couldn't make the things line up. Talks went on for weeks to try to make it happen, even stretching into All-Star Weekend itself. It seemed more than logical, but look, they couldn't make it happen. They couldn't bring things together. Things could not be lined up. I don't know how busy Sabrina Ionescu is being the star of the WNBA, but I feel like she could probably find time, if they really want to put some eyeballs on their product to find a way to, like, that's the

thing that amazes me about lesser products, right? Like you can sit there and tell me that, okay, the WNBA is growing and women's basketball is growing. That's fine. And that's true. But people try to like spin things into like, boy, it's an explosion for the WNBA and everybody loves it. It might be more popular than the NBA and all the other men's sports. It's not. That's bogus. That's bullshit.

We all know it. But like what I love is these like the people that run the WNBA and the people that make decisions in the WNBA are truly the dumbest people on the planet. They are just stupid people. Like whenever they bitched about the fact that Caitlin Clark was on the cover of Time Magazine or whatever, and all the people bitched that the whole league wasn't on the cover of Time Magazine. Like why is the whole WNBA not the sports person of the year? I don't know. Because somebody would give a fuck about your shit if not for Caitlin Clark and the race war she was having with the fans of Angel Reese.

That's why. You want to know why the whole league's not on the cover of Time Magazine? Because nobody knows who fucking Sabrina Inescu is, and nobody cares. Nobody cares about that the New York Liberty won the WNBA title. No one gives a shit about the San Antonio Brahma's or whoever the fuck is the WNBA team. Nobody cares. It's bigger than it used to be but that's great it's like if you're five foot four and you grow an inch and you're like hey I'm five foot five now you're like yeah but like the average is 5'10 you're still a short

motherfucker like how difficult is this so like if I'm the WNBA and I'm like well how do I promote my product and do something that will make us look good? And you can't look bad, right? Because if a woman goes out there and beats a dude in a sport, like, oh, wow, ladies can do stuff now. And if a woman loses, it's, oh, look, the guy beat her anyway. It was supposed to be. There is no losing. What is the negative?

Like, these people that run the WNBA step on their own labia so fucking much. It's baffling. I'm just baffled by the decisions that these people make yeah we couldn't really make the schedules work out oh i'm sorry that the fucking star of the women's national basketball association is too busy to go to all-star weekend and shoot some fucking basketballs against steph curry let's play some goddamn commercials and we will continue i'm all riled up all right right. If you're ready to win some real cash during the basketball playoffs, you got to check out pick six from draft Kings.

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play a real game against each other. You want to get eyeballs? You want to get some fucking eyeballs on the TV? Five best WNBA players, five best NBA all-stars, let them play. You'll never let it happen. Why won't you let it happen? Because if the dudes actually played, they would beat the shit out of these women and it would ruin the whole movement. Can we just start being honest about shit? I really hate that the world is a

place where we just can't be honest about shit. Just be truthful. Stop spinning bullshit. Like, yes, ladies can do stuff. In the realm of lady basketball, ladies can do stuff in the realm of lady basketball ladies can do shit and in softball ladies can do shit and like there's nothing wrong with that but there was a commercial that aired for like flag football or something during the super bowl and it was like basically ladies can be good at football too like go line up them go do it and not against ladies and not a bra and panties league or a flag football league like what like at some point i'm a big believer and we need to just let people figure their own shit out and learn it the hard way right my dad was always kind of like that like i'd bitch about being able to stay at home alone when i was a kid like no i don't want to go i can stay at home alone and then my dad would leave my ass at home for like 10 minutes and i'd be scared shitless and they'd

pull back around and say see you putts do you really want to be at home alone? Well, that's what we should do more of. We should let people learn the hard way. So like when you get all these idiots that virtue signal on social media or the idiots that actually believe shit that like, Hey, a lady can play in the WN or a lady can play in the NBA. Okay. Letter, put your best player in the NBA. But like, you have to like, let the NBA guys know that if they let up and they don't go as hard as they can go, they're docked pay. And then let's just see what the fuck happens. What's wrong with that? I think sometimes you need to learn the hard way to get real.

But instead, we have to pacify people. And what do we do when we pacify these people? Well, what we decide to do is we kind of let them on into this whole little belief like oh yeah i tell you if the that team could probably compete with the men's team it can't science tells me that again we're in a world where the party of science tells you that like like believe the science believe the science but these motherfuckers don't want to believe that a five foot four woman would would get yammed on by an eight foot tall basketball playing man but they can't believe that because science science no start believing the science and shut the fuck up about this shit no one cares about your little

battle of the sexes so stop trying to spin it there's nothing wrong with telling the truth sometimes you just have to be honest sometimes you just have to be able to step up and say you know what women are not going to be able to be competitive with men in basketball or whatever but we can't do that because we have to live in this weird world where we pander to people and are not going to be able to be competitive with men in basketball or whatever. But we can't do that. Because we have to live in this weird world where we pander to people and we say, look, you can do anything you want. Oh, she plays with the boys.

Yeah, and I guarantee you if those boys played their asses off, they may not score. Let me ask you a question. If you're in the post and you've got like Zack Eadie, who's maybe not the best example, Jaron Jackson Jr. Jaron Jackson Jr. is like 6'10", or however tall he is, right? He's a power forward for the Grizzlies, a stretch power forward, great shot blocker, right? This dude could, oh, let me use a name that people know, Wimby. Let's go with Victor Wimbinyama. You may not watch San Antonio, but you know with Victor Wimbanyama. You may not watch San Antonio,

but you know who Victor Wimbanyama is because he's like eight foot tall and he's like French, and you know who Victor Wimbanyama is. So if you take the best center, like let's just take the most popular forward in the WNBA, Angel Reese. She's got a McDonald's treat. She's Angel Reese. She's famous. You know, people are watching the WNBA because of me too. And I just want you guys to know that. Okay. Angel Reese, the one that was at the epicenter of the ridiculous race war that happened a couple of years ago in the national championship. When people really learned about Caitlin Clark, because all the white people wrote in on their white clay, Travis horses. And we're like, Oh my God, that girl is a thug. And then

and like, you know what I'm talking about? So let's say Angel Reese, who cannot jump over a sheet of fucking paper. Let's say that Angel Reese was in the paint trying to back down Victor Wimbanyama. What the fuck do you think would happen? Would any of her shots even hit the rim? And the answer is no. And by the way, by the way, everybody wants to tell you that everything is equal, right? Every sport is equal. Like men and women, they're equal. Then why is it that women shoot a smaller basketball? Again, I'm not judging them.

Women's basketball is fine. I find myself watching more of it than I used to. I like Kim Mulkey, so I watch a little LSU on occasion. Fine. But please stop feeding me this bullshit and this fairy tale world where it's like well we need like men versus women on the court to really see it what does it really prove absolutely nothing play a real game and see what happens that would be my suggestion and then when a when the guys go out there and now if there was like a special way that you can inject these men with the

inability to be like bogus for like an hour, right? They're like, listen, we're going to inject you guys with this, this like serum. And this serum means that you cannot like, once this is injected for one solid basketball game for like an hour, you cannot use your emotions or anything you've been taught over the course of your life that tells you that women are weaker than men and you shouldn't bully women, whatever. You have to treat these women on the court like you are playing, like if you're LeBron, how are you playing against like Steph Curry? How are you playing against Anthony Davis? How would you play against them? And then you take the injection and then you go and then we see what the fuck happens. And what the fuck would happen is the women would not score they're over under

like if you look at gambling sites and they look at team over unders right like a team total and the team total is like all right the like last night I bet on the Grizzlies and got hosed they lost by two points in the over under but I took them over 115 and a half so like a team total you watch a football game hey the Eagles team total this week is 23 and a half points. You're taking the over the under. If it was in a world where women could not like the men against the women, the men could not go easy. The men could not let off of them. They just had to play like it was game seven of the NBA finals against another team, the Celtics versus the Lakers game seven. They had to play like it was life and death, and they could not let up. The over-under for points for a woman's team would be over.5.

The question would be, would they score a basket? That would be my prediction. I actually want to talk to a real person that makes lines. That's what I want to know. If you took the five best women's players, none of whom are going to be taller than like six foot five, where every dude in the NBA is basically at least six foot five. And you took men who are just physically more gifted athletically. That's not an insult.

That is science. Trust the science. It's the fucking science. The science is that men are more physically gifted than women. That's why it's a controversial thing to have men putting on wigs and playing in women's sports. Why? Because men are more physical beings. They are physical specimen. They are genetically science. It's science. Trust the fucking biology. Men are better athletes. So if you had to do that, it was five on five. Do you believe that a woman's team now,

actually, I'll take that back because the refs watching the game here's here's what might do it it might be so aggressive on the side of a men's team that there may be fouls and women could shoot free throws so maybe you'd have to change it it couldn't be 0.5 that's not fair not fair at all but what it would look like is when women used to play against like Pat Summitt's teams like in the 80s when like only four schools had women's basketball so you'd line up and it's like here's tennessee versus like our lady of peace and then they'd go out there and they'd beat them like 150 to 2 like that's what it would be like like when you had the like back in the day when

there were certain schools that focused on women's basketball and most didn't, that's what you'd be dealing with here. So maybe 0.5 isn't fair. Now, if you took out free throws, like if you just said you can foul them and there would be no free throws, they would never score. It would not happen. And I'm not saying this to bash on women. I'm just kind of at all like I'm good for women's basketball. People are watching it more than they used to. And we're kind of like in this boom of women's sports. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with saying like, hey, women's basketball is more popular than it's ever been. It is.

But that's not to say that it's super popular. It had a moment because of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese having a race war and it's starting to taper off and it's not really at the top of the zeitgeist anymore. It was for a little bit. It was a big talking point every damn day about Angel Reese because as the media does, they found a racial angle. The fans found a racial angle and they rode with it. And there's nothing wrong with that.

They did it. And that's how they cashed in on this for a little bit. But if we're being realistic, the tide has kind of turned and people don't really give a shit anymore. It had its moment. It's faded. Fine. But if we're just like, it's just funny how this works.

Like, that's always the angle is I can play with the boys. You couldn't. Bless your heart. You can't. If the boys are playing hard, you'll get fucking trampled. And that's just the way it works. And there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with, hey, here's women.

They have their league. Men have their league. There's nothing wrong with here's Major League Baseball. Here's softball. There's nothing wrong with here's women's this versus men's this. There's nothing wrong with here's Major League Baseball, here's softball. There's nothing wrong with here's women's this versus men's this. There's nothing wrong with that. But we live in this world where it has to be like women could do that. I think this woman could actually break through and play in the NBA.

She can't. You know who can't play in the NBA? Kaitlyn fucking Clark. Kaitlyn Clark would get trampled in the NBA. You want to know why real talk? You want to know why Kaitlyn Clark doesn't want to have a three-point contest at the NBA All-Star Game against Steph Curry? Because she may lose. And if she loses to a dude, it ruins the whole fucking illusion. Again, this shit isn't hard. It's not difficult. It's common fucking sense. What benefit does she have on a personal

level? Now, there's nothing wrong with like a Sabrina Ionescu or somebody having a three-point contest against a Steph Curry or whatever, because at least it brings eyeballs to the WNBA. But the biggest name in the WNBA, the one that people say, oh, she could play against the men, she's Caitlin Clark, she's the biggest star in the game, bliggity blue. If that's the case, what benefit does she have having a three-point contest at an NBA All-Star game when she could just do a three-point contest at a WNBA All-Star game that nobody cares about? Who's going to tune in to see the Women's Skills Challenge? Nobody. So she could just sit there and have a three-point contest against some other lady puds in the WNBA

and no one's going to give a shit. But if a woman goes out and loses to a guy in that situation, if you're the biggest star in this, which she is, when the whole world blows her all the time, and she's, oh, she's the greatest ever. Well, the downside is you could lose. And if you're the biggest star in this, which she is, when the whole world blows her all the time, and she's, oh, she's the greatest ever. Well, the downside is you could lose. And if you lose, it ruins the whole illusion. And it ruins the culture. So there. That's how we start things today.

Again, ladies can do stuff. I have nothing against lady basketball. Have lady basketball. But once you start digging shit into, like, the comparing the two, and could this team do this, and is it more popular than the men? No, it's not. That said, I would argue that women's college basketball is more popular than men's college basketball on a night-in, night-out basis.

Now, when the tournament comes around, then I think the men's tournament's more popular. But just on a night-in, night-out basis, if you're like, hey, here's LSU versus South Carolina Lady Basketball, people know that those are two really good teams. No one has any fucking clue what's happening in men's college basketball. I could not name one player. Actually, I take that back. There's one gentleman that I can name that plays basketball, and he plays at Duke,

and his name is Cooper something or another. Cooper Flag, I think is his name. Outside of that, couldn't tell you a damn thing about college basketball, and I know who the coaches of U of H. I know who some of the coaches are. I know Kelvin Sampson. I know the really fucking annoying guy, UConn, who's a putz. Like, I know these guys. Couldn't tell you any of the fucking players. But there you go. Don't know how we got down that wormhole, but that's the best part about this podcast is we just don't know how we get there.