NBA stoppage could be the end of Vince Carter

Transcript

00:00Of all the things that could be lost if the NBA doesn't return this season, from LeBron James'

00:04chance at winning a fourth championship to the Bucs' opportunity to sell Giannis on a long-term

00:08future, somewhat lost in the shuffle is that we may have seen the last game played by Vince Carter.

00:14After an NBA record 22 seasons, Carter intends to retire after this one. And while Carter won't

00:19call it quits with the same fanfare of a Kobe Bryant or a Dirk Nowitzki, his career has been

00:24no less notable. Carter's legacy is a complicated one. He began his career as an MVP candidate in

00:30Toronto. He finishes it coming off the bench in Atlanta. Whereas Kobe and Dirk played for one

00:35team, Carter suited up for eight. Bryant and Nowitzki each retire with a title. Carter will

00:40walk away without one. But Carter does walk away with some incredible accomplishments. You want to

00:46know why basketball is cool in Canada? Vince Carter. The fifth pick in the 1998 draft, Carter

00:52made a hockey craze country embrace basketball. Five years into the franchise's existence, Vince

00:58Carter powered the Raptors into the playoffs. He was Air Canada and All-NBA Talent, the man who

01:03single-handedly revitalized the dunk contest with a memorable performance in 2000. His Raptors career

01:09ended badly with Carter shipped off to New Jersey midway through the 0405 season. But what he did in

01:15Toronto will never be forgotten. Becoming an NBA superstar is hard. Transitioning from a superstar

01:21to a role player could be even harder. The list of players who have done it might just be Carter,

01:27who went from an MVP candidate in Toronto and an all-star New Jersey to a role player in Orlando

01:32and Phoenix to one of the NBA's top reserves in Dallas. Carter understood early that ego was

01:38perhaps the biggest obstacle to having a long career. So he studied tape of Vinnie Johnson.

01:43He watched Manu Ginobili and Jason Terry, two former starters who extended their careers as

01:48reserves. He kept his body in pristine condition to be able to compete with players decades his

01:54junior, and he prepared his mind for the challenge of adapting to different roles. I talked to Carter

02:00this week and I asked him, would not winning a championship haunt him? Carter told me he had

02:06opportunities to play for contenders late in his career, but he wasn't interested in riding

02:11someone's bench. He wanted to play, which is why Memphis, Sacramento, and Atlanta were his last

02:17three stops. I asked Carter if it bothered him if the last visual of him on an NBA floor could be

02:22in a meaningless regular season game. Carter said absolutely not. He was at peace with his career,

02:28and he reminded me that he did make his last shot. Vince Carter probably deserved

02:32a more memorable finish, but Carter is happy with the one he got.