Team USA Olympics Announcer Noah Eagle Reacts to Jayson Tatum Benching | Garden Report

hey buy Manning here welcome to the Garden report back from Europe and thrilled to be talking to another man just back from Europe Noah Eagle who had the call of the USA games for NBC and Noah unfortunately wasn't able to hear a lot of your call out there I was listening to the French broadcast of course being in Paris how's your friend Bobby is it good you you you there's none but I saw it and unfortunately in the most exciting game we saw Jason Tatum taking a seat and he took two dnps during this run it ended up becoming one of the bigger stories of the run which I'm sure you weren't expecting going in um but that first game against Serbia in the group stage he doesn't play a minute and of course in Celtic circles here and our shows and all the rest an enormous Story coming off the championship and it actually resonated pretty widely around around the country and even around the world I was at a show out there know and this guy from Germany was like can you believe Steve cerr didn't play Jason Tatum so so many people were captivated by this story as it was happening in real time you're calling that game against Serbia who was going through your head once you realized oh Tatum might not get in this game yeah I think uh you know Bobby we didn't we didn't really know what to expect on rotation stuff Dwayne Wade and I had talked about it before that game and I thought that JT would probably lead the second unit it just felt logical going into the game but at the same time we didn't think anything of it until about halftime when we realized we looked through the box score and we're like oh Jason and Tyrese are the only two that haven't played and we kind of expected Tyrese not to play and I think Tyrese expected that he wouldn't play which is a is also saying a lot and I do think it's worth mentioning that obviously he didn't just win a championship he did lead his team to the Conference Finals he's not quite at Jason's level yet but this is a dude that did lead the NBA in assist last year who's a multi-time Allstar who is an all NBA performer so worthy just to say that obviously he didn't play much more than than JT didn't play through this entire run I know it's a different level and Jason's the highest paid player in NBA history and he's coming off a championship and he's the cover athlete of 2K and everything else uh with that being said yeah I think we were a little surprised at first but then we started to look at it and I talked to Dwayne a lot about it because he had been through the USA Basketball experience obviously a couple of times and he said that this is just sometimes how it goes where it can be unknown and even just going into a game it can be unknown I know Steve had talked to Jason about it probably at halftime of that game or maybe even going into that game about just the uncertain aspect that comes with being a part of a team like this and it was also I think a little surprising just given the fact he was so efficient and so impact back ful in their gold medal game against France in Tokyo a couple years prior but with all that being said I think that they used the exhibitions to really assess what they had they felt Devin Booker was a better fit for playing with LeBron James Steph Curry and you know what ended up happening in that first Serbia game was Kevin Durant comes back and he just lights the world on fire and I think that's probably the aspect that people were forgetting about that KD came in and made everything he literally didn't miss in the first first half he had 21 points in that game and that changes what your rotations might look like when a guy catches heat like that now I know Jason didn't play again in the semi-final against Serbia but I think a lot of that was matchup based he plays in the gold medal game guys who were playing big minutes and maybe some of the other games weren't playing as many big minutes in in some of the other matchups and I think the best thing that Steve Kerr said and Dwayne really related to me is this isn't an 82 Game season you know it's not an 82 Game season with 48 minute gamees it's a six game season with 40 minute games you already have eight less minutes to work with for your rotations you can't really go deeper into your bench and on top of that one bad quarter especially in those final three games and this is this is what Dwayne mentioned really happened to them in 2006 at the World Cup uh they had one bad quarter against Greece and it completely derailed them they were rolling they were steamrolling teams actually and they end up losing that one game and they have to take bronze instead of a gold medal back home I think that Steve knew that I think he knew the Gap is not closing it's closed with the rest of the world and so he tried to react accordingly and and JT just happened to be caught in the crossfires I thought he handled himself really well thought he he didn't really complain he went out there he cheered his teammates on he smiled he had a great disposition when they did win the gold medal and at the end of the day they did exactly that they achieved their goal so it's hard to argue with what Steve did I think a lot of people were puzzled not just as you mentioned in America but really in Paris as well yeah and it's pretty amazing that became one of the bigger stories around this team because you had these other ones the world catching up obviously and putting some real heat on them in a couple different situations here especially the Serbia game u in the semifinal and that ended up being an all-time game one of my favorite basketball games I've ever watched especially just being out there and being around all these people from around the world watching this game and just mesmerized by the level of basketball we were watching there in that game and they almost lost so it would have been amazing to think if they lost that game Tatum doesn't play the backlash that Steve cerry would have received that this whole USA program would have received and along with those storylines you got the older guys that end up being the closing lineup in that game Curry Durant LeBron you mentioned that group and they end up being the ones who powered them to that comeback which was amazing to watch they just played at such a high level there and embid too who didn't start this run playing very well there but you also had the Jaylen Brown controversy coming in as well so you know the two Celtic stars end up being these ancillary storylines to this team that as you said one look Dynamic at times when they needed to turn it up face some real competition so you had the great play on the court that you're balancing alongside obviously earlier in the run and the exhibitions and all that brown not making this team and Tatum not playing much for this team so weighing those two things as we covered this run here was really interesting because you had all this stuff going on off the court you had all this amazing stuff going on right in front of you on the court too yeah it was it was a fascinating experience in so many ways it was an incredible experience obviously for a couple of weeks to be out there and to get to call some of those games but you mentioned embiid and I think it's another great example to use well Joel embiid could have played for Cameroon and he could have played for France and the expectation was he was going to play for France which was why he was getting booed so heavily every time he touched the ball and took the court but he decided to play for the United States and when asked about it he said his lifelong dream was to play in the Olympics and obviously later in his life he wanted to play basketball but he didn't start playing basketball till later in his life so when he was a kid he looked at these Olympic athletes and he said one day I want to be one of them and he looked at his situations and he said Cameroon would have been his preferable choice but he didn't necessarily think they had a great chance of making the Olympics so when he looked at the other two two options he had lived in the US for more than half his life and he said these are the peers that he's playing with more so than the French team as a whole so he decided to play for the United States team with that we go back to the exhibitions he's getting crushed for the way he was playing we go to the beginning in that group play stage he took a dnp himself so this is an MVP of the league who was on the bench start to finish for a game and I think Steve Kerr part of that was sending a message also to to respond to the JT backlash in some ways but at the same time it was also to Showcase how much of this was matchup based and that game that he didn't play against South Sudan was a bad matchup for him and we saw that in the exhibition against South Sudan they brought him out to the perimeter and they went right at him and the speed was a problem for Joel and I think that he accepted that and understood where his role was going to be and he also knew he was going to play a factor at some point in the win which he did in the semi-final against Serb Serbia in the fourth quarter he was magnificent they don't win that game without the contributions that Joel embiid helped to aid but yes to go back to the to the Celtics side of it that the crazier part obviously is not just the fact that JB's off the team and JT's not playing a ton but it's the fact that Drew and and Derek who are ancillary pieces in theory I I think that's wrong to call them that because of how good they both are but on that team they're not necessarily your top options you know you've got those two the the the Jays are your still you're you're number one and your number two but Drew is a perfect feba player and realistically Derek is also a perfect FEA player and that's why I think they played now Dereck didn't even play in the gold medal game which was a little surprising to me just given how much energy and and really the type of impact he was making for most of the tournament but I think it just showcases the the slight difference between what an NBA roster is and what an international roster is and that's why it's so hard and again I understand why the reaction was what it was for both JT and for for Jaylen Brown and you could easily make the argument that Jaylen Brown deserved to be on the team with that being said and Dwayne really made this point to me again in his experience you have so many Alphas on a team and this team had so many Alphas on it you have MVPs Durant James Curry embiid that demand the ball that normally have the ball in their hands every single time down the floor and when you get to this Team USA environment guys who have the ball all the time normally in their NBA World their role is significantly different Devon Booker is someone who dominates the basketball on an NBA court he has it isolation he has it off of screens curls he's got sets run directly for him same for Anthony Edwards same for Tyrese halberton same for Anthony Davis who gets spoonfed buckets by LeBron James consistently but you look at what their roles were now with this team Devin Booker was out there to play defense to rebound to set screens to be a connector on the perimeter and then to make open shots and take his opportunities when they presented themselves within the flow of the game Anthony Edwards was there to basically provide energy Off the Bench he wasn't looked at as hey go get us a bucket he's looked at as play Elite defense and do the little things and so I I bring that up to say I that's why I think Drew and and Derek were so perfect for the team and why it's so hard to have so many guys like Jason and Jaylen now I think J Jason deserved to be on there and like I said Jaylen probably deserved to be on there but Drew and Derek are are seamless fits because they already are willing to do the little things they're not guys who are going to go out there and every single night give you 30 they're capable of it but they're not going to do it all the time that's not what their game is predicated on so there's value in having guys like that and I think we saw that with both of their performances through the tournament yeah and that gave them a little cover too at least from Celtics fans because who's making the team over jayen it's Derek white Celtics fans they they like Derek white who's playing over him it's Drew holiday and Derek white which was surprising because as you said they're not focal points on the Celtics above Tatum but on this team they both looked like they fit in pretty well now Tatum ends up sliding in for that gold medal game over white which is probably the change you could have made to have Tatum in there for at least some minutes and not have this wild controversy uh spiraling over those handful of games there but they felt like they had a play a role based tight rotation with guys who know what they need to do and not just roll out the best 12 players in the US and have them figure it out together could you have done that and still won maybe but there was a small margin for eror there especially in the Serbia game so I think in the end as much heat as he caught and he still is and so to some degree even though they won it's hard to kill Kerr for how they handled this because in the end they come out on top now again one Serbia basket goes the other way down the stretch and we're talking about an all-time failure here for this group the way that they're judged being USA basketball but it was a tough roster to manage you mentioned Edwards too I mean he comes in saying this has to go through me and so you're trying to handle all these egos these guys who need to play a ton because this might be their last harra and are still obviously capable of carrying this team and then all these guys you mentioned Booker you mentioned Davis coming off the bench like there's just so many different star talents and guys you could utilize on this team it was an incredibly obviously it's an easy team to coach to some degree because they're loaded but a difficult rotation to manage at the very least yeah and so the the way that it was described to me and I think subd I know said this on melo's podcast she said that when she played for USA Basketball we're talking about an alltime great in the game of basketball she said when she played for USA it was the most uncomfortable she ever was in her playing career dating all the way back basically playing as a kid through High School through college through the WNBA she said the reason was when you get to USA Basketball realistically there's usually only two players that get to actually play their consistent game so for the women this year that was Asia Wilson and Brianna Stewart everybody else had to change their role and so it's a very uncomfortable position to be in because it's such a short Runway you don't have a lot of time to really learn what you're supposed to do so it has to be almost instantaneous I think we saw that with the men LeBron James was playing Lebron james' game I think you could argue Kevin Durant got to play Kevin Durant's game Curry for the most part you know is probably lesser volume but especially in the last two games got to play Curry's game but you can't tell me Joel embiid was playing his game we didn't see that you can't tell me Anthony Edwards was playing his game or Anthony Davis or bamama too or any of those guys were playing I mean as I mentioned Deon Booker so I think that's what makes this such a challenge is the onus is a lot of times on the player but at the same time it's on the coach to try to find which guys can fit together quickly and the men had a little bit more time to try to figure that out than the women did the women were playing obviously the W season and then they had a week essentially to to practice and then get right to the game so it took them that first week and I think we saw that even in the gold medal game where they were still working through some Kinks for the men they had you know about a three four week Runway where they had a training camp and some EX exibitions but that's not a full NBA season and you see guys clicking on all cylinders towards the end of the year into the postseason obviously the Celtics felt like the the exception to that where they were clicking from day one but a lot of that just comes down to can you find the right guys to fit together because realistically you're only going to have two to three guys that are playing their their normal roles so everybody else has to adapt and that's difficult that's difficult for the players and that's difficult for the coaches and the coaching staff and I will say just going back to JT as well I think part of the other reason he handled it well his cousin teron Le is on the staff he's great at managing that type of stuff he's done it obviously getting back to Cleveland where he had quite the situation with LeBron James and Kyrie and Kevin Love and J.R Smith and all of the the personalities that went with that and then all the way through now with the clippers but JT and tou have a good relationship I think that it was good to have him there just to to kind of make sense of everything and with that uh again I just he does deserve praise I don't feel like he's gotten enough praise for how he handled the situation because guys of his stature a lot of times would have mishandled it and he didn't yeah and I'm sure he's not thrilled about it I don't think he's thrilled about it but he handled it well as you mentioned and some non-committal comments about 2028 we'll see what happens there again it's a long way away as he said um but I'm sure we'll see Tatum out there then and he's going to be a bigger focal point on this team if some of the older guys aren't there as far as going in the next year goes one of the last times I talked to you here on clns Noah I think it was 2021 and you were doing Clippers games at the time and you told me one of the or the most impressive guy you had seen in the league to that point and this is when his career was starting to roll a little bit Tatum and you said then he was gonna win an MVP by 27 I'll still count it if he does it next year even though he will turn 27 in March uh but Championship I'm sure he'll take as well and yeah I was thinking about it this morning you know just this run he had with the Olympics and even the finals before it that 2022 to 2024 Gap where he loses he really struggles on that run breaks the turnover record to dominating the Mavericks in that 16 and three run he in many ways led the difference there was the passing he he has just become such an elite passer and it doesn't always show in the assist numbers but he just handled those the crowds the double teams all the different defenses they throw at him so well and even though his shot wasn't there for the playoff run I think he finished 28% he goes 0 for 10 during this Olympic run so that's going to be a question with him going into the next year and his scoring bag to some degree heavily scrutinized but with that the passing has just leveled up many degrees here and is he going to be able to put the full stat sheet together to win an MVP going in this year I know there's a lot of talk about the motivation coming off this Olympic run I don't know it's just such a pack field I don't think he's even one of the six favorites going into the next year but it's just amazing to think since the last time we talked about him here how much that passing in particular has comes so what are you expecting from Tatum going into next year off the championship what do you just make of the perception of him at this point in his career no I do think the motivation is real I think it's hard to to say otherwise at this point I would say the MVP thing is difficult because of how great the team is and as unfair as that probably is you lose points just based on the voters they look at the rest of the Supporting Cast they say all right but come on I mean realistically you know it's why Kevin Durant or Steph Curry or any of those guys weren't going to win when KD joined Golden State it's like that team's too good they can't win MVP well maybe Steph was still the best in the league or KD was it was the same for LeBron in many respects once he he joined forces with big teams early in his Miami tenure it was impossible to to ignore it but then eventually once he got back to Cleveland they go well he's got Kyrie and Kevin Love like we know how great he is but look at this newer guy look at this guy so I think that it's going to be harder for the MVP side of it with respects to everything that you mentioned about the growth of his game I think that's real I think the passing we definitely saw and look there are still some some tough spots where he does turn it over and and maybe he deals uh with some pressure in an ill advised manner but more often than not I think he's seeing the court I think the game has slowed down down a lot for him and he sees where the pressure and he sees where a lot of the traps are coming from before they even get to him so that's that's real growth and that deserves a lot of of credit and with that being said I'm not really worried about the the jump shooting guys go through slumps all the time I think we know how hard this dude Works we've seen that over the course of his career and even just how he's revamped his body since he first enter the league I think that proves a lot about a guy we know how motivated he has been and I think we saw even just in this title run how he deals with with pressure is still impressive you know even when he was slumping shooting the basketball he wasn't afraid of the big moments and I think that stands for a lot because most guys you see will Wilt when they start to feel like they've lost something and even though he hadn't had that same ability that he showed through the majority of the season and the shot making that we've really grown accustomed to seeing from him he still was willing to go out there and try to get it done for his team in the biggest moment so there's a lot about Jason Tatum that I still love and there's a lot that I still think he can grow with uh but he's clearly one of the best players in the league there was a reason he's First Team all NBA it feels like every season at this point and I don't think I don't see that going away anytime soon so the motivation will be there the MVP will be difficult but I'm excited to see what is what is onc chord of the title looks like because to your point if there's anything else that he needed you know it felt like we hear the The Hangover from the title all the time where teams start to Coast through the beginning of Seasons or whatever else might be it feels like it's going to be the opposite with this team they're extra motivated Drew and and Derek are going to be Drew and Derek they they're going to be this you know they're there's never this with those guys if KP is healthy that's a massive boost obviously but then you bring in a motivated Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown coming off of an NBA championship where Jaylen looked as great as I think I've ever seen him down the stretch in the playoff run that's a scary thought for the rest of the league are they head and shoulders above obviously they're going to have to play probably half the year without porzingis hopefully get him back for the postseason fully healthy they didn't have him this postseason which still makes that 16 and three run they went on all the more amazing uh it's pretty much the same team coming back Nicks some of these other teams got reinforcements might be a healthier East around them obviously they caught some breaks along the way here but still a dominant run that they went through are they miles ahead of everybody else is there someone that could challenge them you think or is this team given what they've won so far and experienced together and just how together and conscious of their roles they looked last year are they gonna be even more dominant next year are you are you saying in respect to the Eastern Conference or the whole NBA I'd say both because there's definitely some teams in the west you gota talk about so I would say I would say the Eastern Conference I I think they're still the heavy favorites with that being said Philadelphia obviously got better you add Paul George in theory you get a healthier MB than definitely what you had down the stretch they had some extra pieces including yabu now coming in who played great in the olymp good name drob oh yeah come on Celtics fans remember the dancing bear the dancing bear never forget I'm thrilled he's back oh and that dunk what a dunk awesome oh I just love that he's got now a new nickname I saw on Twitter bener w which I'm all in on so I'm going to be using that exclusively for gersan with that yeah Philly's going to be better uh New York in theory should be even better than they were with the addition of Mel Bridges who fits them to a te they do lose isaah hardenstein which I think was a massive loss for them he just did so much of the of the little stuff as we always talk about he was exactly what Derek white has been for the Celtics just in a a bigger frame essentially for the Knicks so I'll be C ious how they replace him but Julius Randall was hurt do they try to move him do they try to make some other other roster Tinkers basically as they go through um so the East will be interesting Indiana obviously caught fire late and we'll see if they improve and they can do it for the full course of a season Milwaukee still has Dame and Giannis and if they're healthy for a full year who knows what they look like so there are teams that are going to be threatening but I do think the Celtics are clearly the best team and the best constructed team and Brad Stevens is a is an absolute Mastermind and fleeces somehow everybody the ridiculous fact of going from Danny a to Brad Stevens should almost be illegal uh in Boston but we allow it because really we don't have any other choice in the Western Conference I still think Denver I think Denver it was it was hard the long and this is what the Celtics will de with in some respects this year but the the long run of the championship which they had two years ago and kind of the turnaround and let get back to it obviously Jamal Murray didn't play great he definitely not in the Olympics and even at points last year in the playoffs he had sparkling moments he had some not so sparkling moments I expect themal to be better they lose kcp they they really believe in Christian Brown and they're going to insert him into the starting lineup so you've got a starting group that is still to me as formidable as anybody in the NBA with Murray Brown Gordon Porter and joic who is still the best player in the world right now and to me if you have the best player on the court you're always going to have a chance to win and I think that especially is in regards to Nicole yic now I'm I'm very curious about the Russell Westbrook Edition for them like what does that do for them is he there just to provide energy Off the Bench is he there to just play some defense is he there to rebound and push the ball up the floor but joic wanted him so there's a reason that nicoa wanted him on the team and I'm I'm very interested to see if he can get the most out of an aging former MVP Oklahoma City the addition of Alex Caruso was huge and Isaiah hartenstein it was I mean I don't know if you could find scary I don't think they've been talked about enough no and I don't think you could find two more perfect guys to fit what they already had because Shay is so under control Jaylen Williams is a budding star Chad was really impressive last year but now CAD can move to the four which I think is so much better for him and you allow Isaiah hardenstein to do a lot of the physical stuff you got Lou Dort and Al Caruso arguably two of the best along with Drew and along with Derek white on ball perimeter defenders in the NBA that team's really really tough and it's gonna be really tough to beat I think the other team that nobody's really thinking or talking about that I'm not saying is going to necessarily be a championship Contender right off the rip but should be looked at as a threat is Memphis I think John Moran people forget how good John Morant is and was and how good Memphis was two years ago before everything started or three years ago whatever it was before everybody everything started going down and now you've got Marcus Smart I mean everybody in Boston knows the impact that Marcus Mark can have on a team to have Jah Marcus Mar Desmond Bane jiren Jackson Jr and I saw a lot of Zack y last year in Purdue I did maybe four or five Purdue games I think Zach man listen defensively he could struggle but offensively the way I look at him is he is aita zubot of the LA Clippers but four inches bigger and aita zubot is a double double he averages 10 and 10 so if you're adding a guy who can average 10 and 10 and be an anchor in theory as a rim protector which Zach was a Purdue to go along with Jackson who's a former Defensive Player of the Year smart who's a former Defensive Player of the Year Bane who is a 20 point per game guy and John Morant the most electrifying point guard maybe in the entire NBA not to mention what they can bring Off the Bench and Santi Alama I think is a guy that's underrated in the NBA world as well that seems scary GG Jackson was the youngest player in the NBA last year was putting up 30 in game so he was outstanding yeah they've got a ton of talent in Memphis like that's the team to me that nobody's really paying attention to you know what does Sacramento look like now with Demar D rozan the Clippers obviously no longer at Paul George can it just be a healthy kawhai and James Harden somehow leading them I mean they're super talented just with those guys and they added so much defense to that team the Lakers still have LeBron and Anthony Davis and so long as those guys are healthy they're a tough out you know the western conference is is Carnage and it always is but it does feel like this year in particular a lot of those teams can challenge basically anybody in the NBA and I'm looking at Memphis as the surprise team that that really nobody is is looking towards but certainly Oklahoma City is going to be a problem I didn't even mention the team the Celtics had to face in the finals in the Dallas Mavericks and who knows what they look like with Klay Thompson so yeah the Celtics to me are definitely the favorites out east I think the West I mean and I didn't even mention Minnesota as well in the Conference Finals like the West has so many teams to me that are as good as anybody and On Any Given night can beat anybody the difference is they're going to beat up on each other going to the finals and so can they beat a Celtics team or whoever it is in a seven game series after the war of attrition that is getting all the way through yeah and I thought the five teams that played Bost and toughest last year during the year with Philly Milwaukee destroyed them twice on their home court but no healthy Giannis um I would throw Minnesota in there I would throw Denver in there who beat them and Oklahoma City and I still remember two years ago Oklahoma City I think put up one50 on the Celtics on their home court and that was when you're like oh something's going on here and now they end up being the one seed this year um the thing I'm most interested to hear you uh analyze going into next year the iie going into his second year Drew Carter how's that going to go on the Celtics sideline this year because that's going to be a big change for them well I I feel like it's still a miss that he hasn't changed the spelling of his name to j r u e that's that's wrong that feels like it was a layup that he completely missed on uh are they going to start wearing ties again that that feels like a second Miss uh what are we doing here quarter Zips only it's a it's a quarter zip only broadcast with him and Scout no it'll be great great I think that Celtics fans already got a taste of what Drew can bring to the table the energy he can provide obviously it is impossible to fill the shoes of Mike Gorman that is a legend a Hall of Famer in every respect of the world it is class personified but Drew is gonna bring his own spin to it which I think Celtics fans got to see this year he and scowl were great together they have a really good rapport and so it helps when the team's good uh for any broadcaster I can tell you that from my own experiences when the team is good people tend to like what the the guy on TV or on the radio is saying about the team so that certainly helps but I think that fans are going to be all in on what Drew can provide and now they get to get him 100% of the time which is awesome yeah he he stepped into a difficult spot last year and did amazing I was super proud of him um I thought you were gonna make fun of him a little bit more but you got the dig in I appreciate it um real quick want to shout out our official ticket partner here game time it's summertime so we got shows we got baseball going on you want to go over to Fenway you want to get ready for the NFL games coming up this fall it can never be too early to look ahead on tickets but the best part about game time is right up until game time even a little bit after you sometimes get the best deals over there so whether you want to look ahead or get some last minute deals go to game time and you can get $20 off your first purchase right now with code clns use code Cs on your first purchase terms apply again create an account redeem code CNS and get $20 off back in the States I'm going to be looking up for some concerts late this summer again baseball games want to get over a couple of those before the playoffs get going I hope we'll have some playoff baseball here in Boston to look forward to too but love game time love that they show you your seats panoramic view and uh they got the lowest price guarantee or they'll credit you 110% of the difference that's game time again use code CS for $20 off your first purchase I want to hear about your experience out there Noah I was hoping to link up with you out there but it's crazy huge City a little tough to get around and I knew you had all the games to get to out there as well so what was the experience like being out there had you been to Paris before how much were you able to get around and see the city and what was it just like being around the Olympics yeah I I would say this trip Bobby I got to see the city zero it was it was a lot of work you know as we had chatted with about I was doing the men and the women so I had games daily and we did some non- Us games the fortunate thing for me was I done the French Open tennis tournament a couple about a month and a half prior to that and so that one I was in Paris for 18 days and I had three full off days so on my three full off days I just walked and I just viewed and I just took in recommendations and I checked things off the list so I really got to explor a lot and and get a feel for Paris and get a feel for for what France had had to offer essentially so that was amazing and I was glad I got to do that because I knew knew that on this trip despite it being 22 days it was going to be zero off time essentially which ended up coming to fruition so the trip itself was incredible I loved being there I I got to do the 3X3 for the Tokyo Olympics but I was doing that from Conneticut so I didn't get to feel an Olympic atmosphere and there were no fans for that one anyway to feel the fan support in the buildings for these games was something I had never experienced and I I do big-time college football games where the crowd is insane I've done huge NBA games and Conference Finals and and things of that nature where the crowd is fantastic uh I've done NFL games an NFL playoff game this was different it was a different level of noise it was a different level of energy when there were France games and they put out on the the French national anthem the basically it was just the music side and every single person in the building was belting along word for word in unison to the French national anthem there was something Goosebumps and deucing about that every single time and and every time I would just look around and I would just take it in and say wow this is this is something I'll never probably experience at this level again and so it was a special run it was awesome to have our team with us we had a great team I thought Dwayne Wade was really really impressive I mean he had never called a game before we started started and he was great from day one but he only got better all the way through the end and he wanted to do well you know he was putting in the work putting in the effort I love that he was a great teammate lechina Robinson on the women's side equally as impressive just an encyclopedia of knowledge and great hang you know so that that's always great to have awesome sideline reporters as well and kth Burke and zor Stevenson and our whole crew so the entire experience was definitely towards the top of the list for me and and it only helps when you get three of the old Time games you know I I talked to my dad afterward and he goes you'll you'll call basketball for 40 years and you'll probably never get three games like that ever again so hopefully you enjoyed yourself I was like thanks man I appreciate it good to know that it's only downhill from here but it was it was incredible man yeah I don't want to throw a dig but with the state of the Nets too it's it's not pointing up hey man what about capturing the flag come on uh how' the opportunity come together because I was thrilled to see it I wasn't surprised to see it because I obviously know what you're capable of and have seen what you've done going back to the Clippers days and even Syracuse uh you and Wade linking up for this how'd it come together how like early before the Olympic started did you know you'd be doing this and what was the preparation and leadup process like and then eventually getting to do it yeah so when I when I joined NBC I joined NBC a little over a year ago at this point and when I joined you know they had said hey you'll be a part of Olympics in some capacity basically so I didn't know what that was going to be at first they called and they're like yeah you know we could put you on basketball but we're considering some other stuff and I was like or don't consider yeah I was like or well I mean that I would have been I would have been intrigued but I I was like maybe don't consider other stuff I I like basketball basketball's good So eventually what happened was when LeBron embiid KD and Steph all said they were going to play for the United States they called me back and they were like look now that we realize how big this could be and a potential Victor wanyama France gold medal game this was a year before the Olympics they they almost predicted exactly what was going to happen they go we think that France and the us could play in the gold medal game we want you to do it so just start thinking about it now basically so this I would say it was August of 2023 and I said amazing so that was the first Contact we kept talking about it and then around Christmas we started thinking about potential analysts of of who might work and we had some ideas that didn't quite go in the direction that we expected them to go and so my agent came to me with the idea who also represents Dwayne and they were like hey uh what do you think about this do you think you you'd want to do it with Dwayne I was like yeah that'd be awesome I'd think he'd be great so we brought it to NBC and over the the course of a couple months there were a lot of discussions and chatter back and forth and Dwayne was all in on doing it and they were all in on having them so they loved them really really from the start it just obviously takes time to get everything together so yeah once we got it together it was all good Le China was on pretty early probably in January or February and so we knew exactly what we were going to have we knew that we're going to have some fun more than anything and then you know we took a couple calls all of us together uh Dwayne and myself and our producer Josh vry got on some calls Le China and Josh and I got on some calls Zora I've known I've done a lot with now over the last couple years so it was it was easy from that point on we just built kind of a rapport right off the rip and just went from there how do you think way did you know being in his first time and you know doing it alongside him and how did you try to interact and build a rapport with him as as it went along there and do you think this is something like he's passionate about he wants to do going forward I think he's got some decisions to make and we've talked about it and he's going to really weigh out all the options of what he wants to do long term I think he thoroughly enjoyed it though and he had done studio in the past I think he recognized that there are advantages to doing Studio but he wanted to be at the events and he wanted to be around the people and see the people that he knows and loves which he got to for this obviously with LeBron and Carmelo Anthony being there and Eric folster being an assistant and Steph and KD and Anthony Edwards his his Tom cream disciple so that part was awesome to answer the first part of it how did he do I thought he was excellent I mean to step into that role having never called a game before and literally our first game was France and Brazil and our second game was Canada and Greece and he crushed both of them I thought that was unbelievable and people don't realize how hard that is to do to just step right up and to perform at the level that he did and he only got better you know in terms of building the Rapport that always comes with just hanging out and getting to know guys and so we would go to dinner we would hang out before games we would hang out in between games we would hang out in the hotel whatever we would just be around each other and talk and get to know each other and joke around and realize that we have similar interests in certain Avenues of life or whatever it might be so that just comes naturally and with shared experience as well where each day it got a little bit better because we had another funny thing happen to us or we were walking in and this happened or someone said this whatever it might have been so he was fantastic I think if he wants to do it he has a chance to be off the charts good because he does really work hard and I got to see that up close and he wants to be great and there's a reason he was great as a player it would be the same reason he would be great as a broadcaster he would work at it tirelessly until he was the best yeah we grew up watching them which much have been like are inspiring as you're looking it because again Celtics fans maybe not your favorite player growing up battling with him because he was scary for that handful of years there at his Peak um what was it just like being around him was there a story told you or just maybe a call he had or something that really stuck with you from being alongside him for that run well I'll tell you the memory that'll stick with me because there were a lot of stories and and things of that nature but the memory for me was after one of the US games in Paris they were playing Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z where he drops the line that he's gonna pay Dwayne Wade basically yeah and I I know every word to the song Because I'm a New Yorker and that's actually a requirement and that's our our New York Anthem essentially at this point and so I I was staring him down as I was rapping and he he just couldn't stop laughing but uh yeah I dropped the line directly to Dwayne Wade so for me that's got to be like a bucket list item right got to be top tier so that's that's that's probably number one from the entire forget the forget the games itself that's got to be number one on the list for the entire trip I'll take that one I like that I want to give a quick shout out to uh one more sponsor here before we get out of here I got one more question for Noah before we wrap this up but hellofresh I am wicked excited to be back from Europe and get my hellofresh box every week you can customize when it comes it's America's number one meal kit for a reason it's all that customizability farm fresh pre-portion ingredients seasonal recipes delivered right to your doorstep skip Tri trip to the grocery store and count on hellofresh to make home cooking easy fun and affordable that's why it's America's number one meal kits seasonal recipes quick and easy ones if you don't like spending a ton of time in the kitchen they have stuff to get you in and out and it's easy they prepackage the ingredients as instructions they make it fun and I do love cooking but if you don't there's stuff for you here too and uh whether you're vegan or whatever your dietary restrictions might be allergies and all that they customize everything so for free breakfast for life right now go to hellofresh.com free Garden that's free Garden F re g a rde n one breakfast item per box while the subscriptions active that's free breakfast for life as long as you use hellofresh just by going to hellofresh.com freegard America's number one meal kit hellofresh one of my favorite sponsors we've had here at the Garden report and throw to get my box them this week um interesting so NBC is going to have the rights Noah in a couple years here um what are you looking forward to in that capacity now and is that like a process where you know there's starting to be some conversations about how that's going to look here and uh just as a basketball fan what are you looking forward to in terms of NBC having the rights and just some of the changes we're going to see in terms of how games are broad once uh all that gets started in two seasons that's a great question that I don't have many answers to yet I think that the the funny part of all of this was it happened while we were at the Olympics or as we were definitely getting ready for the Olympics and so there all the focus in the company was on that and making sure that that went smoothly and now we have to go straight basically into football so I think they're starting to begin the process of figuring out what it's going to look like what it's going to sound like I think a lot of it will have that throwback feel obviously the round ball Rock part of that is very nostalgic and I think that'll continue they've got a new version of round ball Rock that's going to be coming a little bit more mastered and and modernized version from John Tesh and Company but overall I think it's going to be a great product because that's what we do at NBC we we don't cut any quarters so I think if you look at any of the properties that we have whether it's our big 10 coverage the Sunday Night Football stuff NASCAR horse racing everything that we do it it is at the highest of qualities and so I think that's what you'll see with the NBA and look Adam Silver was very intimately aware of what NBC brought to the table because he was with the NBA when NBC was the leading partner so he knows what NBC is capable in terms of eyeballs on a broadcast network in terms of a streaming capability now with peacock and how that's growing especially post Olympics so I think that it's going to be a really good property and and hopefully we can we can go all in on it and make it the best uh best available for all the viewership yeah I'm looking forward to see who the cast is going to be new studio shows all that um I know Tristan Thompson when I talked to him was interested in getting back in the studio as well he was an ESPN guy we'll see what happens if he's going to play another year and all that too but I think there's going to be some new stars I think there's going to be some new names that we get to know and um of course you were one of them Noah Eagle joining us here on the garden report seing this media Celtics all X say great catching up with you here and I got to ask is this going to be the year for Syracuse football because I need it I don't think I'm going to be able to watch much Patriot many patriots games this year the way it's looking if it's anything like last year so this is like the first year in my life I think that I'm gonna be watching more Syracuse football and Patriots football I mean I know they've got they've got dogs you know they've got guys that would fight throw a sprained ankle any day of the week to to play for their team on a Saturday to make sure that they can grit it out grind it through Fran Brown is is a master recruiter he's a master motivator so we're going to find out if he can coach I mean there's schedule is as favorable as any power football team in the entire country so if they can't get it done this year then we got a deeper discussion yeah no one mentioned that I fought through this podcast on a sprained ankle that's a first for me but I'm surprised you didn't unleash the Barkley impression you didn't want to well women be milking that baby thing uh it's not like doing a podcast on sprained ankle I like it I like it yeah I'm I'm going to be milking this for the next few weeks here certainly and I'm I'm just back from Europe so um I think I just need to sit back and watch some baseball anyway Noah great catching up with you great talking to you as always great job with the Olympics congrats again for um that opportunity and everything else coming forward you you've been outstanding since you stepped off Syracuse's campus and I'm looking forward to seeing what's next for you I appreciate you man you know it's it's new house in Orange Mafia forever so I appreciate you and uh thanks for having me as always