Article by Dan Tortora
Jim Boeheim left the building...
And then he left the building.
Shortly after the 77-74 last-second loss to the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, Boeheim addressed the media.
He said he had already given his retirement speech, but alleged that most people did not catch it.
Yet he was non-commital when directly asked if he was or was not retiring now that the 2022-23 season had come to an end.
Syracuse University would open its locker room to the media at the Greensboro Coliseum in North Carolina.
Then, they left.
The news broke before the plane could seemingly take off from Greensboro back to Syracuse, New York.
47 years.
Add onto that coaching as an assistant under his predecessor Roy Danforth and before that his playing days as a member of the Orange and you have five decades in one place, with one team, his entire career in basketball, outside of Team USA, of course.
Jim Boeheim has retired.
The question that I have been asked almost as much as "how are you?" or "how can I help you?" has been answered.
I, like many, have not ever seen a world without Boeheim on the sideline at Syracuse.
He has been there my whole life, and then some.
Yet today, Wednesday, March 8th, 2023, that changed.
In 47 seasons, Boeheim guided the Orange to the NCAA Tournament 35 times.
He coached Syracuse to the NCAA Final Four five times in four decades, heading to the Final Four in 1987, 1996, 2003, 2013, and 2016, winning a National Championship in the 2002-03 season.
In total, Boeheim has won over 1,100 games.
1,116 to be exact.
And, yes, I am saying 1,116 and not 1,015 because you cannot erase history.
Following the 20-year celebration of the greatest win Boeheim ever coached, an 81-78 National Championship victory over the Kansas Jayhawks, he has chosen to step away, after sharing the Dome once again with the team that achieved what some considered impossible for my hometown of Syracuse, New York.
Like him or not, Boeheim aided in putting Syracuse on the map, not just the university, but the city as a whole.
To many, he is why people even know how to spell the city's name.
They have watched his teams.
Cheered for him.
Yelled at him.
Made the Dome the home of the largest crowds in NCAA Basketball history, time and time again.
Because Boeheim gave people all over the world something to watch, a team to feel good about, to believe in.
I have witnessed it.
I have lived it.
I have seen this team rise time and time again.
But I have never seen a sunrise without Jim Boeheim as the leader of Syracuse basketball.
Until now.
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