Recently, 35-year old Dallas Mavericks forward Vince Carter had a bit of a throwback night against the Washington Wizards. The former Slam Dunk Champion threw down a couple of nice dunks in that game which were reminiscent of his more dominant years as a young man with the Toronto Raptors. Of course, the older Vince we know today is a much different (and less awe-inspiring) player, so his performance in that game understandably drew some attention. So much so that a blog post entitled “Vince Carter shocks everyone with multi-dunk game in 2013” surfaced on The Score. Of course, the most remarkable thing about all the hubbub surrounding those dunks is just how pedestrian they are compared to the ones Carter routinely converted in his days with Toronto and New Jersey (remember this? Or this?).
That sudden realization of the decline of Vince Carter
saddened me just a bit. Carter has
(deservedly) received a fair bit of criticism throughout his career for being soft,
unmotivated, or faking injuries. But
despite all that there’s no doubt that, for individuals of a certain
generation, Carter was the biggest star we grew up idolizing, and the one we
all tried to emulate on the playground or at school. Now, less than a decade later, Carter is
little more than a role player for the struggling Mavericks; a player for whom
two fairly standard-looking dunks in a single basketball game is cause for
celebration. How far the mighty have
fallen.
All this of this is particularly notable given the circumstances
of this 2012-2013 NBA season. While
Vince plays a bit role for a fringe playoff team in Dallas, Kobe Bryant and Tim
Duncan, two fellow veterans who were actually drafted in the years BEFORE him, are
enjoying their finest seasons in ages.
Tim Duncan’s Player Efficiency Rating of 24.3 is his highest since 2009,
and Kobe has hasn’t had a PER this high (24.7) since 2006. And those two players have racked up many
more minutes of playing time, including postseason play, over their careers
than Vince.
So why has Vince declined so rapidly since his “superstar”
days in Toronto? The Vince critic would
no doubt argue that his decline is a result of the lack of remarkable work
ethic that typifies surefire Hall of Famers like Bryant and Duncan. And that critic wouldn’t be totally incorrect. Vince hasn’t been the most willing hard
worker throughout his career. But in
fact, few players do have the work ethic of a Duncan or a Bryant, or of
modern-day superstars like LeBron James and Kevin Durant. The question is why we held Vince up to those
impossible standards in the first place, given that he never did himself.
Vince was an athlete and a marvel, not unlike a JR Smith of
today. He has always been a solid
shooter, but never possessed a truly elite skill outside of his unreal leaping
ability. Whether in the realm of passing
or defense, Carter has vacillated between terrible and average throughout his
career. And for those reasons, the
reality is that Vince never truly fit the mold of a “superstar”, even in his
earlier days in Toronto. And yet years of
trying to play up to that role foisted upon him by media and fans exhausted
him, and led to his disastrous final days as a Raptor. Of course, I’m not making excuses for what
Vince did in Toronto (demanding trades, not playing his hardest, feigning
injuries).
Raptors fans in particular
have every right to be angry at him. But
he was young. And in hindsight, his
behavior at the time seems like small potatoes next to the recent antics of
players like Carmelo Anthony or Dwight Howard.
After all, Vince never got a coach fired, or held a press conference to announce
his loyalty while simultaneously plotting his exit to another team.
Unsurprisingly, when Vince arrived in New Jersey, he
immediately settled into the role of second fiddle to Jason Kidd. And thus began his seamless transition into
the role player we know today. On the
surface, it seems like a sad end to a career that was destined for so much
more. But in this case, those who are
able to focus less on the perceived “potential” of Vince and more on the actual
facts of his career may be surprised what they see.
Last month, Zach Lowe wrote a fantastic article for Grantland in which he (seriously) made a
case for Vince Carter as a Hall of Fame player.
And the fact is, looking strictly at the stats, Vince is a strong candidate. Lowe makes the case for Vince like
this:
“(Vince Carter will) at least approach 22,000 career points
this season, and with a guaranteed deal for next season, he has a shot to reach
23,000 if he stays healthy. Only 13 players in NBA/ABA history have eclipsed 22,000 points,
5,000 rebounds, and 4,000 assists; Carter, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce will
make it 16 shortly, and a few others — Clyde Drexler, Gary Payton, Larry Bird —
barely missed.”
So in that context, Vince Carter, the career disappointment,
has a borderline Hall of Fame caliber career. He also can make an argument that for a
period of three to four years in the early 2000s, he was the most popular
basketball player on the face of the planet.
Not too bad. But as I reflected
more and more on the career of Vince Carter, the thing that impressed me the
most about him is how at ease he seems to be with his legacy and career. Carter has often been decried as soft or
accused of simply not caring. But his
actions mostly strike me as those of a man who simply lacks the maniacal
devotion to the sport of basketball that many (for some reason) expect him to
have.
In 2001, Carter attended his graduation on the morning of a
decisive Game 7 against the Philadelphia 76ers that his team eventually lost. Mind you, Carter didn’t miss the game itself, and his decision may have
had no actual effect on the result of the game.
Yet he was crucified for his actions by Raptors fans. Later in his Raptors career, Carter, who is famously
close with his mother, was criticized again when his mother had the audacity to
defend her son in speaking out against the Raptors organization and then-Coach
Sam Mitchell.
Long story short, Vince was villainized by Toronto fans in
part for his dedication to such trifling issues as education and family instead
of basketball. To basketball fans, Vince
may be one of the greatest examples of squandered talent in NBA history. But visit his website and you’ll find a list
a mile long of his charitable exploits, as well as directions to his successful
restaurant in Dayton, Florida. All in
all, it seems like Vince is doing just fine without the approval of all the
fans that get off on calling him overrated or badmouthing him in the comments
section of YouTube videos.
In researching the career of Vince Carter, there is one quote
of his in particular that intrigued me: "Being overlooked, it doesn't hurt
my feelings, it doesn't bother me…It just makes my job easier, really. Just go
out there and be who I am."
Obviously, Kobe Bryant would never be caught dead uttering those words
and even if he did, we would all recognize them as lies. The legends of the game, Kobe, Michael and their ilk, are fueled endlessly by every perceived slight.
Vince, by contrast, is a player who has found comfort in the
shadows. He once stood at the precipice
of superstardom and, obviously, found himself wanting. Now he knows better than anyone that he is no
Kobe Bryant, despite how much fans tried to force him to think otherwise. And unlike players like Tracy McGrady or
Allen Iverson, he wasn’t interested in driving himself out of the league by
grasping at any delusions of being such a player.
In these, his waning years, Carter has not grumbled about
his minutes or fled to China in the interest of feeding his ego or
self-perception as a megawatt star.
Instead, he has gracefully made the transformation into a role player
and mentor for younger teammates. Into a
player who has drawn nothing but praise from both his teammates and coaches. By all appearances, Vince Carter is very
pleased with the way his career turned out.
I suppose then that the next, most pressing question is: should we be?
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