Really happy to see him enjoying himself. I just don't think he could bring himself to take that step / say the "R" word aloud, so when his hand was forced -- you could almost feel the pressure that had built up deflate, and he was good with it.
Personally speaking -- and with no disrespect intended toward JB -- I'm ALSO enjoying his retirement, because the new blood at the helm has already interjected a sense of excitement back into the basketball program.
The impressive roster reconstruction wouldn't have been possible if JB had stuck around -- and in fact we probably would have experienced a mass exodus of existing players who didn't want to return. Let alone added the new players like JJ / Westry / Cuffe, Mintz returning, etc. Impossible to envision that Benny, Mintz, Brown, and those newcomers would be suiting up next year for the Orange if JB had hung around for another season.
Win-win.
The change was long overdue, and needed to happen. And now that it has, we can celebrate JB's legendary accomplishments and move on from the 9 year program decline in parallel.