We’re just about as confused as Casual Hoya about the most recent news to come out of upstate New York: former men’s basketball coach and all-around bad-ass John Thompson, Jr. was honored last night by Syracuse’s Temple Adath Yeshurun.

That’s right. In the same city where tens of thousands of people regularly booed him, Thompson was named “Citizen of the Year.”

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, who once had a vicious rivalry with Thompson, delivered the ceremony’s opening speech.

“I’m just proud I can call John Thompson my friend,” Boeheim said. “It should never get personal … sometimes for fans I think it gets too personal.”

Thompson, who brought a national championship and three Final Four appearances to Georgetown over his 27-year career, was equally gracious—but couldn’t avoid taking one goodhearted jab at Syracuse.

“As competitive as the relationships have been in the past, I’ve always respected you as fans because I thought the people of Syracuse appreciated basketball,” Thompson said. “But as appreciative as I am, I ain’t coming back.”

That’ll do, Big John. That’ll do.

John Thompson’s speech to Temple Adath Yeshurun:

Photo via syracuse.com.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 1st, 2010 at 11:59 am and is filed under Sports, Vox Populi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.