Mike Francesa Calls Kevin Pittsnogle Kevin Penobscotch Again
Ian Eagle is all over the airwaves — from the Nets announcer on the Yeah Network to calling NFL, NBA and NCAA basketball on CBS and TNT. He chats with Steve Serby near his career highlights, the all-time moments he has seen and those he has worked with.
Q: What are some games or events in the history of sports you lot would have liked to take circulate?
A: Tom Seaver no-hitter. He was my favorite player growing upwardly. He got dealt when I was 8 years quondam, but I still followed him, and when he pitched a no-hitter for Cincinnati, I just remember that existence the coolest thing as a young fan, that I felt like I had some ownership in that (chuckle). I'd say the '79 NCAA Championship [Michigan State vs. Indiana State], all the buildup, and what information technology meant historically, [Larry] Bird versus Magic [Johnson]. And Super Bowl III. Something that changed the class of football as we know it.
Q: If you could have worked with i person you lot never worked with, who would it be?
A: I would accept liked to accept done a game with Al McGuire. I just constitute him very eccentric, and he didn't stick to the script. I call up it would accept been fun. I met him [during] my kickoff NCAA Tournament, 1998, he was part of CBS' coiffure. I walked into the seminar, and I really didn't know anybody, and Al McGuire was continuing there, and he was kind of eavesdropping on a conversation I was having with Jim Spanarkel and Jon Sundvold.
And I cracked a joke and he started laughing and he worked his manner over. He said, "That'southward very funny." He said, "What'south your proper name?" I said, "Oh, bus, I'm Ian Eagle." He said, "Alter that." I said, "What?" He said, "Alter that." And so he just walked away (chuckle). And then obviously Spanarkel and Sundvold lost it, they were laughing. And then the next day we had a second session, and I'chiliad in the back having a continental breakfast, and I hear Al McGuire come up through the door, he says (loudly) "Ian Eagle! Ian Eagle!" So I run over, I said, "Yeah, coach?" He said, "Hey, I thought nearly it. Keep it. I like it." I think we coulda had some fun (smile). … And John Madden — an iconic broadcaster, the best to ever practise it. I would have enjoyed playing off his free energy and watching him piece of work the telestrator.
Q: How would you lot characterize your style?
A: I'd like to say I'm an easy listen. I bring free energy. I immerse myself in the subject matter, and I try to broadcast in the moment. Then reacting in a style that'southward advisable for the action in forepart of me. The other role that you hope when the headset goes on is that you connect. I want to connect. Ultimately, that'southward my goal, to feel every bit if I'yard the conduit between the event and the viewer.
Q: Yous were a radio host at the '96 Atlanta Olympics. Where were you when the bomb went off?
A: I was walking into the Courtyard past Marriott. Eric Spitz, who's at present at SiriusXM, and I had simply walked through Centennial Park, where the bomb eventually went off. So we missed it by … nine minutes? Information technology was right outside our broadcast location. It was extremely eerie.
Q: What are the elevation three events you've worked?
A: I did the [2010] Duke-Butler national championship on the globe feed. If the Gordon Hayward shot from midcourt goes in, I call up it would have gone down every bit the greatest game ever, certainly the biggest upset. I worked the [Michael] Hashemite kingdom of jordan-Byron Russell pushoff in Utah, jumper to win information technology to assure the championship for the Bulls [in 1998]. On a personal level, the Nets-Pacers '02 first-circular series Game v. Reggie Miller hits a heave to send it into overtime, Miller dunks the ball to transport it into a 2nd overtime, then Jason Kidd just willed the squad to victory. It was a special win for that franchise, and I was doing the game with Bill Raftery, so it meant a lot. Information technology'southward rare yous get to say yous've worked with the best.
Q: How do y'all explain having had 135 broadcast partners?
A: (Chuckle) I'm very … easy to get forth with? That'due south what I would become with … very affable (chuckle).
Q: That has to be difficult, doesn't it?
A: I learned early on that it wasn't about me. It'southward about the show … the product. So … make it piece of work. Figure it out. Adjust. Exist malleable.
Q: Why do you think you're able to make it work?
A: I think I'm easygoing, and I remember I'm a good team thespian. And I had a practiced feel for this early, that you lot're judged every bit a pair, you're not judged individually. People that listen or watch say, "I similar these guys," or "I don't similar these guys." Once y'all buy into that philosophy, then it seems obvious.
Q: Describe your first time interviewing Syracuse motorcoach Jim Boeheim.
A: Yeah, [I was a] higher student … did not go well. I asked a question regarding a late substitution of Stevie Thompson. Not a very adept costless-throw shooter, so the question was based on whether or not he considered taking him out late in the game. And I knew I was in trouble when motorbus Boeheim went underneath his glasses with his hand, and began rubbing his eye. And then pointed, and said, "That's a stupid question, next question."
Q: What was your reaction to that?
A: Information technology was silence (chuckle). There was no follow upward.
Q: Then y'all got to know him.
A: He's actually a keen guy. He is underrated funny, and he is a basketball junkie, he watches and reads everything.
Q: Depict Marv Albert.
A: Legend. The broadcaster that I emulated growing upwardly. When I started attempting to do play-by-play, I was doing a bad ripoff of him, like every other New York kid that wanted to become into this business organisation. He brought yous in. He knew how to build drama. He understood timing, the way he used his voice building towards a crescendo. His banter with his partners that opened my eyes to a whole other view of this, that you lot could have fun … that you could bosom chops … that if the audience is in on it, so information technology feels … similar a customs, that everybody is part of it.
Q: Bill Raftery.
A: He's a one-of-a-kind person. Information technology'due south all organic, and there is no difference from the guy on the air to the guy off the air. And there's a reason why he's resonated within higher basketball. You'll never observe a person that would say a bad word almost him. Completely genuine and sincere.
Q: Mike and the Mad Domestic dog.
A: It felt like grad school for me being a part of that show, learning nigh chemistry, the give and the take, their personalities. Also watching them handle success, because it was just every bit they were sweeping the urban center … doing it your own style. Not sounding similar everybody else. Not doing what everyone else thinks you should practice. They broke the rules a bit, and so, ready some new ones.
Q: Verne Lundquist.
A: He was in complete command of a circulate, and he could take information technology places based on his vocalization, his vocabulary, his way with people. … He'd walk into a room and people were excited to run across him. It seems so simple, but that's what you lot strive for in life, that people are happy to see you. … People are happy to have him in their homes on a Saturday or a Sunday for a football game. His versatility inspired me. Salt of the globe.
Q: Bob Murphy.
A: Voice track of my youth. Listened and then attentively, and hung on every give-and-take, and the interesting part is nothing nigh him screamed "New York." If anything, quite the opposite, yet he was accustomed in New York considering he was an original. Had a special way of communicating. Thought that he was a pro'due south pro.
Q: Al Michaels.
A: I realized at a immature age that Al had a souvenir. And as I began to hear him on various sports, I knew that I just felt comfy listening to him. Tremendous ability to weave in data seamlessly, and then rise to the occasion. And a memorable voice. Everybody knew how good he was prior to the 1980 Olympics, but I think that cemented that he was gonna be an all-fourth dimension dandy. … I was taking down his telephone call ["Practice you believe in miracles?"] in my mind of what he said pre-internet, pre-anything. … I just needed to know how he phrased it. It made an impression.
Q: Mike Breen.
A: Shut friend. Superb broadcaster. He was a couple of years in front of me on this path, so I paid attention to his rising. Pure class.
Q: Dan Fouts.
A: Probably my broadcast spirit animal. When CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus paired us together, information technology changed my career, because it gave me someone that saw the game the same way that I did, and the ability to exist serious when necessary and have fun when appropriate became a weekly happening for me on the NFL. He'due south like family to me.
Q: Bob Costas.
A: I recollect the merely fourth dimension in my life that I was ever starstruck. Senior year of college he came to speak to our sports dissemination class at Syracuse, and when he walked in the room, I never felt similar that before when somebody had been in my presence. I was blown abroad by his talent, his wit, and his eloquence.
Q: Marty Glickman.
A: He was professorial to me, because of the nature of our relationship. He was the broadcast autobus at SportsChannel in 1995 when I got the Nets TV job. Our outset session, his critique was so searing that I considered becoming an orthodontist (laugh). I thought possibly broadcasting wasn't for me. Before he passed [in 2001], we attended an event for Syracuse University in New York, and it was the first time I had seen him in a while. Now at this bespeak, I was at CBS and I had a network job, I'1000 doing the NFL, I'm doing college basketball, I'thousand still doing the Nets. And we're now walking towards 1 another in the hallway, and Marty gives me a nod, and I give him a nod, and nosotros stop. And now I call up, all right, [he] is going to say, "Hey, you've been doing a neat job." He says, [in Glickman voice], "I've been watching you, Ian. … You're getting a little jowly." I said, "What'south that?" He said, "Lay off the mayo." I said, "I don't fifty-fifty like mayo." He says, "Well lay off it," and he keeps walking (smile).
Q: Dick Enberg.
A: There was a quality to him that made you feel comfy. I remember he had that on the air, and he had that off the air. Erudite … actually remarkable broadcaster.
Q: Phil Rizzuto.
A: I only establish his style to be perfect — he could pull information technology off. I'grand non sure how many could. He had the credentials to do it, and and so he had the personality to do it. I thought it was refreshing that he didn't have to follow the normal broadcast rules on play-by-play. He was so unconventional, and it worked.
Q: Jim Nantz.
A: I of the best to ever do information technology. Sets an incredibly high standard at the network level. Elite broadcaster and person.
Q: Mike Tirico.
A: Mentor. Probably learned more than from him than any other broadcaster in my life. He was a star early on earlier anyone knew he was a star. I think by osmosis, I learned how to do this.
Q: Sean McDonough.
A: Sean is the quintessential play-by-play guy. Prepared … a little chip caustic … and understands the theatrics of it. Can really produce in the moment.
Q: Jim Spanarkel.
A: Sneaky good. I retrieve Jim worked so hard to exist a good player and to achieve what he did in his career on the basketball court, that he applied the aforementioned piece of work ethic to the broadcast side. Only does it in a way that can sometimes be viewed as under the radar, but he deserves to exist mentioned with the best analysts in the game.
Q: Sarah Kustok.
A: The real deal. She knows the game, she knows the language, she understands television and she gets it. A special person. She has that it gene.
Q: Richard Jefferson.
A: I recollect information technology's the first time I've e'er worked with someone that'southward fabricated $100 million in their career. Richard can work without a safety net, and that is very freeing as a broadcaster. He has no filter, he is a really interesting person that brings a perspective that I just have not heard earlier. He is willing to go places that others will not get.
Q: Who are the best guys in the production meetings?
A: [Tom] Brady, No. ane. He's real. When there are no microphones and no cameras, he actually lets you lot into his thought procedure. I call back there's at present a trust level. Peyton Manning was excellent. Chad Pennington was outstanding. Philip Rivers is very good.
Q: Bill Belichick?
A: He'south non gonna talk about his team. If you ask him almost his private players, about philosophy, you're non gonna get very much. If you lot ask him most NFL history, if you ask him nigh the opponent, parts of it, if yous enquire him well-nigh officiating, he'll sit with yous for 45 minutes.
Q: Gregg Popovich?
A: Popovich off the air is among the top five NBA coaches I've ever spoken to. If y'all're asking real questions that will help your circulate that are not intrusive, he'south more willing to share.
Q: Adam Gase?
A: I similar him a lot. He brings an border. He likes the requite and take. He'll challenge you back, and he'll take on the tough questions in the production meetings.
Q: Bakery Mayfield?
A: Dan Fouts and I were blown abroad past his confidence. And we both walked abroad from the meeting this year under the impression that he'southward gonna have a long, successful NFL career. He'south got a conviction to him that volition carry him.
Q: Sam Darnold?
A: There's a quiet confidence at that place. He'due south just comfortable in his own skin, you lot could tell. He'll become along with people, no matter who his teammates are. If they change the name, alter the players, he'll always notice mutual ground. I think he's gonna be an outstanding pro.
Q: Patrick Mahomes?
A: Really impressive. You could tell his father played professional sports, he'southward been around information technology for a long fourth dimension. Aught seemed to overwhelm him. This phase was not as well large, and well-mannered, respectful. … He'due south a star.
Q: Tin the Nets woo a Kevin Durant?
A: They've put themselves in a position where players and agents are now taking them seriously. They volition now have a seat at the table. They were not relevant … at present they are, and that's based on [general managing director] Sean Marks and [coach] Kenny Atkinson making a concerted attempt to change the culture and to alter the persona of the franchise. Not like shooting fish in a barrel to do.
Q: So you recall they could be a threat to the Knicks as far as getting Durant and Kyrie Irving?
A: They're a threat to get anybody in the league if they get the gamble to sit downward with them and truly brand their case.
Q: How proficient of a motorbus is Kenny Atkinson?
A: I think he has a chance to be an elite coach. He has all the makings that you look for — interpersonal skills, knowledge so instincts. As the team has gotten amend, he's gotten better. Those relationships that he's formed with the players and the trust level, we're not privy to that. … I think he's excelled in that area.
Q: Duke star Zion Williamson.
A: Blown abroad by his physical stature and his skill level. I don't see a guarantee of surefire Hall of Famer yet. I'd like to see more. But it'south hard not to get mesmerized past the physical abilities. Just this theory that he's just gonna modify an organization — Anthony Davis is an incredible player [but] the Pelicans are yet struggling — so one guy doesn't modify everything in the NBA.
Q: What is the best NBA squad you've seen?
A: The Warriors team 2 years ago or last twelvemonth, really take your pick, that was the best team basketball I've always seen.
Q: Best college basketball team you've seen?
A: The [1989-90] UNLV team. Didn't broadcast those games, but when they plowed through to the national championship, I thought they were the most complete higher basketball game team I'd always seen.
Q: Favorite March Madness moment you've called?
A: West Virginia knocking off Wake Forest and Chris Paul [in 2005]. Kevin Pittsnogle, Mike Gansey, unheralded squad in Cleveland, moves on to the Sugariness sixteen against a squad that very hands could have and should have been a Terminal Four squad. Information technology was the most fun I think I've had calling a game. It was double-overtime, it was the final game of the opening weekend, every game was finished. So I knew everybody was watching. It was what March Madness was all near.
Q: Will LeBron James and the Lakers make the playoffs?
A: I call back they will. When the smoke clears, I call up LeBron will go it done, barring any farther injury. Merely they've got a potential mess on their easily because if they don't get that superstar correct abroad, meaning the next season for LeBron to play alongside, the clock is ticking. And LeBron is a superior athlete, only at some point, Father Time wins.
Q: Where and how did your love of basketball game begin?
A: Loved all sports as a child. My father [Jack Eagle, entertainer, comedian, musician] was not a huge sports fan, and I realized that he took an interest in whatsoever I liked. And then every bit I began to observe my passion for sports, the more information I accumulated, the more I could spit out to him, and information technology gave us some other artery to our relationship, and he became a sports fan because of me.
Q: When you were 5, yous did Howard Cosell interviewing Muhammad Ali and also West.C.Fields impressions on phase at the Hold Hotel.
A: I was so naive, I just thought this is what kids did. My mother was a vocaliser, she was the opening act, and and then they would come up out together at the end. … There was no hesitancy. Information technology seemed very normal.
Q: What drove y'all before you lot got to Syracuse?
A: I knew I had the gift of gab, and I knew I had a performance part within my personality, and this love of sports, so I was trying to figure out how to combine all of these interests. I was 8 years old when I told my dad that I wanted to exist a sportscaster, and he said, "That's what you'll practise," which is very empowering when your father validates your dream. But so, he added, "Yous're gonna have to lose that lisp." And so he recorded me and I had never noticed that I had a lisp, to be perfectly honest. It took me near three weeks, just myself, talking into a tape recorder, practicing and so, it was gone.
Q: You besides adept calls in the shower.
A: I would practice a baseball game call: "The 3-two pitch to John Stearns, loftier flyball left field. … Information technology'due south gone. The Dude delivers."
Q: 3 dinner guests?
A: Bill Raftery, George Carlin and my dad.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: "Animal Business firm."
Q: Favorite player?
A: Bryan Cranston.
Q: Favorite extra?
A: Meryl Streep.
Q: Favorite singer/entertainer?
A: The Doors.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: A skillful old-fashioned steak and mashed potatoes.
Q: Favorite comedian?
A: Richard Pryor.
Q: Have you lot e'er been mistaken for Noah Eagle?
A: (Express joy) I wish. He's younger and amend looking.
Q: What's that like having a son following in your footsteps?
A: Information technology gives me so much pride, and it'due south beyond flattering that he had an interest in this, he was certainly not pushed towards this concern. If anything, I think I downplayed, because I didn't desire him to feel any pressure that this was something he should pursue. Only as the years went on, he showed an involvement and an bent, and so, like anything else in life, you lot're no longer in control as a parent, information technology's his decision, and fortunately, he has a really expert head on his shoulders. He has a articulate view of where nosotros are in the media world at this point, and he'south very eager and excited to have the next step.
Q: Does he remind you at a younger age?
A: Definitely. He's definitely got a footling wise-donkey in him, which is a good thing. And, he also isn't intimidated when the camera goes on or the microphone goes on. He embraces information technology. Yep, I run across a lot of similarities.
Q: Describe your wife Alisa.
A: My married woman'due south a rock star. None of this [four New York Sports Emmys] happens without having residue at home.
Q: Your daughter Erin.
A: She'southward studying advertising [at Syracuse] and is interested in fashion and social media. She has an Instagram business relationship that is all fashion-based [@inthesejeans].
Q: Describe your aversion to ketchup.
A: It'southward all condiments for me. Mustard I've never had. Ketchup I had once as a error on a course trip in course school to Washington, D.C. I was disoriented, they were throwing like McDonald's hamburgers at u.s.a., I took a bite.
Q: You do like tomato sauce. That's fifty-fifty weirder that you don't like ketchup.
A: Ya recollect? I don't think the 2 are connected at all. … The mode I would put information technology also, like people say, "Well what do you put on a hot domestic dog?" "Nothing, I like the taste of the hot dog." I would just squeeze mustard in my mouth if I wanted mustard flavor.
Q: Mayo?
A: I mean, if it'due south in something, I can't actually fight that, that happens, that's without me knowing. I would never take mayo and put it on anything. I've never done that. I never accept idea of doing that. It won't happen.
Q: You've never had a salad.
A: I've had lettuce, I've had tomatoes. It'southward the dressing, I think, that's what always turned me off.
Q: You like some fruit simply yous won't take a fruit salad.
A: I have an aversion (chuckle) to the word salad. Simply now information technology's like a Cal Ripken streak, I can't end it.
Q: The Nets and Yep Network are honoring your 25 years every bit Nets announcer with Ian Hawkeye Night on Thursday.
A: It feels like some strange retirement party that I don't want to be invited to (grinning). It'southward hard to even compute. I was always the young guy. The accumulation of years is hard to believe.
Q: What are some personal highlights or favorite memories during those 25 years.
A: Having a front row seat for Jason Kidd in his prime number was a career highlight. Vince Carter may be the greatest showman I've seen on a basketball court. That 2001-02 season was magical, the Nets were suddenly a topic around the NBA for all the correct reasons.
Q: What drives you now?
A: I take this chore very seriously, to inform and to entertain. And every circulate I want to feel as if somebody walked away learning something, chuckling, tickled, and that's for every assignment I get. Then the drive is to make sure yous're doing your chore well and you lot're placating the audition. Ultimately, I know that you can't satisfy everybody. But I'd like to think my batting boilerplate is fairly high.
Q: What is it like being Ian Eagle?
A: Information technology's a ball. I'thousand having the time of my life. I'one thousand doing everything that I wanted to do, and I don't know how many people go to say that. And yet I'm all the same humbled, because I went to a high school reunion however many years ago, and a guy came upward to me, Jack Woo, and he said, "Ian … Hey man, I gotta tell y'all: When you were in high school, I idea you were gonna be a large star. Large star." I said, "Oh, thanks so much." He said, "What are you doing now?"
Source: https://nypost.com/2019/02/16/ian-eagle-discusses-great-voices-great-events-and-ketchup/
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