By KEN DAVIS
Right off the top, let’s just agree there was nothing good abuut the Buddy Boeheim situation at the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.
Buddy threw a punch, it wasn’t caught by the officials during the game. It was replaced over and over on ESPN. The ACC ultimately suspended him for the next Syracuse game against Duke. His coach and father, Jim Boeheim, reacted poorly in the post game press conference and called the incident ‘inadvertent.”
The best thing that followed was Buddy’s apology. Everyone knows what he did was out of character. It’s unfortunate the way it all played out. Some agreed with the suspension. Others did not.
Syracuse saved face with a great effort against Duke. Without Buddy, a first-team All-ACC selection, the Orange came up short and the season ended with an 88-79 loss to the Blue Eevils. That means the rarity of Jim Boeheim coaching his two sons is also over.
College basketball fans, those who love Syracuse and those who hate the Orange, need to know what happened after the game. All three Boeheims came into the interview room. And when the game had been discussed, the addressed the elephant in the room.
It’s important to hear their words, especially at a time in this country when people tend to fight when they don’t see things the way others see them.
I’m not in the habit of publishing transcripts, but it seems like a good idea here. So here is how it went down on Thursday (courtesy ASAP Sports.com).
BUDDY BOEHEIM: First off, let me start off by saying I’m so proud of these guys. Sitting on the bench today, I couldn’t be prouder watching my big bro do his thing. It was unbelievable really. I couldn’t be prouder of those guys, just let them know I love them. Obviously, I wanted to be out there, but they couldn’t have played any better.
First, I just want to say I made a mistake, and I have to own up to that. I’ve been thinking about the play for the last 24 hours, to tell you the truth, over and over again why I did it. I think it was just the heat of the moment. I thought he might have ran into me, lowered his shoulder, but it was a clean play besides that.
We hit a big three, I got excited, and turned around — never meant to throw a punch. I don’t think I’ve thrown a punch in my life. But connected with him obviously, maybe tried to get him with my arm or something running back. But never meant to intentionally hurt him or affect him and knock the wind out of him. Luckily that’s really the worst thing that could have happened in that situation.
But Wyatt’s a really good dude. He’s a good player. I would never try to hurt someone, especially him. There was no talking before that, anything that led up to it. It was just an honest mistake on my part. I have to live with that. I have to own up to that. I’m not here to argue whether or not I should have played or if I should have got suspended.
What hurts me the most —
JIM BOEHEIM: I’ll take care of that.
BUDDY BOEHEIM: I got it. What hurts me the most is there’s a lot of kids, a lot of people that look up to me that want to be like me one day, and I can’t tell you how much that means to me. I disappointed them yesterday, and I have to live with that. That’s okay because I know I made a mistake. If you know me, if I’ve known you for ten years, if I’ve known you for ten minutes, I try to treat you with the same amount of respect and kindness and be the best person I can every day. That’s what I’ve always been about.
Forget basketball. I want to be remembered for being a great person off the court.
I hope this doesn’t affect that. I know that it’s a mistake I have to live with. I’ll grow from it. I’ll learn from it. But playing at Syracuse these last four years wearing this jersey, representing this school, my family, myself, it’s meant everything to me. I can’t put that into words.
Forget how many points I scored. Forget all that, the numbers. Being able to play here and just put a smile on someone’s face, being able to interact with fans, every day has been a dream come true, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.
It sucks I had to go out like that, but I’m all about the journey, and the journey has been priceless. There’s been so many good moments that led up to this that I’m so thankful for. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Oh, man, I wanted to say this firsthand, though. The tweet is fine, but I want to say personally myself that I apologize to everyone I let down yesterday because I know I did. I’m most disappointed in myself.
Trust me, I know I’ll learn from this. I’ll grow from this. It’s just something I had to say and wanted to get across because I truly try to be the best person I can every day, and anyone who knows me knows that. That’s why, if this is the worst thing I ever do in my life, I can live with that. I just want to say thank you to everyone who has supported me on this journey. It’s been unbelievable. I’d do anything to wear this uniform. I truly gave it everything I had every day.
JIM BOEHEIM: Thanks, Buddy. I got a couple things to say. Number one, if it was a flagrant two — and it can be, you can say that. We were up 18 points. Buddy had 8 points. He didn’t score any points until we were up 30. So I think it’s fairly obvious we would have won the game without him. If it had been handled properly, they would have looked at the video — they’ve looked at the video every single time this year. The kid was laying on the floor. Wyatt was laying on the floor.
And they’re going to punish those guys? No, they’re not punishing those guys. They’re punishing this guy right here because they didn’t do their job. And the league should have looked at that and said, this would have been out. He would have been out. Don’t let anybody tell you, well, he might have been suspended for the game, this game too. That would never have happened. No one in their right mind would say that.
So they didn’t do their job, so Buddy got punished. That’s what happened.
Now, I’m forever grateful to Leonard Hamilton. He’s a great man. He summarized it for everybody. Let’s move on. Wyatt, who I’ve always had great respect for, he’s a great player, plays hard all the time, said what our league couldn’t say. This is fine. I’ve gotten hit 30 times harder than that. So I’m at a loss.
Like I said, if it was handled right and they wanted it to be a flagrant two, he’d have been out yesterday. They didn’t do it right. So a kid that’s given everything to this league for four years — and just because you’re a great kid doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be punished. He should have been. He should have been out of the game. And then we play today. I’m not sure we play any better. We might not. They may have risen to the occasion. I don’t know. We might have lost by 20 today.
That’s not the point. That’s not the point. It should have been handled yesterday. It wasn’t. And the league should not punish this guy. It makes no common sense to me.
There’s also something about in all sports I’ve ever seen, you do something and you’ve done a lot of shit in your life in the league you’re in, they hit you. They give you the maximum, right? And if you’ve been good, they give you a punishment. Buddy got the maximum punishment today. This is the maximum. I’ve seen people tackle people, knock them into the stands, and they get a one-game suspension. So he got the maximum for this.
In spite of what Leonard Hamilton said and in spite of what, the player who was involved — I mean, you look at the video. You all disagree — said it wasn’t a punch. We didn’t ask him to do that. I didn’t even know he was going to do that. That’s what he said. They never asked him what happened. Just like they never listened to him when he said, I got hit. So it wasn’t handled right, bottom line, period.
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