The Josh Innes Show - NFL v. NBA v. MLB

Episode Date: December 27, 2024

One of the hot talking points around sports media is why NBA ratings are low. Well, let's not act like other leagues are somehow thriving. The NFL crushes and everyone else nibbles on scraps. The NFL saw an average of 24 million people watching two blowout games on Netflix. MLB and NBA won't sniff that ever. I take issue with people who say the NBA is more boring than it used to be, yet ignore that MLB is a total snooze relative to what it once was. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Find us at DignityMemorial.ca. The Dignity Memorial brand name is used to identify a network of licensed funeral cremation and cemetery providers owned and operated by affiliates of Service Corporation International. You know, I was talking with a buddy of mine. His name is Michael Martin Murphy Meltzer, but you might know him as Mike Meltzer, who I worked with for really not that long of a period of time when you really think about it at 610. He got there a little bit after I did, I think. So I got there at the end of 09.

I think he got there in the middle of 10, so 2010. And then I left there at the end of 09. I think he got there in the middle of 10. So 2010. And then I left right at the end of 2013. So I mean, we only worked together for like two and a half years. And then we had a big falling out because I shit on him and Seth when I was doing mornings over at 790 trying to win. What do you want me to do? Right. But all that said um Meltzer asked me a question or just made a statement about people talking about NBA ratings and stuff and that for whatever reason that's become a big talking point on television and radio like the NBA ratings what's wrong with the NBA ratings I honestly don't believe there's anything wrong with the actual game itself. Like there's nothing you can do. There's no type of basketball that these leagues can play or the NBA

can play that's going to bring you back to regular season basketball. The games just don't matter and people don't care about regular season sports. Like first off, you can't compare, let's rewind here and start here. You can't compare the ratings of Michael Jordan era NBA or even Magic and Bird era NBA to today because the world's just different. It's the same way you can't compare the World Series ratings of the 80s to the World Series ratings of now. It's just a different universe. People cared more about those sports then. There were fewer options, fewer channels, so people watched more of it then. Like a lot of people who are anti-NBA, one of their stances will be that the NBA was never more popular than it was with Jordan. Sure, but I don't believe that the style of play or the game itself turned anybody

away from the NBA. Now, could there be some other factors that have played into it, like in this political era of the last decade or so that might have turned some people off? Sure. Like that I get, and that is understandable. But when most of the people who engage in these discussions about why the NBA struggles in the regular season and why their ratings are down. And you see these misleading stories about how every other sports league is up setting records and the NBA is low. Again, these are all bullshit things. It's not real. There's no way that major league baseball is setting fucking records. Go back and look. You want to see records. Game seven or game six and game seven of the 1986 World Series. So

Buckner game six and then game seven. All right. Over 50% of the country was watching those games had like a 50 something share, 100 million people watching those games. I guarantee you that the World Series currently is not being watched by 100 million people or being watched by 50% of the country. So anybody who tries to tell you that all these other sports are breaking fucking records, they're full of shit and they're probably just fudging these numbers and moving them around to make it look like it. Now, the NBA is not as popular as the NFL. Nothing is. The NFL continues to do gigantic things because it's the NFL and people love football and people love the NFL. And the regular season, people still get into it. People love football. I guarantee you the NHL isn't breaking records. I don't talk to anybody who's like, you know what I watched last night?

The NHL. The only time I even hear anything about hockey is when I turn on the radio in St. Louis because these poor schmucks have to talk about hockey on the radio in St. Louis. There's two topics here, the Cardinals and the Blues. Can you imagine breaking down the fourth line for a fucking hockey team for two segments on a radio show? I couldn't. Maybe it worked out for the best that my ass two segments on a radio show? I couldn't. Maybe it worked out for the best that my ass wasn't doing sports radio in St. Louis, because I think I would have probably fucking hated it, considering that a large part of it is having to not just talk about hockey, but break down hockey as if anybody other than those who

played it fully know how to break down hockey. But hockey's not more popular than it was at its highest. Baseball's not and the NBA is not. The NFL is arguably growing every year and that's just the way it works. I mean, look at the Netflix thing. Everybody bitches about the fact that the Christmas Day games were streaming only on Netflix and they both averaged over 24 million viewers watching these games. That's an average of 24. That means that there were parts

where it probably peaked at 27, 28. Now, the Texans one was probably impacted greatly by Beyonce where I think it peaked at like 28 million viewers for Beyonce in what I thought was a pretty boring performance because I think Beyonce's country music is fucking dreadful. That's not an anti-Beyonce sentiment. I love Beyonce, even though like her more current stuff is more like hate white guy stuff.

Fine, whatever. But if you go back to like old school Beyonce with the Destiny's Children, a little soldier, a little bootylicious for you, baby, a little love on top. Yeah, you're the one that I love, baby, you're the one I need. Like that's good shit. And I enjoyed it. Okay. So I'm not anti Beyonce. I am anti Beyonce's shitty, terrible, awful country music. You know what it feels like? It feels like when you see Kip at the end of Napoleon Dynamite and he's with La Fonda and because he's with La Fonda, he's wearing like FUBU and has a do-rag and you're like, that's not who Kip really is, but he's with La Fonda and because he's with La Fonda he's wearing like FUBU and has a do-rag and you're like that's not who Kip really is but he's with La Fonda and he's like almost doing a parody

like all the dumb shit that Beyonce did in that performance was just like parodying country music shit like well here's some some convertibles with some long horns on the front here's a bunch of people wearing oversized cowboy hats and chaps like nothing that I saw in that was like oh my god this is great it just felt like she's making fun of country music which is fine country music is worth mocking it's stupid but still like I don't feel like any of this is good yet I feel like we're forced to say that it's good because it's Beyonce and if you're some white dude that's like you know what I just don't like Beyonce's country music it's Beyonce. And if you're some white dude, that's like, you know what? I just don't like Beyonce's country music. It's because you're some set in his ways, old white honky motherfucker that doesn't like, that doesn't get into it. And I'm like, no, I just think it sucks. I think

Post Malone's country shit. And I get it. He's not black. So it's not apples to apples, but I think Post Malone's country shit's pretty good. It all sounds the fucking same. It's like the same song 10 different times with 10 different guest singers. But I dig it. I like Post Malone. But even Post Malone, when he comes out wearing his Wranglers and all this shit, it feels like he's mocking the country music thing, which is fine. I just think his music's better. I don't think that any of those songs that I heard Beyonce doing that halftime show were any good.

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Limited time offer. See terms at picksix.draftkings.com slash promos. So one year when we were at the Super Bowl, I guess it would have been 2013. I guess early 2013, I guess. It would have been the Super Bowl in New Orleans. Because when I was at 6'10", we went to the Super Bowl in Dallas.

Well, Miami, Dallas, Indianapolis, and then New Orleans. Those were the four that I went to at least to Radio Row not to the game but I went to the Radio Row and Beyonce was walking through the Super Bowl and I don't know if she played halftime she might have I don't know if she ever did play halftime but she was there and she was in this like gorgeous red dress and everybody is just swarming Beyonce I've got the picture I've got a picture in my phone of Beyonce I don't think I ever deleted it let me see let me go back to all my photos I've got like 7,000 pictures which is probably light for a lot of people my Beyonce picture still in here where I saw Beyonce actually

it may not be that's a shame but I saw uh but I saw Beyonce? Actually, it may not be. That's a shame. But I saw Beyonce and she's walking through and all these people are trying to get a quote from Beyonce or whatever. And I just go, Beyonce, Houston loves you. And she just looks over at me and waved. Actually, oh, there it is. I got the picture. I don't know when this is from, but it had to. Okay see the thing so it was at it was at the super bowl in new orleans and she's looking right at me just looking god damn hot as shit like classic old school beyonce before like like lemonade beyonce which again just not my shit it's not for me and that's okay when. When Beyonce decided, Hey, we're going to make shit like lemonade. Beyonce decided that she's not making music for white dudes to like anymore.

And that's totally fine. I'm down with that. I'm not judging. I'm totally in, but that's it. If you go back to like old school, early to mid two thousands 2000s Beyonce the four album is the tits you got like love on top and countdown there's good what was the ballad that was on four was it best that I never had god damn it now you got me looking up the goddamn four album from Beyonce let me see four album there was a there was a good slow jam on there. It was best thing I never had. Oh, and who run the world? Girls.

I mean, there were some jams on that fucking album. And the video for Love on Top was like parodying or like doing a remake of the If It Isn't Love new edition album video. I mean, fuck. Like Beyonce was the shit. I was obsessed with Beyonce Foxy Cleopatra and I'm a whole lot of woman so when I saw her walking through there and didn't have a huge crowd around her now that I look at this picture like she's got some bodyguards and shit see like the radio road for the Super Bowl used to be like the fucking wild wild west man like now and I haven't been since 20 I guess 28 19 2018 so i haven't been like six seven

years but it used to be they would just have celebrities everywhere and you'd have to walk up to their handlers and be like hey can we get on your list i'm in houston you know like now everything's kind of pre-set up and it's not nearly as kind of the wild wild west as it was so you just have to go up to people and try to get them on your station and that's kind of the way it went this is fucking beyonce walking through here and she's staring fucking dead at me when I took the picture and I said Houston be a hey Beyonce Houston loves you be and she smiled at me because back then she could smile at white people and it was cool now you know I probably wouldn't get that smile but 11 years ago I did 12 years ago I did but yeah all that to say that I'm not anti-Beyonce I'm fine with Beyonce I'm a fan of Beyonce

I just think the country shit is fucking terrible like there's like a song about her like Levi's jeans I think it's in a commercial for Levi's jeans it's like she just wrote a song for the sake of being able to use it in a Levi's jeans commercial like I don't know if you like it more power to you I think it fucking sucks but 27 million people are so tuned in for the halftime show of that so to see Beyonce for 13 minutes and then you got like Cal and Hannah McNair like everything about it felt weird I wanted there to be a camera that stayed right on Cal and Hannah McNair for that whole fucking performance. You see them briefly in the back of this convertible with like the steers on the front. Like I wanted to just see the look on this motherfucker's face as he's in the midst of this Beyonce performance.

That's what I wanted to see. But all that to tell you this. The NFL has no problems. The NFL does well. The regular season gets a ton of viewers. People are into it. But the big radio conjecture and debates that I keep seeing are, well, what is wrong with the NBA? Why are the ratings down?

The people who perpetuate the story and talk about the ratings being down, if we are being fair, it is driven mostly by conservative right-wing media type people like Clay Travis. And they do it because it helps hammer home a point. It helps create the division of black versus white. That's why they do it. If you don't like the NBA, I'm not telling you that it's the most watchable thing ever. I like it because I like the Memphis Grizzlies and they scored 155 points last night and I like John Morant. But the reason why these things become a talking point, much like the Caitlin Clark v. Angel Reese thing became a talking point, is because it's driven by white media people, white media people who are on the right wing side of things. And they continue to hammer these

points about it because it's engagement farming for them. And it's become a world where like, if you like the NBA, then you must be like some blue haired liberal cuck. Like that's the division that has been created. Like, look, I agree that a lot of people that like the NBA, there's a lot of fucking nerdy skinny jeans wearing dudes that love the advanced analytics and have posters of Daryl Morey on their wall. But I am a white dude, conservative leaning probably, but again, more so center, very center, slightly right and shit. And I enjoy watching the NBA. Do I like all of the guys? No, but I don't like all the football players, and I don't like all the baseball players either.

I'm center and slightly right, and I don't give two fucks about watching a second of baseball during the baseball regular season. I just love the idea that anybody... I'm fascinated by people who think baseball is somehow more interesting than it used to be. People love to talk about basketball, about how basketball used to be better

when it was 90 to 87 in every game and dudes used to hand check and they would foul and it was aggressive and people would push each other down shit. They love to do that. There's actually no actual component of the game that was more exciting back then than it is now. You could say the physicality, fine,

but the game itself is more up-tempo. It's fast-paced. There's more energy in the game. There's more high-flying. There's more scoring. These are all things that in theory should lend to more eyeballs. In theory, things are more exciting in basketball than they were 25 years ago. However, if you look at baseball, there is not one discernible metric that I see that would tell me that a baseball game is now more exciting than it was during Maguire Sosa or more exciting than it was in the 80s. In fact, baseball games have gotten less interesting.

Regular season games particularly have gotten less interesting. They are boring. They are slow. There is no action. There is no bunting. There is no hit and run. It is just, there's no stolen bases. It is just home runs and fucking strikeouts. So if your argument against the NBA, and I'm not sitting here trying to defend the NBA. I watch the Grizzlies, but I don't watch a ton of NBA basketball outside of that, right?

I'm not trying to fight for the NBA and tell you that I'm standing on top of the mountain and planting my flag and running it up the flagpole and saluting it about the NBA. Don't give a fuck from that standpoint. But you can't tell me that the style of play is the reason why. And that's something I've been seeing. Every team plays the same type of basketball and they all shoot threes. That ain't stopping you from fucking watching. If you don't like the NBA, it might be just that the game bores you and the regular season games are meaningless.

That I would get. I bet you there's some people who don't watch it because Clay Travis tells them not to fucking watch it and they feel to be a good right-wing white dude. They shouldn't watch the NBA. Maybe so. But baseball, if you go back to the 80s, compare baseball now to baseball in the 80s,

it is night and fucking day. Go watch any Whitey Herzog, Whitey Ball movie about the 80s Cardinals and tell me that's not a more fun brand of baseball. Or tell me that this brand of fucking baseball you see now is more exciting when dudes are getting $100 million contracts by that in 2020. You can't give me that bullshit because it's bullshit. Baseball is more boring and worse now than it was in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. They've eliminated base hits essentially. Base hits don't matter. Batting

average doesn't matter. Strikeout walk, homer. Everything else has been eliminated from the fucking game and it's boring. So I'm not fighting with you here today to tell you that the NBA is some great thing and you should all be watching. What I am telling you is if you're someone who thinks the NBA is somehow boring now, but baseball is thriving, fuck off because it's not. I used to be a diehard baseball fan and I can't get myself to watch five minutes of a regular season baseball game because it fucking sucks. Go watch. There's a documentary about the 1980s whitey ball cardinals watch that baseball being

played and tell me that that's not exciting it's unreal go to youtube and watch any uh they've got the the 1985 cardinals highlight tape that's called a heck of a year 1987 highlight tape is called that's a winner watch those two videos and watch all the exciting type of baseball that was being played in 1985 and 1987 and tell me that the game is better today than it was then. Go look around baseball and look at the dudes who were playing baseball compared to the dudes now. You want to be real? You had a lot more black dudes playing baseball back then. You had a lot of your better athletes playing baseball back then, and that brought more black eyeballs to the screen, more black fans watching the game because they had dudes to root for. It's the same way that Tiger drew black dudes to watching golf.

It's just the way it works, man. Go look at the Cardinals. You want to see the Cardinals starting lineup in like 1985, 1987? Ozzie Smith, Terry Pendleton, Willie McGee. Let's see. Then that's just three, the heart of their lineup right there. Three dudes, three American-born black dudes playing baseball. Lonnie Smith was on the 85 Cardinals in the outfield then you look at the Mets and you had Doc Gooden and you had Daryl Strawberry and you had fucking Mookie Wilson like every team half the damn starting lineup was American born black dudes you don't get that anymore not I'm not saying that it's bad that you have Hispanic and white dudes but what i'm saying is it felt like a more um just a more diverse game and it brought in and brought the attention of other people and the style of baseball played that out it was fun fast up tempo a lot of cocaine

in the 80s so that it was just fun and energy and stolen fucking bases and tim raines and harold baines and fucking hawk andre dawson and just fucking studs des and Harold Baines and fucking Hawk Andre Dawson and just fucking studs Dave fucking Winfield Barry fucking Bonds now what do you get some big hulking dipshit comes up there bats 221 but he hits 35 homers so he makes a million dollars 100 million dollars it's fucking stupid that's why baseball doesn't interest me anymore. And basketball and a lot of people that hate basketball use all these dumb reasons for why they hate fucking basketball. I'm not telling you to watch it, but what I am saying is I believe that the changes that have happened in basketball over the last 20 or so years have made the game more up-tempo and more exciting. Things that have

happened to baseball over the last 25, 30 years have made it worse and slow and boring and I don't enjoy it. That is all. Thank you.