As one of the most electric players in NBA history, most teams would never even think of parting with Vince Carter while he was in the midst of his prime. To the benefit of the New Jersey Nets however, the Toronto Raptors decided that it would be best to move on from their superstar shooting guard.
Although a trade had been rumored to be in the works for weeks and Head Coach Sam Mitchell had been benching him in fourth quarters at some points throughout the season, as Carter tells Nothin’ But Nets, it was a move that took him off guard.
“It was a weird situation because I was traded while I was on the road. We were playing the Pacers in Indiana and I was injured. We had already had shoot-around and I was going back to my room that day and I had heard the rumors about being traded, but our GM said that nothing was active. I was in my room and decided to take a nap without giving it much thought,” Carter said.
When he awoke from that nap though, his basketball career would be forever changed.
“I woke up an hour or two later and my phone was going haywire; I was traded pretty much during my nap. I didn’t know what to do, I hadn’t been traded before outside of the draft and I was trying to figure out what to do and since we were on the road it was just a bit more hectic for me.”
While the rumors and speculation regarding his status in Toronto had flown around for months, it was still hard for Carter to process everything that had just happened in a matter of a few hours.
“I personally couldn’t even think of what team I was getting traded to because it was such a surprise. You spend six years in a situation and you build a bond, then you’re traded and you have to start over. I just stayed in the hotel that day and flew back with the team and it was really odd because a couple of days later, the Nets were playing in Toronto, so the whole thing was just really weird. Rumors, assumptions and preconceived notions started to fly so I was just in a whirlwind of trying to figure out what the heck was going on all while my new team is playing against my now former team.”
As Carter was able to settle in with his new team, he proved why he was such a valuable asset. Scoring 24 points per game throughout his first full season with the Nets and being named to the Eastern Conference All-Star team for the seventh time, Carter helped lead the Nets to the playoffs.
The next year came around and it was more of the same, though he bumped his scoring average up over 25 points per game. As the playoffs rolled around, Carter and the Nets were matched up with the Raptors. This series, one in which the Nets ended up winning in six games, gave Carter the opportunity to exact a bit of revenge on his former organization.
“Any time you play a former team, you want to beat your former team. It was just a weird series for me, but the biggest thing was like trying to focus on the series and not try to do too much and just try to be in the moment and play in the flow of the offense. It was a fun series to be in regardless of all of the chaos.”
His career with the Nets lasted two more years beyond that season and although he was only with the team for just over four seasons, he made a lifetime’s worth of memories.
“It’s hard to pick on just one memory that stands out because there’s no such thing as a best memory at any of the stops that I’ve made. When you play in a city and with a team that long, it’s hard to pick just one. Hitting a game-winner against Toronto in Toronto in one of my first games back against them was great and so was the dunk that I had over Alonzo Mourning.”
Carter’s career has gone on and now, seven years since the last time he played with the Nets, he still finds himself playing a key role on a contending team. At 39 years old, Carter may not put together the highlight-reel dunks, but he’s been able to make the transition from superstar to veteran mentor relatively seamlessly.
“It’s a great position to be in, there’s a lot of freedom with the coaches allowing me to speak up and help out whenever there’s a situation on the court or in the locker room. It’s a tough transition, some guys can handle it and some guys can’t, but I’ve embraced it. It’s fun to come to work and help young guys pursue their dreams and achieve their goals. It’s great to push them and it helps motivate me as well.”
As he looks around the league and sees players like Kobe Bryant calling it a career, Carter has contemplated moving past the game, but he’s still going to keep playing as long as he’s able to.
“I want to play as long as I still have the love for the game. When that fire has burnt out, it’s time to move forward and move on to the next stage, but I still have a passion and a desire to train to for the next season. People say, ‘Why don’t you retire?’ or that I should retire because of my age, but I’ve never bought into other people’s opinions. If I can still play, I’m going to do it as long as I can.”
Coming off the heels of a four-game sweep in the playoffs at the hands of the San Antonio Spurs, the Memphis Grizzlies and Carter will head back to the drawing board this offseason to try to develop a championship roadmap. He’s now been in the league for nearly two-decades and he believes that an NBA title is the last item to check off on his basketball bucket list.
“That’s the ultimate goal, that’s one of the goals that I think every young player sets in the early part of his career. I’m not going to say it’s the main goal that’s set, but if you watch the draft and you hear guys talk they always mention a championship. Everyone wants to establish himself as a star player first, but that is the ultimate goal that would be the shining moment of it all if I’m able to win a championship.”
While he plans on continuing his playing career, he already has begun to do work off of the court. Through the Embassy of Hope Foundation, Carter has been instrumental in giving back to a wide range of communities.
“The Embassy of Hope is a nonprofit that I created pretty much at the start of my career and it’s given me the opportunity to reach out to a lot of people and help people fulfill their dreams and learn how to go about achieving their dreams. We’ve done a lot of work in the community whether it’s through basketball camps, Christmas drives, Thanksgiving dinners, scholarship funds and really anything that we can do to give back.”
He continued, “That’s the platform that I’ve been able to use and it’s wonderful for me to meet a lot of young kids that have come from different backgrounds from different parts of the world. I’ve had kids from Brazil, Spain and around the world and it’s been great. It has done wonders for families and I can’t explain the happiness that I get out of it.”
While his basketball career may be soon reaching its conclusion, Vince Carter is going to be able to continue making in impact in the lives of others.
Quick Questions
What would your all-time Dunk Contest lineup look like?
Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins and Dr. J would be the one’s that I’m a fan of. I have a lot of Dunk Contest tapes and there are some guys that the everyday fan wouldn’t want to see or wouldn’t appreciate, but I look at someone like a Harold Miner who had such powerful dunks would make it such an interesting contest and as a competitor in the Dunk Contest, he’s a guy that would concern me. I got in the contest to win it, but I feel like he could do a lot of different things that would appeal to the crowd.
What is your favorite dunk of all-time?
If I pick my favorite dunk, it would be anything in the Dunk Contest because of the situation leading up to it and just the night in general. It was a special moment for me because I had changed my routine prior to the contest and I was still able to pull off all of the things that I wanted to. With all of the Dunk Contests in the past and some of the one’s that have happened since, for mine to still be considered one of the best is great for me. The consensus that I hear from other people is either the dunk on Alonzo or in the Olympics, but my personal favorite are the one’s in the Dunk Contest.