Brooklyn Nets: Looking back at Vince Carter’s second return to Toronto

Vince Carter has had some memorable performances back in Toronto while a member of the New Jersey Nets (now Brooklyn Nets). How special was his second one?

Whenever Vince Carter returned to the Air Canada Centre to face the Toronto Raptors after his trade to the New Jersey Nets (now Brooklyn Nets), he had to deal with arguably the most hate any player has ever had to face in their return game in any sport.

His second return to Toronto on January 8, 2006, proved no different, as the man once known as Air Canada was mercilessly booed every time he touched the ball.

However, it was Carter who got the last laugh, as the 6’6″ guard got the hand-off pass from Jason Kidd well behind the three-point line at the top of the key and drilled the fadeaway three-pointer in the face of his defender with 0.1 seconds left on the clock to lead New Jersey to a 105-104 victory on the road in a hostile environment; serving as their 10th straight win at the time.

Hearing the silence of Raptors fans while seeing Kidd leap into Carter’s arms after the shot was one of the sweetest things a Nets fan could see at the time. What made it even sweeter was to hear Carter call it his greatest shot ever.

"“That’s definitely number one,” Carter said at the time. “The atmosphere, the emotion, the hostility in the arena, it was a fun game.”"

Carter finished with 42 points, but saved his absolute best for last, as he dropped 24 of them in the fourth quarter including New Jersey’s final 12 points; hitting some extremely clutch shots including a three-pointer at the 24.7-second mark just to keep his team alive in the process.

Carter still made sure to dazzle us with his athleticism throughout the game, as he and Kidd connected for a couple sweet alley-oop finishes throughout the game; one right off the jump ball Carter just won, and another where he’s literally twisting and turning in mid-air!

It’s human nature to feel anxious when you’re coming into an arena where you feel like the whole world is against you; especially in a city where you’ve done a lot for the local community.

Carter appeared to be just that, as he started off the game with two horrible misses much to the home fans’ delight, but once the superstar guard got settled into the game, he really looked invincible (pun intended).

It was quite amazing, hence the nickname, Half-Man, Half-Amazing, that Carter was able to shake off all the hate in pretty much every game he returned to Toronto and put on some memorable performances, as he was able to display the fact that he thrives in those types of environments.

Raptors fans at the time definitely wanted to paint Carter as the villain. Was he perfect in handling his exit from Toronto? No, but you can’t blame him for wanting to leave for a new situation if a new management group comes in and expresses that winning right away isn’t a top priority.

Booing is fine, but some (not all) of the fans went way too far with their hate, as they’d poke fun at some of the injuries he had with one particular sign reading “how’s the knee?”

However, Carter took the high road in all of those instances, and because of that, he was able to come out of Toronto victorious a lot of the time while putting a dagger in the heart of those fans.

It’s good to see that the Raptors organization and VC were able to come to peace with one another eventually, but there is no denying that the rivalry between the Nets and Raptors in the mid-to-late 2000s with Carter rocking the red, white and blue uniforms made for some very dramatic moments.