‘He was that first guy that everybody got to see’
was in the league: a high-flyer, allaround type guy, night after night continued to surprise you with what he did out on the court.
“It was awesome to watch.” And Raptors fans had front-row seats from the start.
Maybe it didn’t end all wrapped in a pretty bow here, but my goodness was it ever an exhilarating ride, one of the most exciting times in Toronto sports history.
“Vince created the foundation on which we were able to build a basketball culture,” Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment chair Larry Tanenbaum told the Star.
“I truly appreciate it and thank every day we had a guy like that.”
The village
What’s the old saw about it takes a village to raise a child?
When Carter made his NBA debut on Feb. 5, 1999, he was a 22-year-old pup. The possessor of jaw-slackening skills, of course, but oblivious to the ways of professional basketball.
The work ethic needed and the willingness to take criticism and learn from it were all new to him.
And as that skill evolved and the professionalism was learned, the rookie morphed into “Half ManHalf Amazing” and “Air Canada.” All those accolades rained on him because a bunch of grown-ups shared their wisdom with him.
In his first year, Carter had Oakley, Kevin Willis, Alvin Williams, Doug Christie and Dee Brown. Later on, Muggsy Bogues and Dell Curry would join.
The village took care of the child. “We have locker-room conversations and meetings where Vince was held to the fire and Oakley would talk publicly about him (negatively),” Williams said. “That was a big part of (Carter), I think that’s a testament to Vince, to how he handled it. He was very respectful and he wanted to learn.”
Those vets weren’t dopes. They knew instantly how talented the kid was, the endless potential that coursed through Carter’s fibres, how special he would be and, in turn, how good that team might be.
“His rookie year, it was a strike year (a lockout delayed Carter’s debut until February 1999) and he was anxious to get on the court — us, too,” Oakley said in a recent conversation. “It was a veteran team and I think we could see he had the talent. Athletic, one-legged shots, and then you see him in games, going over top of guys …
“He wasn’t afraid because he had some guys behind him.”
As much as that team protected him, it challenged him, too. Carter would have turned into a freakish athlete regardless, but he learned to respect his elders and to learn from them, starting the Toronto-toSpringfield journey.
“The biggest thing was, they held Vince accountable,” Williams recalled. “They wouldn’t let him slack off, and I also think Butch Carter (Vince’s first coach in Toronto) was a big reason for his development early on. Butch being there holding them to the fire, he and Tracy McGrady. He’d work with them individually, he spent a lot of time with them, he gave them opportunities to be successful and when they failed, he was on them. And you also had teammates who did the same thing.”
To this day, Carter will pay homage to those old heads.
“Charles Oakley played with Michael Jordan, Dee Brown played with Larry Bird, Doug Christie played with Magic Johnson, Antonio Davis played with Reggie Miller, and Kevin Willis played with Dominique Wilkins,” he told Yahoo! Sports in 2019. “I would be a fool if I didn’t listen to how those stars of stars — those unique superstars — prepared and handled their superstardom.”
‘‘ It was a veteran team and I think we could see he had the talent. Athletic, one-legged shots, and then you see him in games, going over top of guys.
The legacy
More than 20 years later it’s tucked away somewhere in the house, a reminder of a special moment, the birth of a dream eventually achieved. Kelly Olynyk isn’t entirely sure where that Vince Carter poster is anymore, but remembers
looking at it daily and using it to fuel his own dreams.
“He brought so much energy and electricity to this city … not even just the city, the whole country,” recounted the Toronto-born Raptors centre. “It was pretty remarkable growing up in that era, watching him day in and day out, every night.
“It was special.”
Carter’s impact on the game here, and impact on the sport nationwide, cannot be overstated. He was not just an NBA superstar — he was our NBA superstar. A generation of young hoopsters wanted to learn from him and, perhaps, come close to emulating him as well.
“The camps that he held that inspired so many kids to pick up a basketball, the belief he instilled in a lot of kids that they could make it to the NBA, it was huge for the country,” NBA veteran and Pickering native Cory Joseph said in an interview on Sean Menard’s documentary “The Carter Effect.”
The current crop of Toronto-area NBAers — the likes of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jamal Murray, RJ Barrett, Dillon Brooks, Andrew Nembhard and Shaedon Sharpe — were too young to fully grasp what Carter meant in the early 2000s. But, to borrow from the hockey parlance, give Carter the assist that leads to the assist. He begat Olynyk, Joseph, Tristan Thompson and that era elevated the game that this current bunch has taken further.
“We all knew who Vince Carter was, the impact he had on the game here,” Barrett said. “All the players now that have gone to the league all grew up watching him. He was a huge inspiration … he was that first guy that everybody got to see.”
It wasn’t only Toronto, either. It was a countrywide phenomenon, one felt by one of Carter’s friends and rivals on the Pacific coast.
“You look at all these kids from Ontario and across Canada playing basketball, that’s part of his legacy,” said Shareef Abdur-Rahim, the former Vancouver Grizzlies star and Carter’s U.S. teammate at the 2000 Olympics.”
And 20 years after he was traded to New Jersey, 24 years since he arrived, Toronto basketballers remember.
“I had the Vince Carter jerseys, the poster on the wall that was signed by him, all that kind of stuff,” said Olynyk. “He was huge influence on a whole generation.”
The durability
We all remember the Carter dunks — over Frederic Weis (at the 2000 Olympics), Dikembe Mutombo, Hakeem Olajuwon and hundreds of other random players victimized in hundreds of regular-season games.
The 2000 NBA dunk contest in Oakland is considered one of the best — if not the best — individual
CHARLES OAKLEY FORMER RAPTORS TEAMMATE
performances in its history. The bug-eyed reactions of colleagues and teammates to each of his dunks resonates today.
They are etched in our minds, a cornucopia of “holy crap!” moments built over a career. But as we get to the point where Carter is enshrined in the Hall of Fame, the more has to be appreciated as much. He lasted 22 seasons, 1,541 games with eight teams in myriad roles — pure athlete, shooter, player, leader, presence — because he was a player, not a dunker. We should have known it all along; it’s best to recognize it now.
“The thing about it was, he was one of those guys, kind of like a Ray Allen type, who was such an athletic freak and high-flyer and then became a knockdown three-point shooter later in his career,” Steph Curry said. “Obviously he was still doing athletic stuff at 38-plus, but he transformed his game to survive as long as he did. That’s a testament to his overall skill.”
Barrett, in his fifth NBA season, marvels at the longevity and was on the court for Carter’s final act: a three-pointer in the final minute for the Atlanta Hawks against the New York Knicks in the final NBA game before COVID suspended the season. They chatted a bit during a stoppage, the young Canadian man whose career was influenced by Carter’s presence and the all-time great whose presence influenced an entire roster.
“We were just talking about whether he’d come back for another year or not,” Barrett recalled late last month. “Just seeing him make that shot, I remember both teams, we were all happy. We kind of knew it at that point, that he’d probably call it quits. It took a pandemic for him to retire.”
The divorce
If that was a disappointing end, so too was his messy departure from Toronto nearly a decade ago, an ugly divorce that lingered for years before any peace came between him and the fan base.
In September 2004, in an exclusive interview with the Star, Carter suggested a trade would be necessary and that it was “just time for me to look after me.”
It was a blow to his reputation. Not only were the Raptors fleeced in that December 2004 trade — Carter to New Jersey for Aaron Williams, Eric Williams, Alonzo Mourning’s contract and two firstround draft picks (one of them became Joey Graham) — but fans were projecting their anger at Carter for what the team got in return.
He was vilified in Toronto for the better part of a decade until a cathartic moment while he was playing with Memphis. He was moved to tears by the crowd’s standing ovation after a tribute video on Nov. 19, 2014, part of the team’s 20th anniversary celebrations.
The gist of Carter’s trade demand was the state of the franchise. He was playing for his fourth coach and third general manager in seven years. He lashed out, understandably, and there were ugly feelings.
He saw his role diminished — averaging fewer minutes and shots than in any other year with the Raptors — and there was a sense the franchise was pivoting from its star. Carter put the team on blast, and no one took it well.
“It was a disappointment, but this was a young guy, if you think about it, and he would probably say that he regrets the way he left,” Tanenbaum said.
‘‘ You could say Steve Nash and being Canadian, or you could say Jay Triano and Canada Basketball, but (Carter’s) a big part of that excitement, the Vinsanity.
SHAREEF ABDUR-RAHIM
The future
The ill feelings were smoothed over, things are fine and the organization — from the very top down — is trying to figure out the best precise way to honour him now.
A retired jersey? A statue? Something will happen. The details just need to be worked out.
“We’re bringing back all the greats for our 30th season (in 2024-25) and it’s going to be a great celebration,” Tanenbaum said. “And after the induction of Vince into the Hall of Fame, it’s sort of a nice welcome back in the 30th season.
“I’m proud of the career he had … truthfully, our first superstar.”