Ian Eagle’s Nets Workload to Drop as He Takes Lead NBA Role with Amazon Prime

The voice of the Brooklyn Nets for the last three decades is "scaling back" his work with the franchise. In an interview on the Sports Media Watch Podcast, longtime play-by-play caller Ian Eagle revealed that his role on YES Network will shrink now that the 56-year-old is transitioning into a lead gig with Amazon Prime's coverage of the NBA.

Eagle said that his responsibilities with Brooklyn “will go down considerably from what they were at one point” upon his new "sizable" role on Prime Video. He also projected that he'll call between 10-15 Nets games, and revealed Ryan Ruocco as the likely fill-in, who takes on "the majority of the responsibility.”

Ruocco joined YES Network in 2007 and joined the network's broadcast team four years later. The 38-year-old has national experience, having served in roles with ESPN's coverage of the NBA while also calling games for the WNBA.

A broadcasting icon, Eagle joined YES Network in 2002 as the Nets' announcer after serving in the same role on the MSG Network and Fox Sports Net New York since 1995, where he split responsibility with fellow legend Marv Albert.

Much like Kevin Harlan and Mike Breen, Eagle's success as Brooklyn's caller led to a national platform beginning during the 2010 NBA Playoffs. Since then, he's been featured on TNT's coverage of the NBA, NFL games on CBS and both networks' NCAA Tournament broadcasts, where he succeeded Jim Nantz in 2024.

Now with Prime Video, Eagle said he'll work somewhere around 50 games this season as the lead voice, spanning across the regular season, NBA Cup, play-in tournament and postseason. In the coming years, Eagle is set to call an NBA Conference Finals game, marking a career first for the longtime broadcaster. Prime Video owns the rights to a conference finals series every other year beginning in 2027.

“This year, it’s really a sliding scale, depending upon availability and then how often they need me,” Eagle said.

Eagle's son, Noah, has been a play-by-play alternative since the 2023-24 season, often filling in when his father is out on assignment elsewhere. During the podcast interview, Eagle did not detail how his position with Prime Video would affect his son's job with Brooklyn, likely meaning it won't impact things at all.

As the Nets enter year two of their complete rebuild with new faces and aspirations, Eagle will embark on a new journey of his own.