Vince Carter, Hall of Famer
He can be polarizing, but there's no denying his impact
Photo credit: Bob Galbraith/AP
Timing is everything.
Vince Carter has been elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024, which is four years removed from his retirement (the minimum requirement), 20 years since his final game as a Raptor, and perhaps most unbelievably, 26 years since he made his debut.
He went from being called Half-Man, Half-Amazing to Half-Man, Half-a-Season to playing a 22-season career, the longest in NBA history.
Those 20 years since Carter’s final game as a Raptor have also been necessary for a lot of fans in Canada to heal (and some still haven’t). The highs of his Toronto tenure — and they were as lofty as his vertical — were marred by a disgraceful departure. The man who’s arguably dunked better than anyone in basketball history said he didn’t want to dunk anymore, allegedly told the Seattle Supersonics what play the Raptors were going to run trailing 97-90 with 29 seconds remaining, and went from averaging 15.9 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 3.1 assists in 20 games of the 2004-05 season for Toronto to putting up 27.5 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 4.7 assists in 57 games for New Jersey after the trade.
There’s also the John Thompson interview where he admitted to not pushing himself as hard as he could have in years past.
As someone who came to Canada in 2002, I remember all of the bad viscerally. The first game I ever attended live was against Baron Davis’s New Orleans Hornets and Carter missed a breakaway dunk at the end. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was a kid in Dubai who had no access to watching the NBA (forget the time difference to actually watch a game if it were to become available) until one day I stumbled upon an airing of the show ‘NBA Action’ that concluded with the top 10 plays of the week. The first time I watched it, Carter had multiple appearances in the countdown and I was mesmerized. I noted that time and day and made sure to be in front of the TV to watch the show.
Think about that, I was a kid growing up in the Middle East with barely any NBA access and yet to set foot in Canada but became a Raptors fan because of Carter. I started visiting NBA.com during my limited dial-up internet time to watch as many highlights as possible. When the Raptors played the Sixers and Carter dueled with Allen Iverson, I was waking up extra early before school, logging on to the internet to check the score, then getting ready for school before coming back for one last check before I had to catch my bus. When Game 7 happened, I had to leave the house before the final buzzer. I spent all day at school wondering what happened in the game — again, these were still the days of not having internet access at school and a long way from smartphones — and then came home to see that Carter had missed that shot.
When my parents told me we were immigrating to Toronto, the consolation of leaving my childhood friends and everything I knew was, “That’s where the Raptors play, I can see Vince Carter.”
Carter’s impact on Canada is well known. The story of Tristan Thompson meeting Carter for the first time and telling him, “You were my Michael Jordan,” is about as succinctly as you can sum it up. Carter’s larger than life athleticism, skill, and charm made him about as perfect an athletic role model as one could hope for. I think I’m one of many examples of Carter’s global impact being underrated.
You could watch Fat Joe and Ashanti’s ‘What’s Luv’ and see Carter jerseys. Carter made an appearance in Bow Wow’s ‘Like Mike’ movie while Jermaine Dupri rapped about Carter sticking his arm in the rim in the movie’s theme song ‘Basketball.’
When Carter played his first return game against Toronto, I remember how my heart sank as he erupted in the second half and finished with 39 points after the Raptors led by as many as 16 just before the end of the first half. He had clearly stopped giving it his all in Toronto and flipped a switch in New Jersey.
Then there was the game-winner the season after. It was an afternoon game and I just curled up in bed at the end of it. When Morris Peterson was ejected by Steve Javie for a playful slap that was in response to Carter doing the same, I remember hating Lawrence Frank — then coach of the Nets — for stopping Carter as he tried to explain to the referees what actually transpired. As Carter’s other clutch moments against the Raptors came in the years to come, it was a very much a vibe of “you can’t hurt me, I’m already dead.”
The Raptors-Nets playoff series in 2007 was intense and Jose Calderon’s lob to Chris Bosh getting stolen by Richard Jefferson at the very end stung. Toronto led by one with 12 seconds remaining and Bosh was wide open on the play but Calderon’s pass just didn’t have enough air on it. That close to a Game 7 in Toronto against Carter.
The time to heal has been necessary. Some haven’t got there yet and I’m not going to tell someone how they should feel. What I will say is that it’s near impossible to weigh the entire body of work and think the positives don’t significantly outweigh the negatives. I agree that the way he has seemingly distanced himself from the way things ended isn’t ideal and some sort of informal apology would go a long way.
At the end of the day, though, if you’re a Raptors fan, you won.
Kawhi Leonard erased the pain of that missed Carter buzzer-beater, and you as a Raptor fan got the biggest thing Carter doesn’t have: the memory of winning a championship. For a long time, Carter was the best you ever had, and the way he ended things hurt deeply. Now, Raptors fans can proudly say Leonard, Lowry, Siakam & co. have given basketball fans in these parts the best they’ve ever had.
I’m happy to appreciate all the good that Carter brought now but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten the bad or that I’m ignoring it. The worst of it is probably worth an apology. He was also 27 when all the bad happened, no one’s perfect at any age and we’re surely much further from maturity and good life decisions at 27 than 37. I also think we learn and grow as fans and there are things that happened back then that just wouldn’t bother us now. I think there were things that were abnormal in hockey culture that looked so over the top in the NBA but the two leagues just exist in two different realities.
Remember the criticism directed at Carter over his mother having a parking spot at the Air Canada Centre? Imagine someone having a problem with Scottie Barnes if his mother wanted to park at SBA, it’s just silly. Would Carter be criticized as heavily for attending a Nelly concert when he was injured? Nowadays, they’d be so open about it you might see it posted on their own Instagram.
In hindsight, we can also recognize that the nickname Half-Man, Half-a-Season was an overreaction for Carter as he played at least 89% of regular season games in all but two of his first 11 seasons (age 22-34). Between ages 35-43, Carter played at least 58 games in every season including over 70 games four times.
Seeing all Raptors-related tributes to Carter over the past few week has truly warmed my heart. Sure, Hakeem Olajuwon, Tracy McGrady, Chris Bosh, and Chauncey Billups all have ties to the Raptors but Carter will be the first player to go into the Hall of Fame where the first jersey the majority of basketball fans picture that player in is the Toronto Raptors.
When he finished his interview with Sportsnet’s Arash Madani saying, “There’s no greater honour than going to the Hall of Fame as a Toronto Raptor,” that meant a lot to me. I’d like to think it meant a lot to a lot of people.
7 DAYS
There’s only a couple games to go and the Raptors are 25-55 after a 106-102 loss to the Nets. Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett returning to action has increased the watchability of this team 10-fold.
How about Gradey Dick?! 24 points with six made threes against the Nets was so encouraging to see, especially on the back of a groin contusion, and you can see he’s playing like he truly knows he belongs now. Everything is in such a great rhythm and he’s unfazed by whether or not the ball is going in the basket.
Quickley is going to get a big bag. He’s now averaging 18.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 6.8 assists while shooting 39.4% from deep in 37 games as a Raptor and in five April games those numbers have ballooned to 24.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, 8.0 assists, and 1.4 steals. Possibly the most impressive part of this stretch is that he’s getting to the line 7.2 times per game and shooting 97.2% at the line.
Marc Gasol had his jersey retired in Memphis and no athlete I’ve met has had a greater persective on life than him. I wrote a feature about him back in my days with Complex and it’s one of my favourite stories I’ve ever written. You can also check out William Lou’s interview with him on the Raptors Show: