Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim is famous for his press conference rants but there is perhaps none more iconic than his epic defense of Gerry McNamara after the guard willed the Orange to victory in the first round of the Big East Tournament in 2006.
Specifically, what everyone remembers most about the rant is the line about how many games Syracuse would have won that season without McNamara, who had been dubbed “overrated” in a Daily Orange article before the tournament.
“Without Gerry McNamara, we wouldn’t have won 10 f***ing games this year, ” Boeheim said. “OK? Not 10. The other guys just aren’t ready. They needed him. Without him there, not 10. We wouldn’t be here to even have a chance to play this game. And everybody’s talking to me and writing about Gerry McNamara being overrated? That’s the most bulls*** thing I’ve seen in 30 years — and especially if it comes from our people in our papers.”
McNamara would go on to lead Syracuse to the Big East Tournament championship and a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
https://twitter.com/NunesMagician/status/1369284642931679234
Now, 16 years later, Boeheim would like to revise his sentiment about how many games his team would have won during the 2005-2006 season had McNamara not been there. Boeheim spoke about the infamous rant during an appearance on The Devo Show Wednesday.
"We probably would have won ten games without @Coach_McNamara, but not many more."
Jim Boeheim covered at least 10 🤬 topics today on The Devo Show with @ED23HOOPS, @RealKrisJo and @pauliescibilia. Full episode below! 👇https://t.co/kh0ad8S6ZT pic.twitter.com/Fp5G5r4sxa
— Cuse Sports Talk (@CuseSportsTalk_) May 4, 2022
“They wrote an article…that one assistant coach said [McNamara] wasn’t a good player. It wasn’t that he wasn’t a great player, that he wasn’t a good player. He made first-team all-conference, so, the coaches voted on that. So obviously the head coaches felt that. So when it came up in the thing, I probably went a little too far.
“We probably would have won ten games without Gerry but not many more. He had a monster year. Then he had a monster Big East Tournament. Think he made three game-winning shots and a game-winning play in the other one…so he validated what I said about him. I’m always gonna err on the side of protecting my players.”
Jim Boeheim changes his tune after famously saying Syracuse wouldn't have won 10 f—ing games without G-Mac https://t.co/gbMVhP8yBl
— Geoff Herbert (@deafgeoff) May 4, 2022
Of course, the rant doesn’t work quite as well if Jim yells “We would have won a little more than ten f***ing games but not many more!” And besides, Boeheim’s tendency to be a little hyperbolic at times has certainly kept things interesting in Central New York over the years. So we’ll still take the original version over the revision.
