Jim Boeheim is the ACC’s version of the annoying uncle who makes everyone cringe when he shows up to a family function.

You know the type. Almost every family has one.

He’s the guy with no filter who can be counted on to anger or offend someone, if not everyone in attendance by saying the wrong thing at just the right time until eventually, he stops getting invited.

Boeheim may finally have crossed the line to that point over the past couple of weeks.

Syracuse’s Hall of Fame coach has always been something of a curmudgeon. Arms folded, sour look on his face as he stares down an official during the game or an inquisitive reporter afterward, it’s a role in which he seems to revel.

Two years ago, at the ACC’s annual basketball tipoff event in Charlotte, I asked his son Buddy if his dad was as grumpy away from the court as he looks when he’s working.

He said no. It’s just a character he plays.

If that’s the case, it’s a character whose shtick has grown old and tired.

It might be entertaining when Boeheim rails against the ACC Tournament being held in Greensboro because of its lack of fine dining options or complains incessantly about the hypocrisy of the NCAA. 

Bullying a student reporter for asking him a legitimate question in a postgame press conference isn’t.

It’s just mean.

But even that pales by comparison to what he did and said Saturday.

Boeheim was railing away to ESPN’s Pete Thamel about the evils of the transfer portal and name, image and likeness compensation for players when he straight-out accused 3 ACC rivals – all of which are currently above the Orange in the league standings – of doing something that is if not illegal, unethical.

“This is an awful place we’re in, in college basketball,” he told Thamel. “Pittsburgh bought a team. OK, fine. My (big donor) talks about it, but he doesn’t give anyone any money. Nothing. Not 1 guy. 

“Our guys make like $20,000. Wake Forest bought a team. Miami bought a team. It’s like, ‘Really? This is who we are?’ That’s really where we are and it’s only going to get worse.”

Although Miami star Isaiah Wong made headlines last summer by threatening to transfer if he didn’t get a better NIL deal, there’s no evidence of any wrongdoing on the part of anyone involved. 

The same goes for Pitt and Wake, both of which have successfully used the transfer portal to make drastic improvements to their program.

It’s even laughable that Boeheim included the Deacons in the conversation. Suggesting that the nation’s smallest Power 5 school is outbidding the big boys at high-profile state schools for players is a little like Lichtenstein outbidding Los Angeles for the 2028 Summer Olympics.

Boeheim has since issued 2 statements, undoubtedly at the urging of his athletic director or other school officials, in an attempt to “clarify” his comment. Pittsburgh coach Jeff Capel and Wake Forest’s Steve Forbes said he also reached out directly to them once the you-know-what hit the fan Saturday night.

Neither was in the mood to talk about the issue at hand or the conversation with Boeheim on the ACC’s weekly coach’s Zoom conference Monday.

If they were so inclined, they would have been justified in telling Boeheim what Rick Barnes said to the late Dean Smith during a memorable sideline confrontation at the 1995 ACC Tournament:

“You coach your team, I’ll coach mine.”

Boeheim was just as eager as his coaching counterparts for this latest self-created firestorm blow over.

Given his history, it’s only a matter of time before the next one. 

Such controversies come with the territory with Boeheim. They’ve become even more amplified over the past few years because of the drop-off his program has experienced since joining the ACC in 2013.

His Orange has finished higher than a tie for 6th in the conference only once and have won as many as 20 games only twice in the past 8 seasons. At 14-10 overall and No. 97 in the current NET rankings, they’ll likely miss out on the NCAA Tournament for the 2nd straight year.

It’s that decline that has made even his most strident supporters less tolerant of his verbal antics and has a growing number of Syracuse fans hoping that this season will be the 78-year-old’s last.

If that turns out to be the case, it would be deliciously fitting that the ACC Tournament – and presumably his final game – is played in Greensboro.

He’ll be doing everyone, including the program he built into one of the nation’s best over the past 47 years, a favor if he decides to retire. From the sound of things, though, he isn’t planning on going anywhere anytime soon. 

He told SI’s Thamel in the same interview that stirred things up on Saturday that he would “probably” return next season.

Boeheim had the perfect opportunity to walk away after last season when his 2 sons who played for him both finished their careers for the Orange. But rather than riding off into the sunset as did fellow ACC legends Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski, it appears as if he might have to be dragged from the Dome kicking and screaming.

Perhaps he’s trying to stick around long enough to surpass his old pal Krzyzewski’s career record of 1,202 wins. But even if you factor in the 101 wins that were vacated by the NCAA, that would still take at least 4 more seasons.

That is, unless he finds a donor willing to help him buy a team capable of getting there faster.