For over 30 years, viewers of New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets games have had the pleasure of hearing Ian Eagle's voice on the broadcast. However, those tuning in this season on a given night are likely to hear a different voice on the call. Eagle is scaling back his role with the YES Network as he transitions into his new job as the lead voice of Amazon Prime’s NBA coverage.
The longtime Nets broadcaster revealed the news on a podcast with Sports Media Watch. This season will mark the first time during Eagle's broadcasting career that he has held a No. 1 position on any national NBA game package.
Ian Eagle scaling back Nets responsibilities while transitioning to Amazon role
Eagle said his Nets responsibilities once accounted for the team's full schedule. However, they gradually scaled down to the point where he was calling 40 games this past season. He said that his responsibilities with Brooklyn “will go down considerably” due to his new “sizable” role on Prime Video.
While Eagle said his number of Nets games will be a sliding scale depending on his availability, he projected that he'll call between 10 and 15 this season. He also revealed longtime Nets, New York Yankees and ESPN broadcaster Ryan Ruocco will take “the majority of the responsibility” for Brooklyn games.
Ruocco joined the YES Network broadcast team in 2011. Over the last decade, he has taken on a significant role, calling Yankees and Nets games, as well as national NBA and WNBA games for ESPN.
Eagle's son, Noah, also joined YES in recent years as a play-by-play announcer for Nets games. However, he will also be scaling back his Brooklyn schedule to 10-15 games this season while transitioning to a national role with NBC Sports.
