DeRozan carries on Carter’s legacy

Steps into role of Raptors’ team leader

TORONTO • The one and only visit from the man who put the Toronto Raptors on the map came and went without an appearance on the court.

Vince Carter was unable to play for the Memphis Grizzlies at the Air Canada Centre on Wednesday night because of a hip problem.

Until this hip injury, Carter was having a bit of a turnback-the-clock season. At the age of 39 he is still putting up 20-plus-point nights, something he has done twice already this season.

There’s no question Carter will always be a talking point in Toronto, whether it’s for his legacy in terms of bringing Toronto into the mainstream NBA conversation with his nightly appearances on the highlight shows or his domination of the dunk contest in 2000 or even the cloud under which his tenure ended in Toronto.

There’s no question another guy who is creating his own legacy here in Toronto has a ton of respect for what he did here in Toronto.

“The excitement, the type of player he was, he was definitely one of a kind,” DeMar DeRozan said Wednesday.

“I remember when they called him Half Man-Half Amazing and all that, he was that. It was incredible to grow up and become a Raptor fan because of Vince, I think he did that with everybody who watched basketball at that time. To have a relationship with him, to build on something he started here is awesome.”

And make no mistake, DeRozan is building on what Carter started.

Carter got the franchise to the playoffs. DeRozan has been a big part of the group that got them to an Eastern Conference final and he’s far from satisfied.

Carter, though, in DeRozan’s opinion, changed the franchise by himself.

“Once Vince came, it was on a whole different level. You automatically became a Raptors fan with the purple jerseys, with Vince, with the dunks, with the 40, 50-point games, you looked forward to those games,” he said.

And now, with Carter still playing the game, DeRozan finds himself in those same shoes Carter once filled here in Toronto. “To be taking over a franchise, so to speak, that he started is amazing,” DeRozan said.