My favorite Gerry McNamara story involved my freshman year News Writing course with Ann Hettinger. At that time, the Orange had the charismatic Jonny Flynn at the point and he was the leader of a team that could have been described as “delightfully untamed.” Flynn was not only the scorer and distributor on that team, he was also the darling of the fans. And with speculation on whether or not he was going to stay (Spoiler: He didn’t), his fandom reached an all-time high
So, Hettinger poses a question in class. Who would be more beloved in Syracuse, Jonny Flynn if he left…or the recently departed Gerry McNamara?
The class was in total union with its answer.
It was Gerry McNamara, without question.
(They brought buses from Scranton to see his last game. Buses.)
That’s probably why the video in itself made exactly zero sense to me. Exactly how was Gerry McNamara overrated? Did people expect him to score 20 points and have 5 assists per game? Wasn't he always a spot-up shooter with range and a flair for the dramatic? Couldn't he simply be scorching, to the point that if he hit one three, there always seemed to be more to follow?
My guess(and again, this is purely speculation based on a well-written piece by Ethan Ramsey) is that it’s a lot like Kris Joseph this year. A spectacularly talented player is supposed to reach some point, but can’t really make for some odd reason or another. For Joseph, it was the role of being the leader on the team, but his inability to drive gave that role to Rick Jackson.
For McNamara, it was the role of campus legend. At that point, he hadn’t filled it and no one was really helping him in that regard.
Then again, there was still the Big East Tournamet, the 2006 version of which would be affectionately dubbed as the “Gerry McNamara Invitational.”
And there will always be overrated.
(The picture that describes McNamara's college career)
Enjoy.
0:00-For the record, this is just after a victory over Cincinnati in which McNamara decided to take a runner from behind the three-point line and buried it with less than a second left to win the game. The player in the blue is forward Terrence Roberts. If anyone knows the identity of the bald gentlemen in blue, please let me know.
0:09-When Boeheim gets upset at the press conference, he always starts off calm before he begins to steam like a pot of vegetables. No idea why this is, but it always happens.
0:27-This is just in a full disclosure bit which has been borrowed from an SI Campus article by Adam Kilgore. In it, he stated(the first part I can verify through the DO’s archives) that the original piece was an argument/counter-argument on whether or not McNamara was overrated. The assistant coaches Boeheim cites, by the way, were part of a completely separate poll conducted by The Syracuse Post-Standard and had nothing to do with the Daily Orange article.
0:31-The f-bomb of the press conference. It’s the infamous 10 “f---ing” games line.
0:38-How do you feel if you’re Terrence Roberts and Boeheim says the “they needed him” bit. Why can’t the camera show his face? Does he have the slow nod going, well aware of the fact that McNamara runs the team? Or is it more of a “Wait…what” face, where he’s trying to comprehend what Boeheim just said.
0:53-“It’s the most bullshit thing I’ve seen in 30 years.” My personal favorite line of the press conference and an epic Jim Boeheim quote. That’s senior year worthy right there.
1:07-Jim Boeheim wants a cagematch with the assistant coaches. Somehow, Mr. Boeheim, I don’t think you’ll ever know any of them that picked Gerry.
1:23-“And yet the coaches voted him first-team All-Conference. Of course, the head coaches, they don’t know shit I guess.” To be honest, Mr. Boeheim, the league does have its idiotic coaches…actually, when Jim Calhoun is coaching the nine seed, there’s probably not going to be a lot of dumb ones. Scratch that.
1:32-“Is there a fine for that?” Cue the sitcom-like laughter from the press conference.
Is it wrong that I keep waiting for it to freeze after the laughter with the words “Executive Producer: Gary David Goldberg."
And to answer Boeheim’s question, there shouldn’t be a fine. Just a YouTube video that will live on in every Syracuse fan’s mind.
—Pete Gegick
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