If James Dolan could go back and change history, Vinsanity would have starred on Broadway — not off the New Jersey Turnpike.
During a Thursday appearance on the “Roommates Show” podcast hosted by Knicks stars Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart, Dolan, the Knicks executive chairman, explained that the trade he wished he could go back and do would’ve been bringing Vince Carter to the Knicks.
Apparently, the Knicks were going to complete a trade for the Basketball Hall of Famer, but New York’s medical team told the front office that Carter had a “90 percent severed Achilles tendon and that it would never hold up,” Dolan said.
“And once it ruptured, he’d never be the same player, and for that reason, we didn’t do the trade,” Dolan said, not specifying when the possible trade would have occurred.
The Knicks owner jokingly added: “Vince Carter went on to have five, six, seven years. I kept waiting for his Achilles tendon to break, it never broke.”
“Yup, we certainly dodged a bullet there, didn’t we,” Dolan said sarcastically.
On Dec. 17, 2004, Carter was traded by the Raptors to the then-New Jersey Nets in a deal that sent Alonzo Mourning, Aaron Williams, Eric Williams and two first-round draft picks to Toronto.
In a video produced by the Nets that re-examined the trade that made Carter a Net, former vice president of public relations Gary Sussman recalled Carter’s shock about the return that the Raptors had received in the deal.
Then-Knicks head coach Lenny Wilkens told reporters in 2004 that the Nets “gave up a lot of players.”
Carter played four-plus seasons with the Nets, appearing in 374 games and leading the team to the postseason three times.
Carter holds the franchise’s NBA record for single-season points with the 2,070 he recorded during the 2006-07 season.
He sits third in the Nets’ NBA history in total points with 8,834.
The Nets retired Carter’s No. 15 earlier this year during a game against the Heat.
