The Josh Innes Show - Which Sports Need Superstars To Thrive?

Episode Date: May 16, 2025

I was watching the Denver/OKC game last night. It's crazy to think that the NBA Conference Finals will more than likely feature teams from Oklahoma City, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, New York...is this good for the league? Do other leagues need superstars to succeed? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Yeah, after Joker and the boys got a dub last night over the Thunder who for whatever reason I just really hate. I don't know why I hate the Thunder who for whatever reason I just really hate. I don't know why I hate the Thunder so much but I do. Maybe it's because I root for the Memphis Grizzlies and the Thunder bounce that. I don't know what I just don't like them. I find them annoying and I would like to see Denver get the dub in game seven. I don't think it's going to happen but I would I would enjoy it thoroughly. Good NBA playoffs as we talked about, and it's mostly because there isn't a super duper megastar that's in there or a mega team. Now I don't know if that has sustainability. I think at some point you have to get to a world where

there is a super duper megastar, and I truly don't think that that person is in the pipeline. I don't, basically you've had Jordan and you've had Kobe and you've had LeBron in the last like 30 something years, right? I don't believe you could do another guys that were huge stars like Shaxx and you know, they're obviously huge stars, but really like mega stars change the game world revolves around them in the NBA Kobe Michael LeBron there isn't another one of those in the sport right now. There are a bunch of really good players. Shay Gildes Alexander is a really good player, although he

is a foul hunter like James Harden. He's James Harden-esque in that way, and he's not getting as many of the calls in the postseason as he did in the regular season, a thing that James Harden experienced in his career. But if you start looking around professional sports, let's stick with basketball, let's do this. First let's play a couple commercials here. Then let's get into this because some sports don't need a megastar and some do. Let's talk about that. We will do that right after these words. Really more so than any other sport, basketball is dependent upon a megastar that the world revolves around or like two or whatever. Like going back to the 80s, the

NBA revolved around Bird, Magic, Laker, Celtics and then other teams would pop in there and Detroit would steal a couple and all that. And there were great players everywhere but it revolved around Magic and Bird and they played in the finals a bunch and I think between them in the 80s won like how many of the championships? Seven, I think seven total championships, six or seven between them in the 80s. So maybe more. I mean you had the the couple from Detroit. It had a Rockets one in there. So I mean you've had some stuff but big picture.

It's like it was revolving around those then you got to the 90s and it all revolved around Michael and there were other good teams. There were other great players like Reggie Miller was a great player and the Spurs had some teams that were pretty good in the late 90s and the Lakers bounce back in the late 90s and Shaq and Orlando had their moment and the Knicks were decent. So you had them but it all revolved around Michael. You had to

have a superstar that completely altered the game, changed the game and changed the world. Michael fades out and then Kobe for 99, 2000, 2001, 2002, it's Kobe. Kobe is the face of basketball. He and Shaq and the Lakers are dominating the world and boom there you have it. They are transcendent, bigger than life, everyone knows them. Although, Kobe's era kind of coincided with a downswing for the NBA. There was a lockout mixed in there. The Michael Jordan, the post Michael Jordan funk happened there. There was a rap culture that a lot of white folks, I guess, didn't like that kind of came in in the late 90s, early 2000s. So that era of the NBA wasn't as beloved as the Michael era, obviously wasn't as beloved as the Celtics Lakers Bird Magic era, but it was fine. Then LeBron

comes in in 2003 and it's been LeBron's league for 20 something years. That's not debatable. LeBron is the biggest star. He was sold as the biggest star. He was sold as the biggest star. He was sold as the dude and there he is. Other sports don't need that. The NBA does. Now it would be intriguing if somehow you could run a world where it's kind of wide open every year, which most sports are not like that, right? Like even ones like the NFL that are

perceived to be kind of wide open sports, they're not really wide open sports because at the end of the day, one team's got Mahomes, one team's got Josh Allen, one team's got whomever, and they kind of dominate the sport, but a lot of teams feel like their team has a chance to maybe do something and be competitive, right? What if we're entering a world where there are just a bunch of teams in the NBA that are solid teams that have solid players and there aren't big threes around the league? What would that mean for basketball? What would that mean for the sport overall? And I'm intrigued by

the idea of that because everybody says we need big threes suck and I want competitiveness. People have been speaking glowingly about this year's postseason, right? People have been saying awesome things. People say they love it. People say it's fun. People say I'm kind of interested in basketball again. Is that something that can carry over moving forward? You're about to lose the NBA on TNT. You're about to regain the NBA on NBC, and they are tapping hard into nostalgia. They're tapping hard into round ball rock John Tesh. They're using AI to recreate the announcer for the NBA on NBC. They're using Michael Jordan for stuff. They are tapping hard into

nostalgia and it's in an era where LeBron still plays and LeBron's the biggest name in the world, but LeBron ain't the best player in the game anymore. So what do you do if you're the NBA? Is it better for the NBA that Minnesota's got Julius Randall and Ant, and they're a pretty solid team that's now in the conference finals for back-to-back years? To me, Ant is my favorite of the current stars because he's just kind of a fun-loving, like look, guy's got his flaws.

I mean, he's already paid off some woman he had a kid with and he's paid her off like for the 18 years of the kid's life already. So I'm not saying the guy doesn't do dumb shit but I also find him charming. He's got a dog that he calls Aunt Junior. Like I just I think he's charming and fun and he plays a style of basketball that I think old school basketball fans like which is volume shooter. If he sucks he's going to keep fucking shooting Kobe style, Michael style and that's what he's going to do. So I think he is the fun guy to watch in the

league. However, you could go to Oklahoma City and on a given night, they can score 130 points and Shay Gildes, Alexander's probably going to win the MVP. You can go to Denver and see a different style of play, but you can see Jamal Murray mixed with Yokocho's won three MVPs. You can go to Memphis and you can see John Morant when he's clicking and on. He's a fucking blast to watch. You can go up to Cleveland. They just got eliminated, but they were the best team in the East this year.

I didn't think they ever had a chance to win the whole thing and they obviously didn't, but they were there and the Knicks have Brunson who's the best closer in the game. Is it better that there isn't a guy that the world revolves around? I don't know. We'll see. Coming up, down the next couple of years, you're going to have to see if this kind of wide open, anybody can win it type of world is something that the NBA benefits from or if they hurt from not having that guy that the whole world revolves around. Like right now, the WNBA

has someone the whole world revolves around and that's Caitlin Clark and all the bitter old women in that league hate her because she's the one getting all the attention and that league's never going to thrive because of that but then you look around other sports and you're like, okay, do the other sports need big stars like like people say baseball needs a big star like I don't know that there's a big star like Bryce Harper's a pretty big **** star and baseball just sort of

is what it is right? Like I don't think baseball like Albert Pujols is the best right-handed hitter I've ever watched in person play baseball. I can't speak on behalf of dudes like Willie Mays or Babe Ruth or other guys that played before I was alive, but I can tell you that in my time of watching sports Albert Pujols in his prime first 10 years in Saint Louis is the best hitter I have ever seen in person with my own eyes. Albert Pujols didn't save, you know, make baseball like a

must-watch thing for people. Like the last person that's existed in that way. Actually, there have been a couple. You can go Barry Bonds was in that mode when Barry Bonds was breaking the McGuire Sosa thing, but even the Barry Bonds thing wasn't as exciting as the McGuire Sosa thing because McGuire Sosa was new and it was a competition and it was fun. Barry Bonds came after that and I think that wave had already kind of crashed. I think people were kind of over that. It was

still fun and you'd watch him at the plate and every time he came to the plate you would be like, oh God, I want to see what Barry Bonds does, but McGuire and Sosa and before that Ken Griffey jr. Those were dudes that were transcendent and really McGuire and Sosa were not transcendent players they had a transcendent moment and that's what kind of elevated baseball for a while. The last time baseball truly had a guy that broke the culture and became part of the big time zeitgeist and was like that dude to me would have been Griffey. Maybe the world's just different and you can't have those guys anymore. Look at all the guys I've listed. You go

back to Griffey who was at his zenith in the early to mid 90s. You go to LeBron who came into the league in 03, Kobe who came into the league in 96, Michael who dominated the 90s, Burden Magic who dominated in the 80s. Maybe we're just in an era where nobody can dominate a sport because sports aren't there to be dominated anymore. Like you can talk about, I mean, you can talk about Otani, but like I still don't know that people stop what they're doing to be concerned about what Otani does.

Now if Otani, if he were the basketball equivalent of Otani, that might be a bigger deal. But at the end of the day, baseball is still baseball. If you love baseball, you love it. If you're kind of bored by it, you're kind of bored by it. And that's just kind of how it goes. So even Otani isn't like a guy like, oh my God, I got to stop to see. And he's fucking phenomenal.

So if Otani isn't the one doing it, then who will? Now there's an argument that you need an American born player to be that guy. Maybe you need a black guy to be that. If you look at some of the guys that have been the biggest stars in sports that have crossed over and have crossed demographics, who made golf hot? Tiger Woods, black guy. Who was the last real big individual that you'd look at in baseball and go, holy shit, this guy changed the game and made it cross-generational and cross-racial about it. King Griffey Jr. You know, I mean, maybe

that's just the way it is. I don't know. You go to the WNBA, they hate their generational star over there because they're all jealous. So maybe it just doesn't exist anymore. We talk about this a lot. We're in an era where people have so much they can do and other things going on in their lives and sports just aren't that big of a deal on a night in night out basis, particularly when they are sports where one game does not make or break you. Football is a different story. That's why the schedule release for the NFL is probably bigger than

game six of a playoff series in the NBA to most of the country. Like I don't know what the ratings were for a schedule reveal on NFL Network, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say like they were pretty fucking big because that's what the world cares about. But even looking at the NFL, the NFL has giant stars, but the NFL loses Tom Brady in the last handful of years. They've lost Peyton Manning in the last decade. They've lost a Drew Brees in the last five years. Doesn't fucking matter. Train roll on. Oh, we find a new one. Josh Allen's a new one. We find a new one. C.J. Stroud is a new one. We find a new one. Oh, look, there's Pat Mahomes, who's been huge for the last seven, eight years. Like, the NFL is star- proof. That's what makes it so successful. Like obviously there are big stars in the NFL. But

the stars and their name alone are not what make people interested in that sport. But when you look at basketball, basketball almost feels like it needs that. Basketball needs somebody that's the face of the league. And right now, who would that be? Like who's the I mean, LeBron is still obviously the dude. But what happens when there's no more LeBron? What happens when Steph Curry isn't playing anymore and he didn't play in this last playoff series for the most part because he

was hurt. Like is Anthony Edwards like I guarantee you people listening to this podcast knowing the audience of this podcast. Many of you probably don't give a shit about Anthony Edwards. And that's fine. I'm not asking you to. I just find this discussion to be interesting. Like if you heard, hey, Anthony Edwards is playing tonight. Do you have to watch? And even me who likes the NBA, like I don't have to watch a game because Anthony Edwards is playing. You know, this isn't holy shit MJ's on TV tonight or holy look, Kobe Kobe's on. If I walked by Anthony Edwards today and maybe it's because I'm an older dude, I'm older, I'm 38 years old now,

but if I walk by Anthony Edwards I'd be like, hey cool, it's Anthony Edwards. When I was in Houston and I was in a Rockets game, had a media credential, I'm down in the tunnel, Kobe Bryant is walking from the locker room to the court and he's got security around him and it's like you feel like, holy shit, Kobe Bryant is here. Now, maybe part of that is because those are people who were stars when you were younger, more impressionable and could be swayed like and like the world was different. Kobe came into the league when I was like 10

or 11 years old. That's a different world. Anthony Edwards comes into the league when I'm like 10 or 11 years old. That's a different world. Anthony Edwards comes into the league when I'm 35 years old, 34 years old. That's a different thing. You feel different. Like I dapped up LeBron on the court once randomly. I don't know how I did it, but I'm on the court during shoot around. Barry Warner is standing in one place talking to Chris Paul as if Chris Ball knows who Barry Warner is. We walk onto the court during warmups and Barry Warner walks onto the court and starts talking with Chris Paul. There is no fucking way Chris Paul knows who Barry Warner is.

Zero. Yet Barry's talking to him like they're best friends and whatever. I walk up, and I might be, I think I'm conflating two different things because obviously this couldn't be the case, but one time I did that and I'm standing there with Barry and he's just talking to Chris Paul dapping him up. One time I'm walking on the court, LeBron is in the warm-up line and I just walk up to him and say, Hey, what's up, King? Dapped him up. Like LeBron, he and I are basically the same age, but LeBron came into the league when I was in high school and there's a different feeling about that. I think we have a different feeling about people who came to be and came to be big stars

whenever we were at an impressionable age I think is the word I'm looking for. Back when like oh boy like this guy was a mega star back when I cared about mega stars. So maybe there's no one if you're 38 like me right now maybe there is no one that could turn you on to basketball. Maybe there's no one that could turn you on to baseball. I don't know. Just a different world. The way people are covered is different. We know about people's political views, so we view them differently that way. I don't know. But it is an interesting time because like right now, if you look at what's happening in the NBA, more than likely Oklahoma City is going to win and go to the conference finals.

So you're going to have Oklahoma City. As of right now, it looks like the Knicks. So the Knicks are going to be in the East. Indiana is going to be in the East. Oklahoma City is going to be in the West, and they're going to face Minnesota. In theory, that's exactly what the world always says it wants. We want these kind of throwaway towns like Oklahoma City and Minneapolis and towns like that and Indianapolis to be right in the mix of it, right there with a team from New York. It makes it feel like everybody's got a chance. But does anybody really

care once it gets to that point? I don't know. Like is that good for basketball? Is that bad for basketball? Like in the NFL, Kansas City is a small town, but Kansas City is the brand. So who gives a shit? They want Kansas City. That's why Kansas City's got like seven prime time games. They want Kansas City in there because it doesn't matter that Kansas City is a smaller market. It dominates. In the NBA, a smaller market in theory does matter. Just fascinating. Just interesting. I don't know why I thought of

that as I was sitting here this morning, but anyway, we will have more to come.