As his jersey came down, so did the tears.
From Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf himself. From his family around him. From his former head coach, Dale Brown.
So much more went into this moment, as Abdul-Rauf's No. 35 went permanently into the rafters Saturday in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, than the 1,864 points he tallied in two seasons as a Tiger, or the hundreds of thousands of fans he inspired with his transformative play, or the 30 years that spanned the last time he stepped on the PMAC floor to now.
"Never could I have written this story for myself," Abdul-Rauf said Saturday.