Noah Eagle: "Is Steph Curry from Earth?"

Intro Durant back to Curry dancing on baton over the double team oh it's a golden dagger night night night Curry unconscious in the fourth all right continuing here on Willard and dibs 957 the game with FP in for dibs today and I know both of us uh FP I'm not going to lie like we might be ready to geek out on this a little bit this this was fun they're calling it the best Olympics ever and certainly Steph and Team USA might be the logo for that and the voice for all of that was none other than Noah Eagle who now joins us on the River Islands guest line Noah thanks for doing it how you doing guys I'm doing fantastic I appreciate you having me and I'm just glad I got to feel like I was you guys for a little bit and enjoy Steph Curry for a change because normally it's like no no oh okay he's so else isn't he yeah yeah I mean it was a moment I would say or at least a couple moments where I was like is he from Earth or is there some crazy Superman shooter weird Kryptonite that nobody can find it's it is remarkable and uh he just cemented further what we already knew which is he is beyond special no let me let me tell you something you've probably heard a million times since that final call with with Steph's three-pointer number one one one of the greatest calls ever I mean I just just in the moment your emotion the way you nailed it I've been in broadcasting a long time capturing the moment for a play-by-play guy is so huge but it might be the greatest call that nobody ever heard because as fans we were all high-fiving and screaming and yelling and I didn't hear it I'm with my Dad I'm with my son we're jumping off the couch we're screaming and yelling so I go back and watch the highlights later and I'm like oh my God the golden dagger what and just the How did he come up with the words emotion with like so that was all natural you didn't you didn't have golden dagger teed up right or did that just all come out naturally spur the moment yeah I it's funny I've gotten the question a bunch and I actually had been asked the night before oh have you planned anything like do you know what you're going to say Final Call do you know what you're going to say during the game and I never do and that's just the God's honest truth is for me I've always felt it's important to just let the game dictate and then you kind of follow follow along and so exactly what you said which was the emotion of it was was really what drove me so I think that I try to pinpoint exactly when it popped into my head and so as he keeps hitting threes he hits the first one you're like all right let's see what happens he hits the second one and I'm starting to feel like that Vince McMahon meme where he's like getting a little bit more excited with each step he hits the third one and I I start to really feel it and then I think right as that play was starting I'm like okay if he makes this one it's going to basically be the game and so I've got to have something for that and so for whatever reason that's what pops into my head you have only you know a couple of seconds essentially to think about it before it actually goes up and then when it left his hand I'm like Ah that's not going in and so yeah I think because as you said everyone at home was screaming their heads off Dwayne Wade jumped on my back so I'm giving him a piggyback ride happening uh and I just I just let loose I just said whatever popped in and that's what happened to be the words that kind of came to my head Noah Eagle who was the voice of Team USA Hoops for the Olympics is with us on 957 the game How much time did he spend with the players Noah how how much time did you spend with the guys away from the court because I think our listeners would love to know kind of how their presence their celebrity and their Vibe landed with the locals on the scene so yeah Dwayne Dwayne had a little bit more time than I did you know because I was doing the and the women I had games daily and so for me I got to see them you know before games pregame I got to see the coaches and I I got to see Steve a little bit I saw ton Lou Who I was close with for my time with the Clippers I saw Eric spola who would come and talk with us a lot and so we got a lot of information from those from gr Hill who I know quite well works with my father a lot and is is very close with him so I got to really feel like I I could learn as much as I needed to from all those guys guys but yeah we got to see how the how the kind of crowds responded I mean I will tell you this I did a variety of non Us games on top of all the US games and it was just fascinating to watch how the crowds would formulate before each game now if it's a France game and Victor wanyama comes out and I'll never forget the moment day one France played Brazil and wemi led the team out an hour before tip off he was the first one on the court and the French fans were already basically fully in the building it was almost 100% full and he took the basketball and he chucked up a shot from half court and made it and I've never heard noise quite like that an hour before tip until the next day when LeBron James came out first took the ball slammed and then Steph came out about 20 minutes later and it was deafening so that's that's really what I was experiencing was okay these guys are are such a draw right now that the arena is full over an hour before the tip starts and you see that to a certain degree Steph definitely galvanizes people at the NBA level and they come to see him warm up and I get that this was different and even for them just walking around and being around Dwayne you know we would go out in the public and it was crazy people were lining up at the hotel at 9:00 a.m. just to hope to see them before we left for the eventual day of basketball so it was really cool to see how the fandom has really been globalized the way the NBA has hoped it would be and I think the games obviously deliver down the stretch because only will help that cause moving forward no you you might have just described it but but as broadcasters were along for the ride right we're never the story but we stumble into these special moments and What was the most special moment we experience these things that we never thought we'd experience as broadcasters is there one moment after the USA won the gold that'll be stamped in your brain forever a special moment that you shared with somebody or happened to you off the court away from the broadcast yeah I mean I think sharing it with the entire broadcast team is always special and definitely in this case because it was Dwayne's first time calling games and so to do it with him and he's got a chance if he wants to to go on to be one of the great analysts in the game uh the great analyst period on television if he really wants to because his work ethic was Apparent from day one the way he showed up the positive disposition he brought and the desire to be good at it so he has all the tools if he truly wants to so to be there for what could be the start of a legendary broadcasting career was was cool in itself but I think for us what we got to see is and this is what you always hear Mike K says it almost every year during the NBA Finals the fact that you get to see these alltime names act like kids again when they win their gold when they win their title when they win that Pinnacle when they reach that and it's like this sigh of oh my gosh we've actually done this we we completed our our goal uh and so we got to see that and even just that the fact that it was Steph KD and Lebron together and that was awesome but the one moment that really will stick out is LeBron coming over right after the game his entire family was sitting right below us to our right and he had a handshake I mean people have seen the videos he had a handshake special for each of his three kids he went over to his wife and he's trying to give her kisses but he's sweating so much that she's like stop it I wait till you cool off a little bit maybe a towel would be nice and just just seeing little moments of interaction of emotion and legitimate exuberance that's really what we do this for and so that was cool nothing says marriage like when you're having one of the Great Moments of your life and your spouse responds with ew gross yeah it doesn't matter who you are you can be a random person who just happened to be a fan of the nose beds or King James it's irrelevant Noah Eagle the voice of Team USA Hoops with the Olympics is joining us here wither and dibs 957 the game at FP is in for dibs today Noah you mentioned earlier that we you know especially us here we know who Steph is and and and his place in history um however In This Moment he was also a star who missed the playoffs and and is What changed for Noah on the wrong side of 35 so I don't know that a lot of us saw this level coming what changed for you if anything with the way you view Stephan's Legacy yeah I don't think because to your point I think I've been so plugged in with the league for so long whether as a fan or now in the last five plus years as broadcaster that for me I I knew what step was I knew what step is and I certainly know what step is going to continue to be until his career is over and that is the greatest shooter of all time who raises the level of his teammates one of the just plain best players we have ever seen and someone who quite literally changed the game so I I think everybody kind of knew that but I think this was a reminder of just how special he is this is a reminder that he easily can be on that Mount Rushmore conversation of alltime basketball names and alltime basketball moments and this was just another one of those so when you talk about Legacy to me Legacy always you start to think and list off the moments you can say for Magic Johnson you can talk about National Championship in Michigan State you can talk about rookie year with Kareem injured and the performance that he put together to win the Lakers the championship you can talk about the showtime era you can talk about some of these moments and then being essentially the person to bring the dream teene together that was like the conclusion or the the final piece the missing piece of his legacy you could say the same with Michael Jordan with oh a spectacular move or you could do the shot on Elo or the shot against the Utah Jazz on Russell so many moments and the same with LeBron the chase down block an aala the the moments over the course of his career where he just showed up game six against Boston the Lakers guiding them to a championship so it's all moments to me this is just the final moment that step was lacking in his mind he didn't need it to solidify anything but it's nice to have that extra kind of towards the Finish Line when you start having conversations and for him I think that's what this is It's that final piece in whatever Legacy he's trying to create at this point which has already been complete it's just even more complete after these couple of weeks no same kind of question about Steve kerk because we watching the Olympics you know we saw the swimmers you know celebrating a silver or a bronze or we saw the the male gymnast celebrating a bronze medal and we're like that's so cool and you could feel the emotion but a silver medal with USA basketball was not Steve Kerr acceptable I mean in our country we're the only country where if you win a silver in basketball it's a bad thing so I can't imagine the pressure that that coaching staff was under did you see Steve Kerr feeling that or was he just the same guy every day I mean Steve was was Steve and I think he always is Steve and that is certainly at least in the exterior of things he is going to be pretty much Cal cool and collected and I think we saw that through the games and if you were within the Huddle and you know our our sideline reporter zor Stevenson was listening into every huddle even during that Serbia game where they were down 17 points and it felt like oh they're gonna lose they're G they're not going to win this gold medal Steve was incredibly calm he was incredibly optimistic and he basically just kept reaffirming to the team we're going to win we're going to get this done just keep staying the course and eventually things will start going our way and he was correct I think for Steve and for any coach of this team one you're right the pressure is ridiculous but two there was so much outside noise about who was playing and who was not playing during the course of this run to me I thought he handled it so well he always does and he's had experience obviously because the Warriors have had some alltime teams with some alltime names and guys are just going to be left off the floor it's just how things go but the way he handled himself over the course of this amidst all that chaos and all that noise I thought was really impressive and if we're being honest you take a step back and you really look at the rotations and the guys that he played when it mattered the most it's hard to argue because the results eventually found their way and the results eventually were exactly where you wanted them to be so I think Steve handled it great I think it's another chapter for him there's a reason he was listed as one of the top 15 coaches of all time there's a reason that his winning percentage is as high as anybody in NBA history there's a reason that he has four championships to his name because he is a special special coach who understands how to manage different Dynamics and Egos and understands the game inside and out and so I think we got another example of that hey Noah you're probably aware of this but the the big debate in the Bay Area this off season coming off of a playoff Miss has been sort of the remainder of Steph's career Steph Curry um how aggressive the Warriors should be with that and what do they owe him with this kind of a performance whether fair or not I think it's rekindled the idea for some that Steph can still be an NBA one on a really really high level team what are your thoughts on how this experience may have changed both the narrative in Steph's mind and from sort of The Outsiders at at large in terms of what the Warriors should do next I mean I think that Steph has felt this way regardless like Steph has Supreme confidence in his game and rightfully so he always has I think he's always felt that so long as he's healthy he's going to guide teams to wins and even when the warriors were in whole a couple years ago when clay was still out and Draymond was in and out of the lineup and they were just trying to integrate Andrew Wiggins the proper way and the year before the championship Steph was dragging them across the Finish Line in a lot of games and they eventually lose in the playing tournament and it kind of sets them up for the following year and then we saw what happened so I think Steph has always felt that way so it doesn't change with him but yeah the outside perspective might be a little different I think maybe fans who felt ah I don't know you know he's getting older he's getting closer to 40 is he really going to be able to do this this changes that now I will say this it's a little bit different than the course of an 82 game schedule and I think you could say the same with LeBron James who's going to be 40 this year he clearly can still play at a top end level he clearly can still reach that one of the best players in the world level of basketball but can he do that over 82 games with backto backs and then preseason and postseason and everything in between that Still Remains to be seen and I I'd say that's probably the same with Steph in a certain way where he can give you stretches and we saw it down the stretch with the final two games but that was a couple weeks you know if you go through the exhibitions and everything it's five six weeks total that's not months and months and months of wear and tear on the body so for the Warriors I think there's a lot of decisions to be made clearly they have made a conscious effort to continue to develop some of the youth that they've brought in and they've got a lot of of belief in psky and kaminga and Moody and hopeful the hopeful aspect of what they can provide in the future because you do almost need to toggle between the two you either have to go all in on step or you have to allow him to be the conduit to what the future of this franchise is going to look like and we know with Steph Curry probably his best attribute is his selflessness and his willingness to do whatever it takes to put the team first and so if that's what it is that's what it is but I think it still remains to be seen what they're going to do Noah Eagle who called all the Team USA games in France right here on 957 the game no I only need to know one more thing and that is how old were you when people started calling the house and not being able to tell the difference between you and your dad I was two and a half okay pay the under no I I I feel like I remember the exact moment it was I was probably about 14 and I think someone I just answered the phone I didn't say who it was and they just started talking to me as as if I was my dad and then eventually I had to get break the news and I think they were very embarrassed that for year-old would do that now we also have a bunch of listeners who are like what does that mean that people would call the house and somebody would answer it I'm not I'm not quite sure what you're talking about so we might have just lost some people call ID exactly yeah yeah yeah the answering machine the whole deal hey uh Noah tons of fun man thank you so much for doing it and above all great job out there appreciate it guys thanks for having me