Vince Carter always had a way of making you feel things. In his 6 seasons with the Toronto Raptors, VC led fans to unimaginable heights (pre-championship) with highlight reel dunks and buzzer-beaters, all while cementing himself as an NBA superstar. His tenure ended tumultuously with frequent injuries, lack of conviction on the court, and, eventually, a bad breakup and trade to New Jersey.
Almost exactly twenty years later, the Raptors retired Air Canada’s jersey in the building formerly known as the Air Canada Centre.
What a whirlwind career for Carter and a full-circle moment for a franchise icon.
(If you’re here for a recap of the Raptors-Kings game, I promise it will be sprinkled throughout this post. But, let’s be real, the game could have gone to 13 overtimes and the story would still be Vince!)
Before tonight’s game between the Toronto Raptors and Sacramento Kings, Vince Carter held a press conference. It took him all of 1 minute of answering the first question to get teary-eyed! Talk about foreshadowing the night ahead!
Vince said what you’d expect someone to say in his position: he’s thankful to his family, grateful to the organization, and indebted to his teammates. However, he did reference his “emotions” throughout the press conference. Like 4 quarters in a game, Carter spoke of the 4 phases of his playing career.
Phase #1 — Anticipation & Anxiety: Pre-draft, he felt he underperformed in the draft workouts and thought his draft stock had dropped outside of the top 5.
Phase #2 — Excitement & Hope: As a Raptor, he experienced the highs of winning Rookie of the Year and, his personal favourite, helping the Raptors win its first playoff series.
Phase #3 — Negativity & Regret: The phase Vince went through from 2004 to 2014 was not his greatest, admitting his comments about the franchise were regrettable and that only a handful of folks knew what he was going through.
Phase #4 — Relief & Redemption: The final chapter of his career began in 2014, as he turned the page with the franchise by mending fences, building bridges, and all the other reunion cliches.
The four quarters in the Raptors-Kings had similarities to the 4 phases VC referenced. (Not exactly since there were 5 quarters, including overtime) Let’s start with Phase #4, the Redemption phase, and its similarities to the 4th quarter + Overtime.
Relief & Redemption
The Raptors defeated the Kings 131-128 in overtime, led by RJ Barrett, who scored 31 points (at least) for the third consecutive game. The Jayhawks duo, Ochai Agbaji and Gradey Dick, each scored 22 points. There has been a surprise performance from the Raptors bench in each of its games this season. Tonight was no different as Chris Boucher scored 24 points, his highest scoring output in a game since December 28, 2021.
For the Kings, DeMar DeRozan almost single-handedly led Sacramento’s fourth-quarter comeback, finishing with 33 points. Domantas Sabonis finished with a triple-double, scoring 17 points, grabbing 20 rebounds, and dishing out 10 assists.
For Toronto, the 4th quarter played out eerily similar to Monday’s game against Denver. The Raptors held a double-digit lead in the final frame, only to see the visiting team chip away at the lead and send the game to overtime with a tying bucket in the dying seconds.
Unlike Monday, the Raptors refused to allow the Kings to snatch the momentum. Barrett scored a floater on Toronto’s first possession of overtime and never relinquished the lead.
It took a long time for Carter to have his redemption.
From the time he was traded in 2004 to when the Raptors celebrated him in 2014, Vince was one of the most hated individuals. He was booed relentlessly whenever he came to town. Fans showed up to games with Carter jerseys with a giant ‘X’ over his name & number. Loud cheers would erupt whenever he missed a shot or turned the ball over — louder than anything positive the Raptors would have done in the game. For 10+ years, Vince was public enemy #1 for an entire country.
If time heals all, the tribute video Vince Carter received on November 19, 2014, would be the ideal example. While reminiscing on that special night, Carter was brought to tears and called out former PR head of the Raptors, Dave Haggith, who worked with Masai Ujiri to make it happen. “I’d never gotten that opportunity to see a (tribute) video in this building.”
Negativity & Regret
For a team as young as the Raptors, with as many key injuries as it has, there are bound to be lulls in a game. In this game, it was the fourth quarter and, more specifically, Davion Mitchell.
Playing his former team for the first time, Mitchell was -19(!!) in the seven minutes he was on the court. He had two turnovers, two fouls, and reminded his former teammates why his departure was necessary to free up room for DeRozan.
Speaking of DeRozan, you bring someone like him on the roster because of his scoring prowess in the final quarter. He and De’Aaron Fox are the two best clutch shooters in the game for a reason. They combined to score as many points as the Raptors (24) in the fourth quarter.
How those two took over the fourth reminded me of Vince. To this day, Carter is one of the best clutch shooters in franchise and NBA history. Kawhi Leonard may have the most memorable buzzer-beater. Morris Peterson and Kyle Lowry may have the most outrageous buzzer-beaters. But nobody in the franchise was or is — or maybe ever will be — as clutch as Vince. The video below has almost SIX minutes worth of Raptors buzzer-beaters! (I wouldn’t recommend watching anything after the 5:45 mark.)
After he was traded, Carter said many regrettable things. “When you go home after a loss, you’re not happy, but when you go home after a win and you’re still not quite happy, you should enjoy a win and just for whatever reason it wasn’t there anymore.” When asked whether he was giving 100% effort, Vince added, “In years past, no, I was just fortunate enough to have the talent. You know, you get spoiled when you are able to do a lot of things and you don’t really have to work at it. But now I think with all the injuries and things going on, I have to work a little harder and I’m a little hungry, that’s why getting the opportunity to have a fresh start with New Jersey has made me want to attack the basket for a lot of reasons.”
During his pre-ceremony presser, Vince addressed those comments, “I understand that’s possibly where the frustration came from, because that guy that we’re starting to like is now moving on. But I always told, especially close friends, like you can have your frustrations, but understand the whole story before you articulate your anger, particularly if you don’t really know what was really going on (referencing the mismanagement within the Raptors organization).”
Excitement & Hope
In his rookie season, Vince Carter dropped jaws, made it onto Sportscentre’s Top 10 regularly, and almost never provided the same highlight reel moment twice. Yet, the emotion he most evoked was hope.
The Raptors HQ crew chimed in on their fondest memories of VC.
JD Quirante: “Migrated to Winnipeg in ‘99. The first time I saw VC’s reverse dunk over Chris Mullin, that’s when I knew I had to move to Toronto and watch these games live.”
Chelsea Leite: “For me, it was just the impact he had no matter where you were. My town was very much a soccer place and not a basketball place. Yet, kids still had Vince Carter jerseys and would try to dunk like him. His impact just went so beyond the basketball community itself.”
Joseph Strauss: “I was born in 2000, so I missed the whole VC era. My first time ever at a game was against the Nets in ‘07, and I just remember the crowd booing him relentlessly. It was crazy! I didn’t even realize why until a few years later when I learned how to use Wikipedia. My fondest memory was when the team honoured him during the 20th anniversary season and, for the first time, (seeing) the boos turned into cheers. You could see the emotion on his face and how much it meant that the city still loved him.”
For me, Vince Carter represented the first homegrown superstar….and he was OURS. My dad introduced me to basketball during the Celtics-Lakers rivalry in the 80’s. I’d marvel at Larry Bird and Magic Johnson and think how lucky it was for Boston and Los Angeles fans, respectively, to have superstars try and lead their respective franchises to championships. When Toronto was awarded an NBA franchise, I wondered when we would have someone like Larry or Magic in Toronto. Vince Carter was that superstar and he made it known immediately. I remember seeing the clip below — just 10(!!) games into his rookie season — and thinking, “oh my gosh, we have HIM!”
Through 7 games this season, multiple players have provided hope during this rebuilding campaign for the Raptors. Jamal Shead looks more like Kyle Lowry 2.0 whenever he steps on the court. Jonathan Mogbo is an absolute joy to watch on both ends of the floor. Ochai Agbaji has been everything the team (and fans) have hoped for — slashing/cutting to the basket with purpose, draining corner threes, and playing incredible defense.
On this night, it was Agbaji, Gradey Dick, and Chris Boucher. Kings Head Coach, Mike Brown, quipped before the game that Dick is the early leader for Most Improved Player. Gradey produced career-best scoring outputs in 3 of his previous 4 games. Dick hit a pair of fallaway jumpers to extend the lead to 13 early in the 4th, and a huge three with 1:47 to go after the Kings had shrunk the lead to one. Boucher was unconscious from the perimeter. He drained 4 three-pointers and led all scorers with 22 points after 3 quarters.
Anticipation & Anxiety
The scenes inside Scotiabank Arena were incredible. There were chants of “Let’s Go Raptors” and “DE-FENSE” — unprompted and louder than I’ve heard in the past two seasons. When RJ missed two free throws that could have sealed the game, I looked around the crowd and saw thousands of people with hands on their heads. If you’ve been to a game in the past year, you know those types of fan reactions have been few and far between (if at all).
Since Media Day, Masai Ujiri, Darko Rajakovic, and all the players have been preaching that this is a rebuilding season. Wins in the final box score would not be as important as the progress made by each player and how the team grows. At 2-5, it’s weird to think that the ‘vibes’ are sky-high! Outside of a deflating season opener against Cleveland, the Raptors have been competitive in each of the 6 games since. Sure, there will be anxious moments, like the end of this game. But Rajakovic has this group of young, precocious Raptors playing their collective butts off and giving fans plenty to look forward to.
Before he was drafted, Vince was unsure if he’d perform well enough. “I remember not thinking my workout went well at all because of everything that had, in essence, gone wrong. From at the Skydome…my room being cancelled, my room service being late at the Westin…..to not having a practice uniform.” Carter added, “You come in and you’re trying to be perfect. So, when I missed a shot, I was like, “Oh man, they probably think I can’t shoot the floater.”
On Draft night, Carter was assured he would be drafted by the Raptors. When he heard Antawn Jamison’s name called (and before it was announced they would be traded for each other), Carter was perplexed, “I was confused. And the first thing I thought was maybe I did have a terrible workout.”
No, Mr. Carter. You did not have a terrible workout. You did not need to be perfect. You were, and always have been, exactly what this franchise needed. A superstar when you donned the uniform. A villain when you didn’t. And now, an icon that will forever reside at the top of the rafters of Scotiabank Arena.
