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The return of the Syracuse Orange men’s basketball season means that we get more pearls of wisdom from Jim Boeheim. Now Jim will always vow to tell it like it is, the fact is that he often leaves just enough wiggle room to disagree with your interpretation of his comments....that’s “Heimperbole”.
We’ll look at some of James’ reports from Media Day for the best Boeheim bon-mots and try to interpret his true meaning.
Jim Boeheim says that Joe Girard is the most improved in the backcourt. Says he’s better than everyone on the internet thinks. Jokes and calls them haters.
— James Szuba (@JamesSzuba) October 22, 2021
Is @tatefrazier asking these questions?
Not counting the walk-ons the only other backcourt player returning for Syracuse is Buddy Boeheim so is Jim saying he hasn’t improved that much this summer? Or do you read it as Joe wasn’t good last year but this year he’ll be better. Whatever you think Jim means, you’re wrong. On to the next one....
Jim Boeheim says he’s never really thought about retirement. Says people have been asking for 15 years and the reason people ask is because he’s old.
— James Szuba (@JamesSzuba) October 22, 2021
“What do I have to do, stay here 20 more years for you stop asking me that?”
By Boeheim’s math that would mean people were asking him in 2006 if he was retiring. Do we really think a lot of people were asking him if he was retiring because G-Mac’s eligibility was finished? This was probably Rick Pitino asking because he was looking to get out of Louisville after a NIT berth.
We also got these:
- “Cole Swider’s the best shooting forward since Preston Shumpert” which means Jim considers Tyler Lydon a center, Demetris Nichols a guard and Andrew White a Nebraska player.
- “Warren Buffett still works at 90 years of age” What’s Warren’s 2022 recruiting class looking like?
- And speaking of 2022 recruiting classes, this one was my favorite and caught James so off-guard he couldn’t make note of it.
Jim Boeheim said the 5-man 2022 recruiting class is “the best we’ve ever had.”
— Donna Ditota (@DonnaDitota1) October 22, 2021
Said he believed it was underrated.
Consulting my Boeheim translator I’m getting “best class” as best group of 5 players who could share the court at the same time. Clearly there is no recruiting class topping the 2002 Melo/McNamara in terms of success but Jim’s probably tired of hearing how he lost Dior Johnson and Kamari Lands and missed out on several other big targets. Could this group be underrated sure, but “best ever”? Well that’s why we call it Heimperbole.
With another season of no jacket tosses looming maybe we’ll make this a recurring feature. I mean it’s bound to be the most impactful idea I’ve had and lead to the biggest increase in clicks in NunesMagician history.