The reporter couldn’t bring himself to use the word retire when speaking to the coach with 555 career victories.

So, he asked the question in the most respectful way possible.

“Did the ‘R’ word ever cross your mind?” he said, addressing Leonard Hamilton on Monday on the ACC basketball coaches conference call.

“What’s the `R’ word?” Florida State’s 71-year-old coach asked.

“Retirement,” the reporter said.

Hamilton enjoyed a hearty laugh before answering.

“You know what? Absolutely not,” he said. “As long as I can remember their names and read the numbers on their jerseys, I’m going to hang on. I enjoy what I do. I enjoy working with young people.

“I think I’m going to be here for a while, if you guys don’t me run me off.”

He’ll try to add to his enjoyment at Pitt’s expense Tuesday night in a rematch of a game Pitt won, 63-61, on Nov. 6. Hamilton’s Seminoles, (21-4, 11-3 in the ACC and ranked No. 8 in the nation by the Associated Press) will welcome the Panthers (15-11, 6-9) to the Donald L. Tucker Center in Tallahassee, Fla. Tipoff is 8 p.m.

If he never coaches another game, Hamilton will have lived a full life, much of it either with a basketball in his hands or teaching others what to do with it.

As a player, he scored 54 points in a game for Gaston (N.C.) College.

As a respected head coach in four decades and with three Division I schools, he delivered the commencement address at Chipola (Fla.) College in 2016.

He even coached the NBA’s Washington Wizards for one season (2000-01), working for president of basketball operations Michael Jordan. He resigned after finishing 19-63.

The college game has been much kinder. Stretching back into the 1970s, he was an assistant for 12 seasons under the legendary Joe B. Hall at Kentucky before resurrecting programs at Oklahoma State and Miami.

He’s been at Florida State since 2002, compiling a 355-220 record in 18 seasons. By the end of this season, he’ll have guided his FSU teams into 15 NCAA or NIT tournaments and won at least 20 games five consecutive times.

“It seems to have fallen into a good rhythm the last number of years here at Florida State,” he said.

“I’ve never been in a situation where I could necessarily get McDonald’s All-Americans and all the great players. So, we always felt if we had all good players and played with a lot of energy and defended and played with an unselfish spirit, we could find a way to compete.”

Hamilton is the fifth-oldest coach in Division I basketball, but only No. 3 in the ACC behind Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, 75, and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, 73.

Pitt’s Jeff Capel remembers his father, Jeff Capel II, coming home from Nike trips and coaches’ conventions, talking about Hamilton.

Capel, the son, said he has admired Hamilton for many years.

“When I was younger, when I was a player, you looked around and you didn’t see a lot of people who looked like me on the sideline in positions of leadership,” he said.

“When I did, I immediately became a fan of them because my dad was in this profession and he was trying to climb that ladder.”

Capel, 45, was asked if he would like to coach into his 70s.

“I don’t think so,” he said, laughing. “I’m hopeful to be fortunate enough where it can be my decision. That’s the thing with those guys (Krzyzewski, Boeheim, Hamilton and others). They’ve been able to win so it’s their decision whether they stay.”

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