The NBA’s recent decision to restart its season in late July with 22 teams means the storied 22-year career of former UNC star Vince Carter has come to an end.
The 43-year-old Carter has been a member of the Atlanta Hawks for each of the last two seasons, where he provided veteran leadership for a team rebuilding with young talent. Atlanta was among the list of eight teams left out of the plan to resume the season in the confines of Walt Disney World in Orlando by virtue of being more than six games outside of a playoff spot. The NBA regular season was suspended in March due to the pandemic.
While the latter portion of his career included numerous stops around the league to provide veteran leadership like what he gave to the Hawks, the early portion saw him explode on to the scene with feats of athleticism that captured the imaginations of fans across the globe — earning him the nickname “Half-Man, Half-Amazing.”
Vince Carter was an athletic marvel from the second he began his UNC career during the 1995-96 season. (Photo via UNC Athletics)
The native of Daytona Beach, Florida wasted no time breaking into Dean Smith’s starting lineup as a freshman at UNC during the 1995-96 season, then began delivering above-the-rim highlights eerily reminiscent of another 6-foot-6 guard who had starred for Smith in the previous decade — a guy named Michael Jordan.
Upon entering the NBA following his junior season in 1998, Carter was the No. 5 overall pick of the draft by the Golden State Warriors–who then immediately traded him to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for the rights to his college teammate Antawn Jamison.
In Toronto, Carter injected new life into a league desperately looking for star power. Jordan retired in 1998 after winning his sixth NBA title with the Chicago Bulls, not long before Carter was drafted.
Air Jordan leaving the stage allowed Air Canada to shine even brighter, as Carter took the NBA Slam Dunk Contest Jordan had made famous and made it his own personal playground in 2000 — putting on arguably the most impressive performance in the history of that event.
The legend continued to grow that same year during the Summer Olympics in Sydney, when Carter put 7-foot-2-inch Frenchman Frederic Weis on a poster and delivered what is known in basketball circles as the “Dunk of Death” before helping the United States take home the gold medal.
As Carter’s all-around game continued to improve, his Raptors earned the chance to take on the Philadelphia 76ers in a crucial Eastern Conference playoff series in 2001 — culminating in a winner-take-all Game Seven. Prior to that game in Philadelphia, which Toronto ultimately lost, Carter was in Chapel Hill to attend his college graduation before flying to make the game afterwards.
Vince Carter and Kobe Bryant were each viewed as potential heirs to Michael Jordan when they arrived in the NBA. (Photo via Associated Press)
The backlash Carter received around the league for that decision left many wondering what his commitment to the sport truly was, something hindsight proved to be laughable as he ultimately became the first NBA player to ever play a game in four different decades.
Injuries and father time would go on to sap some of Carter’s trademark athleticism as his career progressed, but his evolution as an all-around player helped him reach eight NBA All-Star Games and sixth place on the NBA’s all-time list for three-pointers made by the time it was all said and done.
Off the court, Carter established the Embassy of Hope Foundation in 2000, a non-profit organization which assists needy families. His philanthropy in his home state of Florida earned him the Florida Governor’s Points of Light award in 2007.
He also made a $2.5 million donation to the Carolina Basketball Family Fund that helped pay for renovations to the Dean Smith Center in 2010 and was the largest gift the fund had ever received at that time. The brick walkway between the Smith Center and the Koury Natatorium was renamed Vince Carter Letterman’s Lane in 2011.
A Netflix documentary titled The Carter Effect was released in 2017, and detailed the way Carter’s exploits in Toronto worked wonders to grow the sport in Canada.
The obvious missing piece from Carter’s career is an NBA championship, but his impact–both on and off the court–was tremendous and will likely earn him a spot in the Hall of Fame in the coming years.
There’s no doubt that he will continue to be around the sport in the future, but when it comes to this chapter of the Vince Carter story–one that spans multiple generations–you only need to look back to that famous dunk contest in Oakland.
Like he told everyone in attendance following his third dunk that night–a vicious between-the-legs alley-oop that sent the crowd into a frenzy–it’s over.
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Cover photo via Associated Press
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