Ian Eagle is one of one.
In fact, Awful Announcing’s readers ranked him (and Bill Raftery and Grant Hill) as the best broadcast booth in all of sports. Maybe recency bias plays a factor in that equation, but Eagle is the maestro of what’s quickly become an announcing trio that hasn’t missed a beat post-Jim Nantz.
That’s no knock on Nantz. But in March, Eagle knows how to meet the moment.
That’s what he told Nick Kostos of the You Better You Bet show, which airs on the BetMGM Network. As a play-by-play announcer, that’s his job.
“That’s how I’m always viewing through that lens,” says Eagle. “If something is great, I want and hope that when it’s replayed five years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, people will say, ‘Oh my goodness. The play and the call, in combination, in collaboration.’ And I think the backend of that, after the layout, we just got the full carwash trying to come up with something creative in the moment, something memorable, and something that you can attach yourself to that might connect in some way. That’s really the whole objective of the job.
“Of course, it’s about game flow. It’s about command. I think doing as many games as I do — and I do a lot. I do a lot of NBA games. I do a lot of college games. You can do the math by the end of the year. It does put me in the right frame of mind to be ready for moments like that. It’s rare that something just surprises me, and I have nothing in the moment.”
“There’s a rolodex of calls in there,” Eagle continues. “I don’t know which one’s going to come out. I don’t know how it’s going to come out. The only thing I can tell you is that it’s authentic; it’s coming from a real place. And my hope is that I’m reacting in a manner that you might be reacting to if you’re sitting on your couch, if you’re at a bar, or if you’re watching with a buddy. That, to me, is the whole vibe of what this job is supposed to be.
“That’s the way I’ve tried to approach it all these years. And certainly now as the stakes have gotten a little higher and maybe the viewership has gone up, it doesn’t change the way that I do the game.”
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.