Ian: Exchange with Czar a jokeÂ

Ian: Exchange with Czar a joke 

DUANE BURLESON/AP

FILE - In this Oct. 25, 2006, file photo, Memphis Grizzlies coach Mike Fratello shouts instructions for the sidelines during the second half of their basketball game against the Detroit Pistons in Auburn Hills, Mich. A person familiar with the meeting says the New Orleans Hornets have interviewed Mike Fratello, th e third candidate to meet with the club about its vacant head coaching job. Hornets executives met with Fratello in Cleveland on Wednesday, May 5, 2010, the person told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the club has not officially announced interviewing Fratello. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson, File)

Ian (The Bird) Eagle left the Prudential Center Saturday night figuring the stars were properly aligned and the status was quo. The Nets had lost another game, but he was satisfied with the YES broadcast.

That was until his partner, Mike (Czar of the Telestrator) Fratello, phoned Sunday. Did we say something on the air last night that people are talking about? Fratello asked Eagle.

The Bird had no answer. He went online and saw where Deadspin was saying he had A Whiny Meltdown Last Night. He saw other posts, plenty of others, reporting the same story with similar negative characterizations. It soon became clear to him that one mans attem pt at sarcasm is anothers whiny meltdown.

People believe this is real? That Mike and I would go off on each other on the air? Eagle asked Monday over the telephone. Who in a serious fight would ever use the term gobbledygook?

That was one of the words Eagle enunciated in the exchange in question, which took place down the stretch of the Nets 94-82 loss. Eagle, going into his familiar deadpan mode (Nets fans, the few, the proud, the desperate, have heard it often), took issue with Fratello over an earlier reference to a slip-screen.

Eagle: Earlier, you had a very patronizing tone towards me. I fully understand what a slip-screen is. Ive been doing the NBA for 18 years. But the way you presented it, initially, was gobbledygook. So, like the audience, I wanted you to come back and explain yourself. And you, then, just took a firing line on me, and it was uncalled for.

Fratello: I dont think so at all.

Eagle: Thats exactly what happened.

Fratello: Youre overly sensitive tonight.

Eagle: I am not.

Fratello: Did you have a bad day today. . . . The ride back from Philly. Did it disturb you last night?

Eagle: That was two hours with you, which is probably the reason why Ive had enough tonight.

Now, Eagle becomes one of the few people who can take solace over being called whiny. Not that hes thrilled how the exchange went viral, but he knows he got over.

Every bit of that was a put-on. Not 40. Not 70. It was 100 busting each others chops, Eagle said. We do it every game. What happens sometimes is the local audience knows what were up to, but when something like this goes viral the unfortunate part is the familiarity goes out the window. There are people who just dont get it, theyre not in on the joke. . . . Sarcasm is hard to comprehend, especially when you cant see the broadcasters.