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VINCE CARTER (VOICEOVER): I consider dunking an art form.
We're creating our masterpiece as we soar through the air.
That's called art.
I wanted to show that I was a showman,
and I was an entertainer.
Vince could just imagine himself
doing something with a basketball,
and then he could go do it.
VINCE CARTER (VOICEOVER): And that's where I've been for 22
years in the same mentality.
To play as many years, you have to grow as a player,
improve as a player.
That's not easy.
For him to maintain his excellence for this long
is incredible.
He will stand alone in a really unique place, because he
just kind of took his own path and evolved
into this amazing story.
Here's how you know what a big deal
it is that Vince was able to do it
and you know how hard it is--
because no one else could.
That's how you know, right?
If it was easy, everybody would do it.
If it was easy, anybody else would have done it.
Guess what?
No one ever has.
That tells you how important Vince Carter was to the game,
and that this moment must be respected.
[cheers]
VINCE CARTER: I always talk about the
ending and trying to see what does the ending look like.
What does it look like?
What does it feel like?
How do I handle it?
I make this now, at this age, my time.
And then once I get to the arena,
just kind of goes from that me time
to work time and just focusing on preparation for the game.
Because, like I say, it takes me longer to get ready
than any of the other guys.
What's up, man?
You good?
All right.
VINCE CARTER: I value these rides to the arena
now this year more than ever, because,
like I said, from here on out--
[chuckles] --it won't be a ride to the arena to get
ready for a basketball game.
Now it turns to work mode.
DOMINIQUE WILKINS: The most difficult thing was
believing that it's at the end.
And that it's time.
Good.
DOMINIQUE WILKINS: Because you never think it's time,
but your body let's you know when it's time.
But that's the most difficult thing-- actually saying
to yourself, OK, it's over.
That's the most difficult thing for any athlete.
[heartfelt piano music]
REPORTER 1: Is it kind of hard to accept
that there is no ceremony?
No fanfare?
[inaudible]
I'm not one for the whole thing, anyway.
So, if you ask a lot of people around me, they'll tell you--
you know, I'm-- [exhales] --I'm one that, like,
I'm appreciative, but, you know, I do my time and just walk
out the door is OK with me.
You know?
Believe it or not, but it's cool.
[laughs] Believe me, no it's cool.
I, uh--
[heartfelt piano music]
I just-- think it's been good.
[upbeat drum music]
MICHELLE CARTER: Vince grew up in a pretty
upscale suburban neighborhood, was a good student at school.
He got his work, stayed out of trouble.
VINCE CARTER: My entire family are all educators of some sort.
School teachers, principals, you name it.
So that's kind of how our household was.
ANN SMITH: I taught him in my English class, which
was wonderful, because I knew he would do all the assignments
and do what he had to do because that was required of Vince,
above everything else.
VINCE CARTER: We were a small family
in the bigger scheme of things.
It's my brother and I, and then sometimes just the three of us.
My aunt had one child, and that was it.
My memory is always in the gym.
[laughs] We always ended up in the gym.
VINCE CARTER: It was very structured.
You had what was expected.
You know your dos and don'ts, pleases and thank yous.
Like, I mean, you were taught to be polite.
Both of our mothers very strong women.
Very strong women.
Neither one of them played any games with us.
And Miss Michelle didn't play with anybody.
My only thing was being an educator is to try
to develop the whole child.
You're not just going to be an athlete.
Vince played on his first organized team at 7.
Vince always played one league up from his age.
You couldn't find any kids anywhere that had
what we describe as "God-given talent"
that he has in that sport.
TIFFANY SHOLTZ: He was, even at a young age,
always trying to be better at what he was trying to do.
MICHELLE CARTER: He was in the band.
He started playing the saxophone in the fifth grade.
Fast forward to the end of their season,
and he's first chair saxophone.
ANN SMITH: His stepfather was the band director,
so you didn't play there either.
I mean, you didn't play around.
You went and did what you had to do.
MICHELLE CARTER: But he just always excelled
at basketball and, for that matter, at volleyball,
when he tried that.
He went out for high jump on the spur of the moment,
he didn't even have on the proper shoes.
And he went out there and won.
The fact that he even dunked for the first time
when he was in sixth grade was crazy.
The things he was doing as a young boy, many people
couldn't do.
And you know, at that time, Vince also played football.
He was a quarterback.
And I can remember after one game, my husband
Dennis going to Michelle and saying,
get him off the football team.
He is a talented basketball player.
He's going to get hurt out there.
Get him off.
[laughs] My husband was rather forceful,
and we were all good friends, but he was sincere about that,
because he felt that Vince was going
to go places in basketball.
PA ANNOUNCER 1: Featuring the Daytona
Beach Mainland Buccaneers.
[cheers]
[cheerleaders chanting]
[hip-hop music]
Goal by Vince Carter.
[cheers]
[hip-hop music]
TIFFANY SHOLTZ: I think when it finally hit
me was when he was at Mainland.
At Mainland, in the old gym, it was like prime time.
I was always asking, why do we have
to get there during the freshman game when there's two other--
we have to watch another game just to watch Vince's game.
And that's how packed it was.
If you weren't there by the end of the freshman game,
you were not getting a seat.
That's the court we used to play on right there.
Sports was our way of peace and our way to find a way
to get out of our environment.
By the time we got to high school,
we was already grown and ready to go.
PA ANNOUNCER 1: 15, Vince Carter.
ROD WALDON: When you have such a marquee player, and a player
with national notoriety, everyone wants a front seat
to experience that.
JOE GIDDENS: We used to play our game at 7 o'clock at night.
We had a line of people trying to buy tickets in our gym.
And it got to the point where we had a gym full with people
in both stands.
It was amazing.
Like, every game, no matter where we went, was jam-packed.
It was standing room only.
At that time, he was getting taller and taller and taller.
VINCE CARTER: My freshman year in high school was like 5'7".
And I was a point guard.
And I ended up being the starting point
guard my freshman year.
And then got to 6'1" my sophomore year.
I just moved up in position--
[laughs] --as I got taller.
In my senior year, I was like 6'5", 6'6".
There was a high school All-American basketball
game in Detroit at the Palace.
And so Kevin Garnett and Shareef Abdur-Rahim
and Paul Pierce and Stephon Marbury.
They're all there, and Vince Carter is there.
I'm one of the judges for the slam dunk contest.
And so Vince, he comes out and does one dunk.
And no one wants to go after him.
I've never seen somebody win a slam dunk contest
with just doing one dunk.
TIFFANY SHOLTZ: When he actually made drum major,
oh my gosh, it was just like one other thing
that a lot of people will come to see,
because you will never think, OK,
Mr. Basketball is actually going to be
the highlight of halftime.
But he would be just dancing and just thinking
that he's the best dunker of all time, which
I think he still thinks that.
It was very easy to spot him.
Usually, he would tell me, Tiff, I'm gonna be on the 40,
I'm going to be on the 30, I don't need that.
Because he was always towering over the whole entire band.
Seconds later, he's on the court having to play a game.
So he was like--
he was, like, versatile.
I was like, OK, dude, like, you're doing--
you're going to be the drum major and you're going to--
[laughs] --do basketball all at the same time?
And of course he did it.
It's funny when I say this, my dad played football,
but he was also in the band as a young kid.
He definitely influenced me and pushed me when I would
come down to visit in Orlando.
He'd have me out there, whether it's
working on my game on my shot.
His dad got remarried to my next door neighbor,
so he was always--
just when he visited his dad, he'd be next door,
and we'd play.
I, um--
[exhales]
[dramatic music]
He's my dad, so I respect him.
And it's no-- this is gonna go along the lines
of everything else about me--
I never felt the need to bash him publicly.
It's tough sometimes, because he was very influential
in the Orlando area.
And a lot of kids that he touched because he
did the midnight basketball.
And he was, like, big.
So when you hear his name, you hear my name,
people think it's me, but it's him.
But he was so influential and a lot of kids
grew up and, like-- so when I started living in Orlando,
these kids now are growing up just like, man,
your dad, your dad, your dad.
Because, like, he's a big time coach around there,
and he's very influential in kids' lives
and in growth and success.
In influence in basketball, he had some influence.
He and my uncle, Oliver Lee--
my uncle played in the NBA for a couple
of years, played at Marquette.
He used to heckle me like nobody's business.
When you hear him, you hear him.
He's like, yo, take that dude out, man!
Hey, bro, 15, you ain't got it tonight!
Like, he's like, man--
that's just him.
Being the jerk helped you get ready for you
say you want to be a professional, well, guess what?
I know what it's like.
This is stuff you deal with when you go on the road and playing
in a Utah, in Sacramento, where it's loud and you can't hear,
or in college, matter of fact.
You go to Clemson, you go to Duke,
this is what you're going to hear.
But it's going to be 19,000 of them.
Yes, it's an empty gym, it sounds like this, and it's me,
and you can hear me loud and clear, can't you?
How is it affecting you?
How are you handle it?
When we saw there were 77 universities that wanted him
to be a student athlete, I thought,
OK, maybe he's got a chance.
Somehow, someway, I kind of got down to six schools--
Kansas, Kentucky, Florida, Florida State, Duke, Carolina.
I remember afterwards, calling Tommy Amaker, who
was an assistant coach at Duke.
And I'm like, what happened?
Why didn't-- why didn't we get him?
And why did he go to North Carolina?
And so we tried, but he ended up going
down the street to Chapel Hill.
VINCE CARTER: It's hard to say no.
It's like, you have Dean Smith, Bill Guthridge.
It speaks for itself.
One, it from my mom is like his expectations for education
and what he expected of us.
And we were expected to see in the first three rows
of the classroom in the front.
Pointblank.
That's what was expected.
So I could already see my mom, you could see her
just smiling at the home visit.
She was happy about that.
I was, too.
She was happy.
But, like, for me, if both worlds kind of meshed together,
and we were both happy, it was kind of meant to be.
So I knew I made the right decision.
[hip-hop music]
[dramatic music]
MICHELLE CARTER: You're at the University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill playing basketball.
[cheers]
GRANT HILL: Even if you didn't watch Carolina,
you saw the highlights.
It was incredible.
A Dukee wanted to watch Carolina just
to see what kind of incredible dunk
that he might have in the game.
MICHELLE CARTER: It was a little bit of an adjustment
for him his freshman year.
Then the sophomore year, he just started to explode.
[cheers]
We remember Vince at Carolina.
You know what I mean?
So we knew what we were getting ready to witness in the NBA.
We knew it.
I don't even watch college basketball,
and when Vince was at Carolina, like,
it was must-see TV for me.
That's when I figured, OK, it looks
like we might be NBA-bound.
ERNIE JOHNSON, JR (ON TV): It is a night when hopes and dreams
and butterflies abound.
Its Draft Night 1998.
You could tell he was nervous, because it's draft day.
You hear, you may go here, you may go there,
but you never know.
The fourth pick was interesting because I worked
out for Toronto, obviously.
Antawn didn't work out for Toronto.
With the fourth pick in the 1998 NBA Draft,
the Toronto Raptors select Antawn Jamison
from the University of North Carolina.
VINCE CARTER: He gets drafted.
It was like, exciting.
It was like, man, my roommate--
my college roommate just got drafted, like, that's cool.
And then now fifth pick, we're not sure.
I remember my agent said this is a possible pick.
So we'll see.
And then, next thing you know, you hear your name called.
The Golden State Warriors select
Vince Carter from the University of North Carolina.
[cheers, applause]
VINCE CARTER: All of the things that you think about for all
these years just happened.
And you watch the draft year after year,
but now you're that person there.
You don't know how to react.
I remember getting the hat and putting it on.
And I remember going up the steps,
and I remember seeing Antawn.
He was trying to say something to me.
And he's mouthing, and I don't know what he's saying.
I'm like, what is he saying?
So I'm trying to, like, figure it out.
So I go to shake David Stern's hand.
He said, congratulations.
Stand right here for a second.
There's about to be a trade.
I said, OK.
Toronto has traded the rights to Antawn Jamison
to Golden State for the rights to Vince
Carter plus cash consideration.
Oh, shoot, it's for me.
[laughs]
I covered the Golden State Warriors when they--
[laughs] --they drafted Vince, and then
they traded him for Antawn.
And it probably goes to the heart of like the misconception
of who Vince was.
Because the Warriors, at that time,
were trying to create a better culture.
Tell me about this guy's game.
He's going to be a tremendous player in the NBA.
He's gonna be one of those guys whose name is gonna
be in the NBA for a long time.
Even though I looked at it, I went--
[inhales] --there's a talent disparity here between the two.
BUTCH CARTER: We had fought hard to get Vince drafted.
The scouts thought that there were two other players
that they liked over Vince.
And I thought, in watching the video him
in North Carolina, that outside of Michael Jordan
as a North Carolina athlete, there
wasn't anyone as close as Vince.
And he wasn't being used in what I thought
his maximum potential was.
The prior regime that had left, Isaiah and them,
had put the word out that there was no money in Toronto.
So we basically played that to the other general managers.
We'll do this deal with you, we'll do that deal with you,
and you got to give us a million dollars, plus the transaction.
We had a temporary practice facility at a local university,
Glendon College.
That was OK, certainly not the standards of NBAs today,
but for back in the NBA, it was OK.
Our president told us, well, we don't have enough money
to build a practice facility.
I asked him, how much do we need, right?
So the Vince Carter trade got us started
on getting the $3 million we needed
to build a practice facility.
So everybody talks about what he did, and Vince
created so much value in the franchise from the night
he was drafted.
He independently stabilized one NBA franchise by himself.
RACHEL NICHOLS: He legitimized so much
for the Toronto Raptors.
Expansion franchise teams, they're not very good, right?
I heard someone talking about the Raptors
when they first started, I think the line was,
when Vince was there, the Raptors were three years old,
and like any three year old, they
weren't very good at anything.
[laughs]
You know, we were having difficulties improving.
Players didn't want to go to a losing situation.
Coming off a tough season, we're not
the most attractive destination for players,
having only won 16 out of 82 games.
Besides bringing in Vince, we brought in Charles Oakley
and Kevin Willis, two tough veteran players
primarily to sort of establish the culture
and to provide some experience and leadership
to the younger guys.
And that worked well.
It was a lockout year, so we didn't start playing,
I don't think, until December.
Vince was our top rookie.
And my thing was to give him respect.
And when you give it, you receive it.
And it was very, very easy.
And after we started to get to know one another,
obviously, on the court, off the court, it became like a family.
When you have a nucleus of good veterans around your two
or three young players--
Vince, Tracy McGrady, Alvin Williams--
guys like that that are hungry, guys
want to learn and take on this responsibility
to lead the team--
and Vince being our number one guy at that time--
it was just fun to watch him develop.
T-Mac and I were just out there playing, hooping,
and just doing what we do.
And that's what made it cool.
They complemented each other well, I believe.
They played together well, and they fed off each other.
When I was asked to come do this interview,
I went through my notes, and I pull out the note from
February, I think, 22nd of '99.
It's the 12th game of a 50-game season.
We're playing Chicago at home, and I've
got all these notes of stuff that Vince Carter can't do.
It was just a lot of stuff running through my mind
how to continuously improve him.
You know, I have to say that I was one
of the luckiest coaches, because Vince was one of those players
that, if you gave him the "why" of why
he needed to do something, he could pick it up very easily.
Canada was and will always be a hockey country,
but I think he really inspired a lot of kids
to pick up balls and head to the court, you know?
I don't think that that was really something that anybody
was doing before he came along.
But just because of how electrifying he was,
his highlight reels, he just made basketball seem cool.
I really think Vince had a huge impact
on how people in Canada appreciate basketball,
and that exists today.
JASON KIDD: It just shows what Vince is capable of doing.
Being in college, there's a lot of excitement
coming to the league.
But he just goes with the flow.
But he ends up going to a team in Toronto
and understanding that now not just
that he has a state or city, but he has a country behind him.
And he didn't he didn't sell them short, because he came
on the scene and he exploded.
And being able to win Rookie of the Year
just showed how talented he was.
[hip-hop music]
MAN 1: The man that has turned the slam dunk into an art.
That's the fabulous "Dr. J" Julius Erving.
VINCE CARTER: Dr. J was my hero.
Point blank, period.
And he so happened to be a pretty darn good dunker
himself.
Growing up, I taped the dunk contest every year
to where I remember sometimes when you play a tape too much,
it starts to get blurry, and the screen starts to jump
and all that.
[cheers]
In my prime, I mean, I started dunking the ball
when I used to do clinics for Converse.
So that was--
I always gave the audience a dunk show.
So I'm trying to figure out what he's doing pre-routine,
before that dunk.
And that's what helped me expand my creativity.
You have guys who can jump really high that can dunk,
and you got guys who can jump really high
with creativity, which kind of separates
you from everyone else.
Playing in the NBA was a dream, obviously,
but the dunk contest is what I, like, I studied.
Like, I was like, this is it.
The reason Vince's slam dunk contest was so good,
he was just head-and-shoulders above everybody else.
It wasn't-- as we say, it wasn't a fair fight.
I knew he was a favorite.
I don't know if the world knew he was a favorite.
All he did was say, here come a handful of dunks.
Good luck to the rest of you.
VINCE CARTER: Right about now, I am
thinking about all the times I tried this dunk,
and it looked awful.
As I put that head down, that's when I was like, we got this.
[ecstatic cheers]
KENNY SMITH: Let's go home!
Let's go home, ladies and gentlemen!
DIRK NOWITZKI: It was all before he even got to the finals.
Really, after the first dunk, that was already it.
I mean, that was a dunk I'll always remember.
VINCE CARTER: I wanted to set the tone first dunk.
Not, oh, OK, all right, he's warming up.
No, no.
I'm ready.
I'm here.
Like, if you don't get on this level--
The dunk contest is on one side of the floor,
and when Vince would come up to dunk,
the whole arena would run to the other side.
It was that crazy.
On this next dunk, I'm trying to show distance
while doing a windmill.
[ecstatic cheers]
MARV ALBERT: Kenny Smith, the only judge not to award a 10.
What's going on?
The nine dunk was a 10 in any other setting.
And that first dunk just set a tone in the building.
But I said, that is the new 10.
VINCE CARTER: So with this one, we had to use a teammate.
So we get out there, it's like, all right, what am I doing?
I said, stand right here and just--
just bounce it, and then back up.
He's like, man, what are you about to do?
I said, you'll see.
MIKE FRATELLO: --incurred an injury dealing with weights
in the weight room.
So he's stitched up in the left hand doing all this.
[ecstatic cheers]
MARV ALBERT: Oh!
KENNY SMITH: It's over!
It's over, ladies and gentlemen!
I don't have, like, catchphrases.
And I don't know if he heard me or not, but at the same time,
he goes like this, "It's over."
And Kenny going crazy telling me, it's over!
It's over!
I just attempted a dunk that I've never
tried before, like somebody--
the dunk gods or somebody, somebody--
thank you.
[laughs]
He pointed up at the rafters like this,
and that forever stuck with me.
So when it came down to 2016, we were in Toronto,
I made sure I pointed up just like he did,
as a tribute to Vince.
I had to do it.
I am literally making these dunks
up right here in front of you tonight and pulling them off.
You can't tell me nothing.
It's over!
You can't tell me nothing.
RIC BUCHER: He was a genius in a physical way,
in that, like, he could just imagine
something and then execute it.
You know, these unbelievable physical acts that,
for most people, would be like, I got
to do this over and over again.
Dunk number four, what do I want
to accomplish in this dunk?
As I turn around, I said, like, a quick prayer, OK,
don't kill yourself.
So when I walk by, I'm just rubbing it last second
just to say, just to kind of prep
it for this, because I don't know if it's going to hurt
or not.
And as I go, I just remember taking that one-two
and jumping up high.
MARV ALBERT: Carter with his first on the final round!
[laughs]
I close my eyes to hold on.
And I wanted to hear nothing.
I think we were just all in awe of what he did that night.
VINCE CARTER: I just remember landing like--
[sighs] --look around, and the first thing you're going to see
is Shaq's face.
And it wasn't that he just stuck his whole arm in there,
it's like he put it there and just kind
of gave you a couple of these.
Because he knew that people were
going to have to catch up with the idea of what he just did.
Because it wasn't through the legs,
it wasn't the other things that he did, it was,
this dude just went so high that he basically just
jammed his arm into the basket.
He said-- afterwards, he said he did stuff
that he had never practiced.
[laughs] So it was like creativity on the spot.
That's probably why it was so good.
He just owned the night.
He owned the arena.
And, to me, it will always be the single greatest dunk
performance that I've ever seen.
He's in a class by himself when it comes to dunking.
Like, he's simply in a class by-- you don't--
you can mention whoever you want.
There's some great dunkers out here.
You can mention all those guys, and I will--
ditto.
But when you try to compare somebody to Vince Carter,
I don't want to hear it.
It was a whole different environment.
He ignited a country with a dunk contest.
He put Canadian basketball on the map.
REPORTER 1: The Toronto Raptors basketball team hit the court
at the Air Canada Center.
The crowd went crazy when the dunk
master himself, Vince Carter, made his grand appearance.
[cheers]
[upbeat funk music]
Vinsanity, to me, it means the dawn of a new era.
The dawn of a new culture.
Vince was taking over the league.
He was going crazy, man.
He had now established that he was more than a dunker.
He was scoring 50 balls, 40 balls, 30 balls,
night after night after night.
Half man, half amazing, right?
Only I think at some point, he just became all amazing.
You know, with me, like, we would be in a locker room,
and we knew we was getting ready to play against Vince.
And all I was just telling the big men, just watch your head.
[laughs] You know what I mean?
Because he will make you a poster.
NICK DEPAULA: "Vinsanity" is cool.
And I think "Air Canada" is probably
the better one, though, because I grew up in Sacramento.
Jason Williams was a rookie that year.
This was pre-Instagram, pre-House of Highlights,
pre-internet, everything.
And so, for a guy to be in Toronto, and it's the, I think,
fifth year of the franchise even,
he really opened the door to the whole country.
And so I think that's the piece, when you look at the legacy,
that really sticks out to me is like how much he
could put that city on the map.
DWIGHT POWELL: Even though he might not
have been Canadian, like, a lot of us kind of just
accepted that he might be.
Like, we want him to be, and that
was a big part of I think of a lot of our development
at that age.
REPORTER 2: With one of his signature slam dunks,
Toronto Raptor Vince Carter inaugurated
a new state of the art basketball court
in Etobicoke today.
Carter, through his charity, the Embassy of Hope Foundation,
built an NBA-sized court with a pro surface and lighting
system valued at $130,000.
It's a gift to the kids in the Dixon
and Islington neighborhoods.
I just hope it creates a lot of great basketball players.
I mean, we're not here to really create
NBA superstars or anything, but I think just
instilling confidence in each and everybody
here and giving them some place to play.
I'll never forget, we went to the mall,
I'm with Vince Carter.
And at the time, Vince Carter was, like,
really Vince Carter in Toronto.
Like, everybody knew Vince Carter, so it was, like,
people looking.
And then it got to the point where we had
to run out the mall, like run.
We went downstairs, got to the car,
and when we got in front of the mall,
we got surrounded by people.
Like, it was crazy.
Like, people around the car, Vince!
Vince!
surrounded, but we couldn't drive.
And I was just like--
[exhales] --awe, like, I was in awe.
My mouth was open.
Vince was like, man, I told you this was crazy.
It didn't take long before Vince's face
was on bus benches, buses, and sides of condos.
Just everywhere.
RACHEL NICHOLS: Most players are playing for their city
or for an adopted fan base.
Playing for and having the responsibility of not only
being the star for an entire country,
in terms of that sport, but also for a relatively new franchise
that basically was depending on Vince to take
them to the promised land.
The first time they made the playoffs
was because of Vince Carter.
What they were going to do internationally and sort
of making their mark in the league
was going to be because of Vince Carter.
That's a lot.
[music playing]
Life is a little different.
A little more media coming around.
My confidence is at an all-time high.
I'm playing pretty good basketball.
I received a phone call from USA Basketball,
and them saying, we want you on because Tom Gugliotta got hurt,
and would I accept.
"Would I"-- what?
Would I accept?
Man, can't even tell you what I said.
Watching the Dream Team, watching Dream Team II--
so you're talking about a '92, '96--
we're that next group after Dream Team II.
I was just elated to join the group.
I remember getting that jersey and taking those photos--
[chuckles] --because I remember seeing the original photo.
And then all of a sudden, I see the new photo,
like, they Photoshop me right on in.
And I was just sitting there like this,
I was like, I took that picture by myself.
JASON KIDD: When we got Vince for that 2000 Olympics
through Australia, we all knew once he took flight,
no one was gonna jump with him.
I was excited.
I think Gary Payton was excited, because we
had another weapon that we could throw a lob to above the rim.
ANNOUNCER 1 (VOICEOVER): Kidd in the paint.
Still goes right at it.
VINCE CARTER: I don't know how Gary
Payton misses that easy layup.
Let's start by that.
I'm thankful for it, because it became a historic play.
It was just one of those things that right
place at the right time.
Guy gets the ball, he throws a behind-the-back pass,
and I see the lane, and I was like, I'm jumping too far.
As I hit him, I'm looking past him.
ANNOUNCER 2 (VOICEOVER): Vince Carter inside--
ANNOUNCER 3 (VOICEOVER): Oh!
Oh!
VINCE CARTER: I'm celebrating I made it, because I
knew I jumped too far.
Meanwhile, KG is cheering for something totally different.
And after the game, Gary Payton actually had
the play on their camcorder.
That's how I found out that I jumped over him.
When he jumps and takes off, it's like in slow-mo.
You go, did we just see him jump over this guy?
It was just incredible.
You know, that was just a tribute to his athleticism,
his creativity, and what a good adrenaline
rush can do for a person.
To get over a whole seven-footer and dunk it clear with barely
pushing off, that's like one of the most
ridiculous dunks of all time.
We still talk about it to this day.
And it kind of launched the shoe,
too, because he was in a transition,
I think, from Puma to Nike.
And this is when the Shock was coming.
And so when he did that, it was incredible.
I tried to put on those Shox, it didn't work for me.
I didn't jump like that.
[dramatic music]
RACHEL NICHOLS: Vince, in particular,
just didn't have a great first playoffs,
which of course he didn't.
I think he was 23 years old.
You just need the experience of playing in the playoffs
and understanding what it's about.
Because it's a totally different basketball game than playing
in regular season at any point.
The Knicks beat us down.
Took a little abuse from the media,
just because, oh, he couldn't get his team to win.
You know, they were just better than us.
And we were learning.
And I think T-Mac had a great series.
GLEN GRUNWALD: It was a positive sign, even though we got swept,
I think.
It was those games were pretty close,
and we showed that we were pretty competitive.
It was a real sign that we had, again,
taken another big step forward in establishing
ourselves as a good franchise.
One of the key issues we faced was
the Tracy McGrady free agency.
Back then, there was a different rookie contract
when a player got drafted.
The potential loss of Tracy and his
know inability to commit one way or the other
to signing with us or another team sort of put
the team in a real bind.
You want everything to be smooth.
When you're trying to keep a guy like a T-Mac
with all the potential, you want everything in your organization
to be running smooth.
And it kind of just started to get a little bumpy.
In my end the year meeting, I presented
that, if Grunwald and I could sign Tracy McGrady,
would the franchise consider moving Grunwald to president
and give me the coach and GM title.
I think that Tracy, with the style that they were playing
in Toronto and sort of the way the Raptors coaches used him,
he certainly didn't feel like a main guy.
And that was part of why he wanted to depart for Orlando.
I didn't get as much playing time as he did.
That was Vince Carter's show.
Couldn't talk me out of it.
I mean, I hated--
Vince, I hated to leave you, but it's a business, baby.
[laughs] I hated to leave, but, you know,
I had to do what's best for me.
It hurt a little bit.
You know, but that's the way it goes, and I slept on it.
So what now?
But, definitely, it's tough to swallow.
I guess when they feel-- you think they feel one way,
and then they leave, here comes the truth, I guess.
When two guys aren't talking directly to each other,
then it just becomes, well, he said this about you.
What I remember is Charles Oakley getting in the middle,
basically, and handing one of them
the phone that the other one was on and saying,
here, work this out.
We were too close and too tight
and having too much fun together for this to seem real.
When Tracy elected to leave to go to the Orlando Magic,
it was--
I don't think it hurt us that much initially,
but I think over the course of time,
to lose a talent like Tracy McGrady,
was a big setback for the long-term development
of the franchise.
When I heard him say, I'm getting an opportunity
to play in front of my family, my home crowd, like, where I'm
from, I'm like, shoot, if I had that opportunity,
I'd do it, too.
So there's no ill will, no hard feelings.
The sad part was, if Tracy would have been just drafted
out of high school where he lived and come to Toronto,
he would not have had such a tug of heart to go back to Florida.
You know, everyone wanted to resign Tracy.
Vince wanted him back.
But that was one of those difficult situations
that an organization has to go through.
Now the fans and everybody else, all right, T-Mac leaves,
what happens to us?
[dramatic music]
Fortunately for us the next year, we
play the New York Knicks again.
And we were able to win that series,
and we closed it out on their court, which was crazy.
PLAY-BY-PLAY ANNOUNCER 4: The game is over.
The Toronto Raptors coming in, and in only their second year,
making the playoffs.
RACHEL NICHOLS: The fact that they were able to come back
the next year.
And I really think it says something about Vince Carter
that you're playing the same opponent,
you're put back in the same situation at Madison Square
Garden, and they got it done.
You have to put past the historic moment
and the big win.
Now it's a whole new challenge.
It's the next round, It's a little tougher, because you're
playing a better team.
MARV ALBERT: Here in Philadelphia,
we're getting ready before the 76ers and the Raptors.
It's Game 1 of the best of 7, a match-up of Allen Iverson
and Vince Carter.
Whatever AI was doing for his team,
I needed to do for my team but better.
When you talk about Vince and AI in that playoff series,
it was just one of those TV moments.
AI was by far one of the most gifted scores.
He was their leader.
And there's another situation of a guy understanding
that he's the man, and his ability to score was needed.
Definitely a war, obviously, because it came down to Game 7.
So it was tough for us in Toronto.
It was tough for them in Philly.
If you love basketball, that series
was what you wanted to see--
Allen Iverson with just everything about the playground
coming out in that series.
And then Vince Carter with just the spectacular athleticism.
And the way he moved, and you saw it in that series,
it's just like he's lightning all over the court.
And they're going back and forth,
and the fact that that series got to a game 7 is perfect.
We felt like we can go out there
and compete and win the series.
Getting to Game 7, that's where the pressure was.
We got to figure out a way to have one more
point than this team to move on to the Eastern
Conference Final.
Now, with me, I made a little tougher, because, that morning,
I chose to graduate from college.
My favorite people.
WOMAN: Mm-hmm.
There it is.
My diploma.
It's already been a busy day for Toronto's Vince Carter.
Vince arrived in Chapel Hill at about 9:00 AM
to attend his college graduation ceremony.
VINCE CARTER: We were having a practice,
and I went to every player on our team,
do you have a problem with this?
I got a "no, I don't have a problem with it"
from every player on the team, management, whatever.
Fly to North Carolina, I get to the hotel, turn on ESPN,
all of a sudden, there's a couple of players on the team
have now changed their story and said they
have a problem with me going.
MAN 2: People said one thing, you got back,
and they felt another way.
You want to tell us who those people were?
No, that's all right.
[dramatic music]
It's all right.
ERNIE JOHNSON, JR: One of the most controversial chapters
of his career, there will be those who say, oh,
how can you do that?
You can't do that to your team.
Basketball is not who he is, it's what he does.
Who he is the guy who said, I made my mom a promise.
PLAY-BY-PLAY ANNOUNCER 5: The Raptors will have a chance
to win it at the buzzer.
The play was drawn up for me to catch the ball at the top
of the three-point line.
I remember Tyrone Hill denies that.
PLAY-BY-PLAY ANNOUNCER 5: Carter trying to get free.
VINCE CARTER: You've gone through all the repetitions,
and you've prepared for it.
You visualized it.
Now execute it.
PLAY-BY-PLAY ANNOUNCER 5: Carter at the buzzer!
The first half of that shot, I'm like, oh, this is good.
This is going in.
I think my heart stopped.
You know what I mean?
And it took so long for the shot to rim out.
So I'm now I'm hoping for it to hit the back rim,
pop up in the air, and just fall in.
One of those bounce, bounce, bounce, go in.
That's what I'm praying for now.
PLAY-BY-PLAY ANNOUNCER 5: Carter trying to get free.
Carter at the buzzer!
[buzzer]
No good!
The Sixers hold on!
And that's the Conference Finals!
ALLEN IVERSON: We had Final aspirations.
And for that shot right there to go in,
it would have been heartbreaking.
But you flip the script, and it had to be heartbreaking
for Vince and his teammates.
Because they got the ball in the hands of the guy
they wanted it.
You know what I mean?
And those guys, you ask them now, they live with that.
We want Vince to take that shot.
I think they would rather had Vince
take that jumper than someone else having a layup.
[laughs] You know what I mean?
Because they live and die with Vince.
And rightfully so.
If Vince doesn't go to graduation--
MAN 3: Right.
--are you guys in the Conference Final?
No doubt.
That's just ludicrous.
For me, I never had an issue with that.
I just thought it was a testament to his character.
He was supposed to be celebrated for that.
The fact that he did that shouldn't have
never came up with the loss.
It should have never even been mentioned.
And for him to do something so incredible, how can you make
something negative out of doing something
so great, something that you wanted to do,
something that you dreamed about doing
and something so positive?
As we all know, we make some, we miss some.
But the whole vibe of that story was
that he wasn't there for shootaround,
and that's not the reason why they lost the game.
VINCE CARTER: I was disappointed.
Let the team down.
Hearing what people had to say on TV about me going,
about jet lag, about all of these things that like--
and I'd let that creep in my mind.
The disappointing thing outside of all of that,
I felt like I didn't get enough support.
This is a great time to show young kids
how important education is.
Student athlete, not athlete student.
It was a lot to take, but, with that being said,
I would say overwhelmed with pride.
Anyone who works that hard for their college degree
deserves that moment.
When he made that decision to go to his graduation,
we all was behind him.
Education is so important, because we
know that your career could be over within a second.
What was lost in that story was that he got his degree
from North Carolina, we would all sign up to get our degree
and then go to work.
And he had that opportunity.
It was just kind of like I was out there left on an island
by myself, which I was willing to stand tall for.
Trust in your decision, stick behind it.
And I did.
And I would do it again.
[dramatic music]
Re-signing there, I remember talking with my agent,
like, it was a no-brainer.
It's what what I wanted to do.
I was comfortable there.
BUTCH CARTER: I did call Vince and talk to him
about signing his extension, because I
wanted him to stay in Toronto.
But they had overplayed him.
That led him to being injured.
VINCE CARTER: Some injuries you get where
you need surgery immediately.
Some injuries you can wait some weeks to see if it heals,
and then you kind of make your decision there.
Well, with the knee, the ligament--
we waited to see what was what, I ended up needing surgery.
Those were real injuries that he suffered.
And he missed the end of the season.
And the year after we lost to Philly
in the Conference Semifinals, he had surgery, I believe.
When I got the surgery, and my knee
continued to swell and swell and swell, I was like--
[stammers] --people were like, man, well, he can't come back.
He just-- I'm like, man, you all see my knee?
Like, I literally had a Gatorade bottle.
They had to take all the fluid out, fill up
an entire Gatorade by the full.
It wasn't done properly, so I had an infection.
I'm still a young kid.
I'm pissed that I can't be out there to play.
You're talking about you're taking basketball from me.
Like, that's all I cared about.
Like, I didn't care about anything else.
Of course, he was angry about how he was being treated
and perceived in Toronto, right, and the things
that the public were not privy to.
Some errors in judgment, perhaps.
Like going to a concert while he's on the injured list
and getting up on stage and dancing a little bit,
even though dancing a little bit is not playing basketball.
You know, those sorts of things sort of
didn't reflect well on Vince.
And I think he got some backlash for that kind of stuff.
I think he's a bum.
I'm gonna be there to boo him.
And if I could go on the court and throw a shoulder to him,
I'd do that, too.
Boo!
REPORTER 2: What do you think of--
Vince, you suck!
REPORTER 2: What do you think of Vince Carter?
He sucks!
Yeah.
Thanks a lot for all your hard work, Vince.
It really paid off.
Vince went from loved to hated.
He was constantly booed.
Raptors fans were particularly cruel.
GLEN GRUNWALD: That's just the nature
of being in the public eye and being a person
that everyone is counting on.
And you have to understand that people
are going to react to situations like that
in sort of a negative fashion.
There's this old saying, like, your best player
has to be your hardest worker.
And Vince didn't have that reputation.
Vince had a reputation of the game came really easy to him,
and he would take the easy way out.
But going from sort of the Mr. Perfect
to getting some criticism is a bit of an adjustment.
And particularly when you feel like you are hurt,
and you're doing your best you can, and you're trying
to play through some pain.
If you haven't played this game,
you don't know what we go through.
You don't know the bumps and bruises
and the punishment we take, I mean, especially back then.
You know, so they don't really understand
what a guy goes through.
So, if a guy is hurt, and a guy like Vince
I know who loves to play the game,
I mean, he's not faking an injury,
or he's not trying to get out of not playing.
You know?
He wants to be out there as much as anybody.
But a lot of times, the people, they want to judge
your character, your heart.
And that young man has a big heart.
It was unfortunate that it played out to where it was
saying that he was quitting.
I think one thing I read in the media
was he didn't give it 100%.
If they just took just a moment and took
a step back and just got to know the real Vince,
they would know how he is.
They would know that he always gives
his all in everything that he does on and off the court.
Question my love for the game is the one that pissed
me off more than anything.
Being questioned for something you love to do was tough for me
to deal with.
[electronic music]
As things started to change, we get Chris Bosh in now,
and kind of the franchise wants to move
in a different direction.
You can feel the shift in the interests of-- when
I say "interests," of who they wanted
to be their franchise guy.
When it came down to that draft,
we needed another big guy.
And so I thought Chris would be, again, a good
complement to Vince and add some talent to our squad.
The structure was extremely poor in Toronto.
And, at the end of the day, it didn't work.
[electronic music]
VINCE CARTER: As Glen Grunwald's time came to an end right
at the end of the season, I remember having a conversation
with the organization, like, hey, we're
gonna be looking for a new GM.
If you got anybody in mind, let us know,
and we'll go from there.
JULIUS ERVING: The request came through their front office.
I know Vince had something to do with it, just
in terms of the ownership or the management,
wanting to get the opinion of their best player.
They invited me up, and when I went to Toronto--
[laughs] --I was met at the airport.
He didn't really get to go into the facility and tour--
as the process should go.
They didn't appreciate the different cultures
between basketball and hockey.
In hockey, they view players as more employees, versus the NBA,
I think it's a players' league, or it's a partnership, I think.
They felt that Vince became too big for--
his role was, he's still just a player.
And I think by not necessarily doing all he wanted to do,
in terms of the GM search, was sort of the first step.
I just want to play.
And if you don't want me here, move me on,
and I'll get out of your way.
I don't want to be in your way.
I just want to play.
I just recall having a conversation with the coach
at the time, Sam Mitchell, and I told him,
I don't want to leave.
It was all directed at me and demanding to be--
I'm like-- I had this conversation with him.
You hear about trade possibilities,
and, obviously, my agent gives me calls,
and he has updates because he was talking with the GM.
I wasn't involved.
And I don't have any real inside information.
I remember I couldn't believe the trade they made.
[laughs]
You got a GM to trade Vince Carter
for a cold six pack of beer.
And I remember the day it happened.
We're in Indiana.
Wake up to like 70-plus text messages, a whole bunch
of missed phone calls.
I'm like, what is going on?
Your heart drops, and you're like,
all right, so what happens now?
And I remember asking Jalen, I was
like, OK, what happens next?
He's like, well, you know, you kind of--
[laughs] --he said, you kind of get your shit
and go onto the next team.
I never felt like I had the power to say--
to dictate what I could do, because they're the boss.
[electronic music]
JULIUS ERVING: What was your first reaction
when you found out that now I'm going to the Nets?
Well, first of all, I couldn't believe it.
I thought it was a joke.
You know, I thought my family was playing
a joke on me and everything.
And once it was a reality, you know,
you just start thinking, OK, what do we have
and how can I fit in?
The first thing you think of is Jason
Kidd and Richard Jefferson.
When we get Vince, I'm all excited in the summer,
because now I'm like, oh, we got a chance to win.
VINCE CARTER: When you're traded to a new team,
you have new energy and new life.
That's just naturally.
I thought we really had a chance to be successful and win
the East and give the Western Conference
a run for their money.
I mean, that was an incredible time watching
Vince play in New Jersey.
He had RJ, like, running the right,
he had Vince running the left, and J-Kidd was down the middle
just picking and choosing who he wanted to throw lobs to.
To get to play with a team--
an up-and-down fast team, play with a guy like Jason Kidd,
he made the game easy.
JASON KIDD: He was trying to feel his way to fit in.
And I told him, look, you fit in the day we got you.
You just have to be you and do what you do best,
and I'll make sure I get you the ball.
IAN EAGLE: :03 seconds left.
Carter with :02 seconds.
Carter for the win--
got it!
Vince Carter has done it!
PLAY-BY-PLAY ANNOUNCER 6: They've been on the floor,
the Nets have.
Warming up, the reaction has not been good for Vince Carter.
Why?
PLAY-BY-PLAY ANNOUNCER 7: He flat-out told
the fans he didn't try or didn't give
it his best when he was here.
So, yes, they are bitter.
TIFFANY SHOLTZ: The first game that he
returned back to Toronto was very interesting.
I was kind of nervous.
PA ANNOUNCER 2: From North Carolina, 6'6" guard,
number 15, Vince Carter.
[loud boos]
The booing was the worst I've ever heard
in any sport in my entire life.
He was hurt.
I mean, who wouldn't be?
What human being would not be?
But he gave it everything he had.
That's how you go on, and you do what you
did for the New Jersey Nets.
VINCE CARTER: Like, I was able to take off to next level
and just learn how to score in many different ways on top
of the abilities I had coming in to New Jersey,
so it was just awesome.
[dramatic electronic music]
I was traded from New Jersey to Orlando in the off-season
during my basketball camp.
I was hosting a basketball camp in Orlando
and have all my kids in there, and I just
got finished doing a drill with every kid in the camp, one
on one, all that.
Tired, and this guy was like, yeah,
your brother's on the phone.
Your brother's calling.
So I guess he called the camp director.
I can't remember who he handed me the phone.
And he's like, bro, you heard what's going on?
I'm doing a camp.
What's going on?
He's like, you just got traded to Orlando.
That was a shock for me, you know.
They said, you got traded.
I was like, OK, great.
And I said, OK, where?
And he told me back home.
It's just-- it's a dream come true.
Vince had an opportunity to go to a team that was a playoff
team in Orlando that was competing at a very high level,
and I thought he fit right into what they were trying to do.
He was a piece that could help.
Once he got to Orlando, that's when the focus became let
me rely on creating space jump-shooting,
distributing the ball.
Because everything was built to go through Dwight Howard.
Here's the other thing, he came to a team that got
to the Finals the year prior.
My most successful team would definitely
be the Orlando Magic.
Every basketball player's dream who
steps into the NBA or any league, your goal
is to win a championship.
It's all about the right opportunity.
Orlando might have been the one that I felt,
OK, we still had a chance.
That's when he started to expand his game a lot more is
when he got to Orlando, as he stepped out,
started taking more of a ball-handler
role on, starting knocking down the long ball a lot.
JASON KIDD: He handled his role very well
and did it at a very high level.
He can tell you probably today that he
put his best foot forward to win a championship
and just came up short.
VINCE CARTER: We lost to the Boston Celtics in 6.
And they ended up playing the Lakers in the Finals again.
So it was just--
that's when I was like, uh, I might
have missed my opportunity.
Have we seen the best already that Vince Carter has to offer?
I'll tell you the biggest problem with Vince Carter.
He's a nice guy.
I never met a great player who wasn't
a bit of a gruff, who would slap his mama to get a rebound.
Is he competitive enough?
He's just a guy with a ton of talent.
He has not pushed himself.
Like I say, I just think, personally,
he's just too nice of a guy.
He doesn't have that edge.
VINCE CARTER: I got so many of them I should try to wear.
These ones I should try to wear.
I'll think about it.
I like those shoes.
This was when I was in Jersey.
These are old.
These are my Christmas edition that I wore.
It's supposed to be for Christmas.
Magic.
MAN 4: But you got traded before Christmas?
Once I did.
Yeah.
Yeah, that year.
SPORTSCASTER: We had NBA trade of the blockbuster variety.
Going to Phoenix, Vince Carter.
MIKE FRATELLO: They kind of swapped uniforms there.
Money was a consideration.
Expiring contracts a consideration.
VINCE CARTER: It came out of the blue.
Out of nowhere.
When it happens, you're always like, well, our team was good.
It's not like our team was losing.
For us, in Phoenix, the year before, we
got to the Conference Finals.
Amar'e leaves.
Some things change with our team.
And so-- and those changes weren't working.
And so then it was, OK, what can we do to fix things?
And we brought Vince in and Gortat, who
was his teammate in Orlando.
And so there's always--
when it happens, you hate to see guys leave,
but you're excited about the possibilities.
VINCE CARTER: Phoenix was a tough situation, for me,
I think more than anything, because that's
when my reserve role started.
It was an adjustment.
I think that was, for him, sort of the first time
now where, like, the ball's not in his hands.
You know?
I think in Toronto, I think in New Jersey,
even playing with Jason Kidd, the ball
was in his hands a lot.
He was in pick and roll, he was able to do some things.
And now, all of a sudden, we're in Phoenix,
and the ball is in Steve Nash's hands a lot.
And rightfully so.
The first game was kind of the weirdest
and the most awkward for me.
You, as the starter, you've been a starter for all these years,
and to now sit there on the bench, kind of waiting
your turn, it was different.
It's a shot to the ego a little bit.
You say that you're willing to do whatever for a team.
This is putting that to the test.
And do you mean what you say?
A lot of great players can't adjust
to playing a different style of basketball,
and they can't deviate from that.
But I think that's when Vince started to pivot a little bit.
I went home that night, kind of sulked--
[laughs] --and just tried to find my way
and kind of get it together.
GRANT HILL: I think it really helped him accept
and embrace sort of where he's at and maybe also
where his future is at.
And that was the toughest year out of all of them,
I think was Phoenix and just learning
how to handle that new role.
I think it really contributed to his longevity.
GRANT HILL: I asked myself this question--
does starting mean that much to you,
or being a closer and a finisher of a game mean more to you?
I remember having a conversation with him,
talking about this is interesting to me.
And whether it was working with some of the younger players,
whether it was, oh, that experience of coming
in off the bench and sort of how the game changes,
and the chemistry of a basketball game
changes at that moment.
And it struck me in the moment that he was curious
about other things besides being the A number one superstar who
was dunking the ball, and that if he was intellectually
curious and excited about other parts and little folds
and facet of a game that you can get from being a role player.
That, to me, I remember back on that conversation and thinking,
oh, this can be interesting.
And it was.
If you have an ego in this league,
it's going to get checked.
You know, even the greatest--
Michael Jordan-- he--
I mean, his ego got checked, too.
He needed people.
You know what I mean?
He wasn't going to be able to do it by himself.
LeBron had to go find some people in Miami.
So, no matter how great you are, you're always gonna get sick.
So he did it for himself.
I hold Vince up now as an example
when I have conversations with guys
as they get toward the end of their career
about what do you want to be.
And I think Vince did something so fascinating by deciding,
what I want to be is a basketball
player who plays basketball.
And that sounds super simple.
But when you are a decoration at the end of the bench
because you are "ring-chasing" as people like to say,
if you are going to the team where you think you have
the best chance to win that hardware,
but you're really mostly just a "locker room presence"
or a "practice player" or something,
you can do that if you decide the most
important thing is I want to cap off my career with a ring.
But then you're not really playing
basketball in the same way.
And Vince decided, I want to play.
[dramatic music]
VINCE CARTER Obviously I enjoy playing and being a starter
is whatever.
I just wanted to finish games if possible.
And I still got a chance to finish games.
At that time, it's just had to accept it and learn how to deal
with it and it's tough for a lot of guys
to do that and understand, like, when you played a starring role
for so long, and then now you're asked
to play a reserve role, which you're not used
to, being able to handle it.
I feel like I took it like a champ.
I did some studying to figure out how to be consistent at it.
And it kept me around for another 10 years.
I started I started getting into on the YouTube and watching,
like, Ginobili, Vinnie Johnson, some of the great sixth men
in NBA history and learn from them
and try to incorporate my style of play, who I am, into that.
And here I am.
[inspirational music]
Just give me your initial reaction
to now being a part of the defending World
Champion Dallas Mavericks.
I mean, what can you say?
They've accomplished the ultimate goal,
and the next thing I know, I'm getting a phone
call from the Mavericks staff.
Wow, we get a chance to convince Carter?
[laughs] I mean, we definitely got to do that.
You know, he came to us from Phoenix,
where he didn't have much of a role anymore,
and everybody was kind of saying he was phasing out.
But I think he was kind of holding back.
Vince came to me and asked if he could be our new sixth man.
The vast majority of NBA players are not
going to knock on your door and say, hey, coach,
can I come off the bench?
And that's-- generally, that's not the dream.
He was phenomenal, and you don't often, if ever,
get a guy like Vince who had been in the league
a long time at that point but had only been with us one year.
The guy was pure class here.
He knew a bigger role was coming for him.
He came off the bench, and it was an instant offense for us.
He not only wanted to help the team,
but he wanted to challenge himself.
And you know, the things that you actually
have to do to go from being perennial all-star
and a starter to being a sixth man,
you've got to reprogram how you think a little bit.
And I'll tell you, Vince was as good
a sixth man as I've ever seen.
It's the evolution of a guy embracing his role.
You could be a sixth man, but you can play starters minutes.
You know, if you're playing upwards of 30 minutes a game,
does it really matter if he started?
Vince was not only an athletic player, but he was clutch.
In 2014, you know, we're playing the Spurs,
and Dallas, San Antonio is a big rivalry.
That play that we ran against the San Antonio Spurs
that night, we've run 100 times probably,
and it never really worked.
Right before we were walking out,
Coach Carlisle comes to me.
He's like, hey, you might get this ball.
Be ready.
We're down 2 with 1.5 seconds left,
and we had a play that we had worked on where Vince
would peel off to the corner.
That's a tough place to play and to make
a play with short time because we've
got to turn around all the way.
Pump fake just to get him up, and then shoot it.
And leave it up there with confidence.
ANNOUNCER: He got to the ball.
[cheering]
ANNOUNCER: Yes!
Yes!
Do you believe it?
The starter.
To see that shot go in was unreal,
you know, because I date back to 2001.
ANNOUNCER: Carter at the buzzer.
[cheering]
End game!
12 years later, I get the opportunity, again, finally
to redeem myself for me.
It was one of the most exhilarating
moments I've had as a coach.
And for him, for him to have that moment
in a playoff series like that, it was just phenomenal.
It almost seemed like the tougher the shot, the more easy
he made it look, and that's why he's one of the greats.
Every time I receive knowledge,
I was able to incorporate it into my game
and could see positive things happening.
You know, I had Charles Oakley who played with Michael Jordan.
I had Kevin Wilson who played with Dominique Wilkins.
I had Dee Brown who played with Larry Bird.
I had Doug Christie who played with Magic Johnson.
Those are some of the elite of the elite that has played
this game that these guys who have played with
can share knowledge with me of how they watch them
operate on and off the court.
Just want to come out here and show some
of my support for, of course, the rookies
that we had last year and then for the new guys.
For me, it was a goal to come out and get myself
in shape and just, you know, practice with these guys
and just give them as much knowledge as I can.
If it wasn't for me playing 20-plus years,
a lot of coaches wouldn't allow me to be the player
coach and have a voice.
I'm very appreciative that these young guys--
you know, obviously, they view me
as a teammate like anyone else.
But they know I've been around, and they value my knowledge.
And they allow me to share and help
whenever the time is right.
It was like having two coaches.
You know, a lot of times, when games he wasn't playing,
you see him up on the bench, telling guys, really,
you should be here, be there, just giving him
different type of information, the things
that they can use to help them.
He was just trying to do what he could
do or give whatever he could give to help his teammates win.
This is one of two things that I'm proud of.
I won the Twyman-Stokes award.
So basically, it's the Teammate of the Year Award,
and you're voted by your peers, you
know, players around the NBA, not
just your current team but all players involved in this award.
And I won it, and I view this at the same level, in my opinion,
as a MVP.
Vince had just the humility and the perspective
and the desire to be in this game that led him to be
able to play a role, that led him to be able to go to Memphis
or Sacramento or Atlanta.
He just wanted it to, you know, not just
keep his career going but to do it
in a way that was meaningful.
And that's meant mentoring younger players,
setting an example in terms of his daily work ethic,
passing along what he knows.
It just speaks to Vince's generous spirit, I think,
as a player and as a man.
There's no player that I'd rather
have around all these young kids today to mentor.
I think that's the best thing he can
do the last few years because you want
to emulate him as a player.
But the main thing, you want to emulate him as a person.
There have been a few times in the last few years
I thought, well, I wonder if this is it for Vince?
And then he still shows up, and he still hit shots.
You know, the game has changed, but, every now and then,
he'll give you a little glimpse.
You know, he'll get up, and we'll go, wow.
When it comes to the humility that it takes
to be a 22-year player, every year,
he's playing fewer minutes.
He's putting up fewer more points.
His averages are low.
It's dragging down his career averages to the point where
it's like, oh, well, he didn't even average 20
points a game for his career.
What are we talking about?
Well, it's because he tacked on seven, eight, nine
years at the end that a lot of guys
wouldn't have hung out for.
He didn't care about his career averages.
He didn't care what that would do to some statistical, you
know, box on a website.
He understood that there was another purpose for him
to stick around this game.
There was a value to it.
I worked so hard to be in shape
and then play this game to compete against young guys
half my age, so I wanted to go out playing the game.
I think sitting on the end of the bench,
not being able to be a part of this is--
you know, that would kill me more than anything.
I've obviously been the same age as Vince
at the end of his career and knowing
it's the end of his career.
When we first got him the first year, you know, part of me
thought that was going to be his last season
and what a special moment it would
be to have Vince in his last season
with a really young team.
And he understood the role.
We talked about the role of leadership and guidance.
Sure enough, when the season started,
he had to start for us at the four.
Trey was starting at age 20, I believe, and Vince was age 41.
And so that was the biggest gap, 21 years of age,
between starters on the starting lineup, so it just kind of-- it
showed for me how valuable Vince was when we brought him in
but also how special he is as a player
to still be able to play, still be able to be
included as a starter.
Vince has been in the league 20-plus years.
He's past that vet point.
He's a OG.
Everything he says, it's like, you know, he's been through it.
Like, you listen to the OGs.
You want to be in their shoes because he's talking
just as much as the coaches.
Vince is always the first one--
especially on our home games, he's always
the first one on the court.
He's always the first one.
His routine, his vitamin, his shooting routine
is he's always the first guy before the young guys go.
The Toronto Raptors were in the NBA Finals
the year before Vince retired, and he has been a guest analyst
on the Jump on our show for the playoffs
for the previous five years.
So we've had him at all of these NBA Finals sites
through the years, and this time the NBA Finals were in Toronto.
And there was some question about, was he going to come up?
There has been some back and forth with him
and the Toronto fan base over the years at different times.
But to Vince's credit, he was all in to come,
and we had him on a stage outside in that Jurassic park
fan area with him, myself, and Tracy McGrady.
This is dedication out here.
I mean, it's raining.
Yeah, it's not warm.
It's a little chilly.
Exactly.
But there out here because they want to witness history.
And to have him have that moment
with the screaming Toronto fans in the rain,
it was crazy out there.
It felt very special to me that, even though he didn't get
that final lap playing in Toronto,
that he was there with the people.
I almost think that that was a better moment, at least for me,
as someone who watched him throughout his career,
to see him connect with everybody in that way
and especially to be there with T-Mac
felt like really just everything came full circle.
"He hates Toronto.
He had no luck."
So far from the truth, so far from the truth.
I still have business in Toronto,
so not wanting to be there and didn't appreciate my time?
Never, never.
Definitely appreciate it.
I still appreciate some of the people that are there.
Still talk to him to this day, in the organization
and around the city.
That's a big point of conversation
that day is, you know, what's going on with the league?
What's going on with the virus?
What's next?
The owners, organization in general,
we're all in the locker room, talking about the scenarios.
If this happens, if somebody tests positive,
what would happen?
We're leaving the locker room, and we're
about to break the huddle.
And I said, hey, you know, this could
be our last game without fans.
That was my message.
This could be our last game without fans.
And Dewayne Dedmon, without missing a beat, says,
this could be Vince's last game without fans.
We're coming out to halftime to shoot, and OP comes up to us
and just tells us, tells me and Vince,
that the season's probably get canceled,
that the Thunder and the Jags game just got canceled.
Coach Pierce says, you heard about what
happened to Rudy Gobert?
He's like, he tested positive.
And now we know something's going on,
and we understand, this is probably it for us.
We still have a second half to play, try to get back
in this game, get us a win.
We're still focused on the game, so,
like, we're so far behind we don't
even understand what the world's talking
about and going through.
And it'd get to about the fourth quarter, midway
in the fourth quarter, Dewayne Dedmon leans over to me,
and he's like, you know this might be your last game?
Damn, you know what?
This might, like-- this might be it.
Fans are starting to chant, like, we want Vince.
We want Vince.
CROWD: We want Vince!
We want Vince!
We just started hearing, "Vince, Vince, Vince,"
from the fans.
And everyone's chanting to get Vince back in the game.
It hasn't even crossed my mind.
DeAndre was like, ah, we want Vince.
Like, Oh, hey, Vince.
Sit down.
Chill out.
Let's get this over with.
I don't think he wanted to go in.
I think the crowd chanting, "We want
Vince," kind of persuaded the whole Vince
and LP to put him in.
And made eye contact with LP, and he looked at me.
And I turned, and I look at the bench.
I look down at the bench, and all of the guys
are basically tugging at and pointing that Vince
and telling him to get up.
But he looked at me, and he was kind of like, go in.
And it's just like--
everything changed that fast in an instant.
[crowd]
ANNOUNCER: And they're going to put him in.
From that point, it was just kind of like, what's going on?
Like, this might be it.
For me, a lot of things ran through my mind.
I mean, I was thinking about my season
being over with at the same time.
I had a guy right to my next to me
that this could be the last time ever playing an NBA game.
And then I remember Trey said, hey, we're going to get you--
you're going to take the last shot.
I'm like, all right, cool, whatever, whatever,
because I'm still processing.
And I hear them, and I understand it.
But I was like, all right, cool, whatever.
New York kind of knows we're running the shot for Vince
anyways, but, in the event that they
didn't, we had something there.
And Trey did exactly that.
He drove it.
Three guys collapsed on him, and he
just pitched it back to Vince.
And in a classic Vince moment, he steps right in off the bench
and played the last 15 minutes, and he drains the 3.
ANNOUNCER: And that's what they're going to do.
Carter for 3.
Get in there.
[cheering]
ANNOUNCER: Unbelievable.
What an appropriate play to finish
for the great Vince Carter.
Thankfully it went in, and it was just a great moment.
You know, and I was able to walk off, and it was kind of like,
all right.
I made the last shot.
So the ending is there if need be.
It was a crazy moment.
I was-- I'm going to be able to tell my kids someday
that I gave Vince Carter his last bucket in NBA,
so that's something I'll never forget.
But I thought it was a great moment, not only for him.
Who knew at the time that that would really be his last game,
but what a great ending to a career
and what a great moment for the fans.
And I think the reason that moment
struck such a chord with everyone
was it was completely organic.
It wasn't some big hoopla organized celebration.
It was just the people in that building
who knew how important Vince Carter was to the game
and that this moment must be respected
and that being just natural.
It feels like I've been retired for about a year
or so because of my internal clock and how things have
operated for 20-plus years.
Most guys, you can put markers.
With Vince, it's just like he lived this NBA life,
and you almost have to look in retrospect
and say, oh, so this is what he-- like,
this is what he was in this period.
But it was just this natural conversion of who he was
over the course of his career.
I did not think it was going to last.
Like, I just didn't.
I didn't think he was going to--
guy was going to play two decades.
Never, never.
When people think of me, you know,
they're going to think of dunking.
So when I'm asked about what I want people to remember
is of my legacy, I will talk about the dunking
because I know that's going to take care of itself anyway.
[laughs]
You know, he just wanted to show people that his game was
on the ground as well as in air and that he could
be this fundamentally sound player who could do it all,
and he did.
Vince Carter keeps the game pure.
He filters it, and he doesn't allow the negative things
to fall through.
That takes a lot.
To carry the league, which he did,
and then mentor guys who couldn't carry his shoes
at times, that takes a real humility,
and I admire him for that.
Whether it's seeing him working on his broadcast career
or knowing the time and effort that he's put in to maintain
his athleticism, my view of him has changed dramatically,
and I think what makes it most authentic is that Vince wasn't
trying to persuade anybody.
He never made a concerted effort like,
I'm going to change your view of who I am.
I'm just going to continue to be who I am,
and then, eventually, you'll get it.
So Vince, I got.
To tell a guy who's been as great as Vince or Karl Malone
or Patrick Ewing or myself that your life sucks
because you didn't win a couple more basketball game, I think--
first of all, I think it's stupid.
And for him to maintain his excellence for this long
is incredible.
That's what makes him special.
Nobody who's made it to the NBA
didn't spend how many hours on the court, sometimes
after the sun goes down when they were supposed to be home
already, just getting in a few more shots,
"I just want to play a little bit more",
when no one was watching when they're 11 years old.
And Vince, to me, epitomized toward the end of his career
that I just want to-- just let me get a few more shots out.
That's a love of the game, man.
My favorite thing about Vince Carter is who he is as a man.
It's who he is as a person, who he is as a friend,
Who he is as a family member.
Everything that he stands for would be a great man
on and off the basketball court, Hall
of Fame player, indeed, but definitely a Hall of Fame man.
Am I a sure-fire Hall of Famer?
Ah, you know, I hope so.
I would love to be in the Hall of Fame.
If I do have that opportunity, it would probably
be as a Toronto Raptor.
I want people to see me more than just a dunker.
I want you to realize that I have--
it's more to me and my game than just my ability to dunk.
That's the mentality I created.
That's just how I've gone about it and learned,
and that's what I expect of myself.
If you're going to wear the uniform,
you want to go out there and compete.
It was about fulfilling the love that I
still have inside for the game.