Jim Boeheim ‘thrilled’ to be retired following confusing Syracuse exit
At first, Jim Boeheim’s final day as Syracuse men’s basketball coach came with more questions than answers.
There was no mention of “retirement” in the university’s press release. It didn’t include a quote from Boeheim, either.
About two hours after a strange press conference following the Orange’s season-ending loss in the ACC tournament, the overlap of everything sparked questions about his exit.
Boeheim and SU director of athletics John Wildhack tried on Friday to clarify some of what happened, when Adrian Autry was introduced as Syracuse’s next coach.
The 78-year-ol꧒d Boeheim said he was “thrilled to be retired,” adding that he has felt better the last two days than in the past 47 years — the length of his tenure with the Orange.
“Most schools don’t have a plan, 99 out of 100 do not have a plan,” Boeheim . “John Wildhack had a plan, the University had a plan and I was a part of that plan. And that plan is now in place.”
Most years, Boeheim said, he do🐈esn’t think about retirement.
But near the end of the 2022-2ꦿ3 season, when the Orange lost four consecu𝔍tive games to extinguish any hopes of a postseason berth, Boeheim “felt this was the right time.”
H🐼e met with Wildhack last Friday, but Boeheim and Wildhack echoed that Wednesd♐ay’s odd press conference happened before everything had been finalized.
Boeheim informed his players back at the team hotel Wednesday eve♎ning that he planned to retire.
That rushed the process to finalize a press release, though Wildhack sai🗹d he spoke to𒁃 Boeheim in his hotel room before and after the release was published.
“We’ve executed the plan,” Wildhack said. “Any plan that you do, there’s some twists and turns to it, but what’s most important is the outcome. We have the right outcome.”
That plan included skippin⭕g a national search and promoting Autry, who’d serve as Boeheim’s associate head coach.
Boeheim has known Autry, 51, since he was 1༒6 yea♔rs old and scored 30 points in a New York City high school basketball game.
Autry committed to Syracuse, began his coaching career elsewhere and eventual🥃ly returned to his alma mater ahead 😼of the 2011-12 season.
“There’s no friction,” Wildhack said about the end of Boeheim’s tenure with the Orange. “We’ve had a lot of conversations over the years, and they’ve been good, constructive conversations. And part of that, [Boeheim] helped build this plan. I would be crazy not to ask for his input and take his input seriously.”
Boeheim thanked his💞 wife, Juli, and his four children, including Jimmy and Buddy who played together at SU last year and gave their father “one of my most rewarding seasons ever.”
Boeheim also thanked the media — who he clashed with in press conferences — and said the claim that SU didn’t treat him ꧅properly near the end of his career is “not true.”
ꦍHe also recalled an anecdote where Juli, then-assistant Rick Pitino and Pitino’s wife also selected places they wanted to live.
One selected Paris. Another picked Bermuda. T♒he other, California.
When Boeheim replied with Syracuse as his answer, Juliဣ, Pitino and Pitino’s wife all walked away fro🍰m him.
“Guess what? I’m still here,” Boeheim said.