The ever-colorful Syracuse basketball head coach Jim Boeheim made some truly touching remarks when he got honored by the NABC Foundation.
Syracuse basketball boss Jim Boeheim, who has served at the helm of the SU sidelines for the last 43 stanzas, received the 2019 Court of Honor Award from the National Association of Basketball Coaches Foundation at a gala in New York City earlier this week.
At this esteemed event, whose co-chairs included former ‘Cuse stars Carmelo Anthony and Dave Bing, as well as former Orange assistant Mike Hopkins, Boeheim provided a handful of comedic and heartfelt remarks during his acceptance speech, per a report by Chris Carlson of Syracuse.com. Let’s dive into what JB had to say.
"Regarding Hopkins, Boeheim opined: “Mike Hopkins is an example of what I think college basketball is all about. He came into Syracuse and I wondered many, many times the first couple years why we recruited Michael. He had to play against Stevie Thompson and Derrick Coleman and Billy Owens in practice every day. He never did make a basket for the first two years. But he persevered and he worked and he scrambled and he hustled. He ended up being the captain of our team, a very successful player. He came back to Syracuse and helped us recruit great players, helped us get to tournaments and win national championships and now he’s going to win them at Washington. He’s an example of what I think it’s all about for me, to see that happen.”"
I couldn’t agree more with Boeheim here. While many SU faithful, myself included, felt sad to see Hopkins head for the West Coast, he’s building a tremendously successful program with the Huskies, Hopkins is recruiting at an elite level, and I have every confidence that he will reach a Final Four in the near future.
"Buddy Boeheim, one of Jim Boeheim’s sons, is a rising sophomore guard at the ‘Cuse. The elder Boeheim put forth this beautiful statement about Buddy: “I’ve never been more proud to watch my kids play and to have one of them play for me is the biggest thing that’s happened to me in my life.”"
Considering that Jim Boeheim has captured an NCAA title, gone to five Final Fours, and produced more than 1,000 career losses for his opponents, this is pretty hefty – and appropriate – company for Buddy and his siblings. As a father myself, I totally admire and respect what Jim Boeheim has declared about his children.
"JB is dear friends with Duke’s legendary head coach, Mike Krzyzewski, and the two of them helped guide multiple Olympic units to gold medals. Boeheim gave a funny, yet interesting, series of quotes on working with Krzyzewski at the Olympics: “Mike was using all his X&O magic to make LeBron and Kobe and Kevin be good players, I think on more than one occasion I said ‘Mike, it’s OK.’ We were together for 267 days over those competitions and we never once had a word that was anything but positive in that 267 days. We played 67 games. The other 200 days we watched tape. Can you imagine playing Nigeria and winning 148-62, finishing the game at 1 in the morning and watching tape from 1:30 to 4:30 on that game? … And then we watched the game tape for the next team we would play … Egypt.”"
Gotta love Boeheim. I can only imagine what kind of amazing experience it has proven for JB to coach some of the best basketball players in the world, and to do it alongside Krzyzewski, who is perhaps the most accomplished head coach in the history of Division I men’s hoops. A sincere congratulations to Boeheim on this well-deserved honor!