Farewell Vinsanity? A lookback at Vince Carter’s career highlights

 

 

MANILA, Philippines – After 3 long months, the NBA just announced that it would resume the 2019-2020 season with a shortened format and just 22 out of 30 teams invited to play at Disney World Orlando in Florida.

Each of the 22 teams, 13 from the Western Conference and 9 from the East, all have clinched a playoff berth or are just a few games from getting one. (READ: NBA back soon as board approves return-to-play plan)

This basically eliminated 7 bottom-ranked teams from both conferences from playoff contention, joining the Golden State Warriors who got booted out just before the virus-hit season was postponed. 

One of those teams is the Atlanta Hawks, who now have to face the reality that their veteran leader Vince Carter may just have seen his legendary career come to an end in the most unique, but ultimately unceremonious manner. 

If this is indeed the end for “Vinsanity” after 22 long years, it is only fitting that his career would be celebrated across the basketball world and the following are just some of the moments that deserve a look back.

  

Four-decade flyer 

Last January 4, Carter became the first player in NBA history to play in 4 different decades: the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s. 

He checked in for the Hawks at their home game against the Indiana Pacers to one of numerous standing ovations he has received during his latter years.

 

 

Prior to that milestone, he also became the first player to ever play 22 seasons in the league, surpassing fellow legends Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Garnett, Robert Parish and Kevin Willis. 

To put that 22-year career into perspective, 62 players currently in the NBA were born after Carter was drafted. That’s 14% of the league’s player population. 

When even the simple act of checking into a game garners a standing ovation, you just know that player has had a career worth talking about for years to come.

  

From superstar to bench beast 

By the time the 2010s rolled around, Carter easily accepted that his prime was over, and that he would be more useful to teams in a sixth man role. 

This move was formalized during his second season with the Dallas Mavericks as the eight-time All-Star replaced Jason Terry as the team’s lead reserve. 

After a subpar 2011-2012 season where Carter averaged just 10.1 points on 41% shooting as a starter, those numbers jumped to 13.4 points on a 44% clip in just 0.5 more minutes upon moving to the bench. 

Although the Mavericks never got past the first round of the playoffs all 3 of Carter’s years there, he did provide one of the most memorable postseason moments of the decade with a fall-away buzzer-beater against the San Antonio Spurs in 2014.

 

 

From there, Carter continued to be a serviceable role player with much-needed playoff experience as he helped the Memphis Grizzlies to 3 straight postseason appearances from 2015 to 2017.

  

‘Dunk of death’

In just his third season in the NBA, Carter got selected to join the 2000 US men’s basketball Olympics team alongside future Hall of Famers like Garnett, Gary Payton, Alonzo Mourning and Ray Allen. 

While facing tough competition against Lithuania and France, Carter completed arguably the most iconic dunk in basketball history after jumping clean over 7-foot-2 Frenchman Frederic Weis in their final game of the group stage.

 

 

Weis’ unexpected posterization was so iconic that the French media themselves took the liberty of naming the moment le dunk de la mort or “the dunk of death.” 

Fifteen years after the most damaging moment of his basketball career, Weis had this to say in a commemorative article by ESPN: “I learned people can fly.”

 

‘Let’s go home’

In that same year, just a few months prior, Carter solidified his place as one of the NBA’s fastest-rising entertainers by absolutely destroying the competition in the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest. 

Battling against his cousin Tracy McGrady, Carter performed jaw-dropping dunks one after the other, including the first-ever “honey dip” dunk, where Carter drove his entire forearm up to the elbow into the hoop that drove the crowd into confused silence.

 

 

After Carter’s first dunk, former player and current analyst Kenny Smith delivered one of his most iconic calls in his commentary career, which accurately summed up what the crowd was already feeling at the time. 

“Let’s go home! Let’s go home, ladies and gentlemen! Let’s go home!”

The image of Shaquille O’Neal looking on in complete bewilderment during the call was just the icing on the cake. (READ: Vince Carter almost missed iconic 2000 Dunk Contest) 

Interestingly, what many people may have forgotten in time was the fact that the Slam Dunk Contest was rapidly losing in popularity by the late 1990s and was canceled altogether in 1998 and 1999. 

In just 4 dunks to welcome the new millennium, Carter silenced that doubt and ushered the annual spectacle into a new golden era.

 

Air Canada

Last, but definitely not the least, Carter was also majorly responsible for popularizing basketball in Canada during his exciting, yet ill-fated time with the Toronto Raptors. 

By 1997, the Raptors were nothing more than a mediocre, two-year-old expansion team that had no identity nor a marketable superstar who could lead them to the next level.

But their fortunes turned around quickly the following year after selecting Carter out of North Carolina with the fifth pick in the 1998 draft.

 

 

In just his sophomore year, the man soon dubbed as “Air Canada” led the Raptors to their first playoff appearance in franchise history, a feat he repeated twice more since then before being hampered by numerous injuries in his final years with the team. 

Although he eventually forced his way out of Toronto via a trade with the New Jersey (now Brooklyn) Nets, Carter’s cultural impact breathed new life into Canadian basketball in general, and an article from Canada-based Sportsnet summed it up best. 

“There’s no question that Carter left an important legacy behind that helped grow the game of basketball not just in Toronto, but Canada as a whole,” the article read. 

“For many Canadian hoops fans, Carter’s Raptors years were some of the most formative basketball memories in their lives and helped lay down the foundation of Canadian NBA talent we see today through the likes of Cory Joseph, Tristan Thompson and Andrew Wiggins.” 

All in all, Carter’s two decade-long career told two stories that defined him as a competitor. 

For 22 years, “Vinsanity” was the ultimate showman who wowed crowds with either his skyscraping slams during his early years or his steely veteran leadership during the tail end of his career.

Carter kept fans glued to their TV screens with his play on the court and his drama off of it – a dynamic fully befitting the life of a natural entertainer. 

As the years went on, he traded controversy for camaraderie and won over even more hearts along the way. (READ: Vince Carter shares secret behind 22-year NBA journey)

Although he did not ever win an NBA championship despite all of his chances to get one, Carter won something even more valuable: the universal respect of the basketball world following a career that perfectly mixed ability with adaptability. 

If this is indeed Air Canada’s final flight, he surely gave everyone one hell of a ride. – Rappler.com