[Dazzling Dunks and Basketball BloopersParticipant]

 Out of all people, who would have guessed that he would still be playing (and playing at a pretty high level) at the age of 40 after 19 years in the league. This was supposed to be a guy who relied solely on his athletic gifts and would be done as soon as that athleticsm started to fade. Instead, he has made one of the most dramatic transformations in the history of the game into a quality role player and he doesn’t really seem to be slowing down either. He has publicly stated that he has no plans to retire anytime soon.

If you would have told me five years ago that Carter would outlast guys like Kobe, Duncan, pierce and kg I would have thought you were crazy. 40 year olds just aren’t supposed to be able to do the stuff he can do. He truly is an athletic marvel.

[DolanCareParticipant]

 I really want to see Vince win a ring before he hangs it up. 

[OhCanada-Participant]

He had some pretty bad knees when he was on his way out of Toronto. He was always in pain. I really didnt think he would make it past 32. Im happy for him. 

For those who think the Cousins trade was bad heres some fun facts on the worst NBA trade ever. VC to the New Jersey Nets. 

-Vince Carter told Sam Mitchell he did not want to be traded a day before the deal was made

-O’Neil and Babcock where the worst HC and GM duo Ive ever seen. They were trying to build a franchise that they controlled and ran VC out of town. 

-Raps recieved Jalen Rose (released), Alonzo Mourning (released) in the trade. This is back when nobody wanted to play in Toronto. 

-Raps also recieved two 1st rounders (Joey Graham and Renaldo Balkman) along with vets Aaron Williams and Eric Williams. 

-Ed Stefanski talking about the trade… so sad. 

 

 

 

 “You hear or read that he and the coach aren’t eye-to-eye, and you pick up the phone,” he says. “There’s nothing I did that was special. You call 30 teams, but we were fortunate.” The deal went down in 24 hours. “When I mentioned the two first-round picks, they got real excited,” says Stefanski. “I got off the phone, and the next day we completed the deal.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cohenbc1Participant]

 Seemed like all the vets on the Spurs made a point of going over to Vince after the game and embracing him. It was nice to see.

He’s an unrestricted free agent. Given the season he just had (played a lot of minutes, fourth or fifth best player on a playoff team that pushed the Spurs pretty hard), I think any contender would be pretty happy to have him on their bench next year. 

 

 

[HitsterParticipant]

I agree for a guy who was regarded as an athletic freak and was perhaps the prototype for today’s hugely athletic backcourters to still be playing at 40 is very impressive. Amazingly he has played more minutes this season than he had done for the last 3 seasons.

He’s one of those guys that a lot of neutrals would like to see get a ring. If he wants to play on, I’m sure Memphis would look to offer him new terms or other contenders would come in for him. The likes of Cavs, GSW, Spurs etc would likely throw vet’s minimum at him.

Other guys could have perhaps played on longer but were maybe not prepared to accept a bench role like Vince did.

He is a likely HOF lock given he has 8 All Star appearances and is 22nd on all time point list. Interestingly he only ever made two All NBA teams and nothing since 2001 but there was a lot of depth in his position in his peak years. He is and was a hugely popular player with the fans and will always be a huge highlight reel favourite for that Dunk.

It was a pity we never saw him and a fit peak K-Mart in unison for the Nets with J-Kidd as the provider, that would have been Lop City.

[MatosParticipant]

 To be fair, Duncan and Kobe could have still played and been more productive. They’re just known as two of the greatest to ever do it and it would hurt their legacy to drag their careers on. 

To Vince though, major props. He used to jump so effortlessly but everyone (myself included) thought he would either fade out a la Tracy McGrady, find his way to the bench, or end his career before it even got to those options.

 

[Dazzling Dunks and Basketball BloopersParticipant]

 I kind of disagree that Kobe could have continued to play. With all the injuries and everything he had to go through just to get on the court on a daily basis, it was a minor miracle he was even able to finish his last season at all. Duncan probably could have lasted one or two more seasons if he really wanted to, but it would have probably been in a very diminished role. He was borderline unplayable at times in the 2016 playoffs.

[llperez]

 i ahree with you, but as much love as i want to show vince, you cant compare his situation with kobe’s like this thread did. Kobe entered league at 17 years old and his last fully healthy season he played aroud 40 minutes per game and was all nba first teambefore his body broke down. Vince should have lasted longer based on his workload and having came into league 3 years older.

[HitsterParticipant]

 Kobe could have played on but there would have probably been issues over money and playing time, so I think he went out at the right time.

[wonzi_bellsParticipant]

When you look into it a little deeper, I come out thinking that we shouldn’t be all that surprised.

Out of all the hyper-athletic swingmen (I’m talking Jordan, Lebron, Dr. J, Drexler, Kobe, T-Mac, Wilkins, etc.), I’d say he probably one of the best jump shooters from distance with that athleticism in NBA history, which is probably the key to which enabled him to transition into role player status much better than other HOF legends. Also, he was always consider a bigger shooting guard, actually played a lot of small forward in his career and with his frame he can play some small-ball four in today’s NBA, which lets him become versatile defensive in where you can hide him. And then he knows what to do with the ball since he has experience as a number one option in his career. And ironically, the thing that has kept him so healthy and productive over the years is that he didn’t really give it his maximum effort in his superstar days. There’s that famous quote from him admitting his didn’t always play hard and Bill Simmons use to frequently mention that no player played dead by faking how hurt he was, quinced more and took longer to get up than Vince Carter. It kept him fresh throughout years compared to a maniacle Kobe Bryant who was playing like 40 mins a game that month he tore his achilles. Plus, he had so much athleticism as a player that he has enough to spare late in his career, even though his tank is on E right now.

[HitsterParticipant]

 Some players who were athletic freaks relied largely on this and when it went they didn’t have a B-game to fall back on or guys who had injuries had to remodel their game to fit into their limitations. 

T-Mac was a shadow of himself in his last couple of years in the NBA despite having a good basketball IQ yet others like Grant Hill and Antonio McDyess reinvented themselves and played on for several more years after injury hit primes. I know that Grant had an off the charts basketball IQ but Diceman reinvented himself as a finesse big ableit in a reduced role and T-Mac couldn’t do a similar type thing at his position. Yet at their peaks T-Mac was the far superior player.

As said above Vinsanity was always a large SG and could easily play SF so retaining that physical presence has certainly helped him prolong his career. Also with all his experience and knowhow he knows how to not expose himself on defence and he still has a nice 3 point success rate so offers something on offence.

 

 

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