Getting your jersey retired in the Carrier Dome?
That's an honor.
Jim Boeheim saying that the Syracuse Orange basketball team would not have won ten games in a season without you?
That's some serious Mount Rushmore shit.
I don't need to remind you about the first person to receive that honor...
Such an honor has not been bestowed since...until now. Boeheim took to the radio airwaves on TK99 where he took Rakeem Christmas to an entirely new level.
"I can make the same statement this year. Without Rakeem we wouldn't win 10 games. That's pretty much for sure. Gerry might have been a little bit of an exaggeration, but Rakeem Christmas, no. Without him we wouldn't have won 10 games. He's been such a force for us all year, right from the beginning."
Boeheim might not be kidding. While Michael Gbinije has emerged as a star and B.J. Johnson has developed into a solid bench player, the Orange were dysfunctional on offense as a whole all year long...except for Christmas. He scored 21 and grabbed nine rebounds in the first game of the season and he's barely let up since. The question of whether or not he's having the best season ever by a Syracuse center is a valid one.
Alas, even with Rak, the Orange will not win one postseason game, let alone ten. And that will unfortunately dampen his legacy outside of Syracuse. So it's up to us to remember. Boeheim's quote goes a long way.