Vince Carter has called having his No. 15 retired to the rafters at Barclays Center a dream. Is he ready for the dream to become reality Saturday?
“I think I am, but I know I’m not,” Carter said at the Brooklyn Paramount. “One of the guys said, ‘But you just had one [jersey retired].’ I said yes, but I could have one every year and still have the same feelings and emotion because I have a great appreciation for what this means and what this is. Everybody doesn’t get the honor. I just found out that only seven guys will be up there. This is rare air.
“So I’m very appreciative of being a part of that group, particularly when you’re talking about Dr. J, somebody who I admire. J-Kidd, somebody I admire. I remember coming in, the two guys I’d see [were] 32 and 52. I’d always see that many years ago. So now to go up with them, I was chasing something … I want to have an impact like [they] did. So it’s just truly amazing to now be here a couple days away.”
Carter is used to being in rare air. That’s where he lived during a spectacular, high-flying career.
Make that a Hall of Fame career.
He joined the Nets from Toronto in December 2004, and his scoring vaulted from 15.9 points to 27.5 points over the rest of that season. In parts of five years, he helped them make the postseason three times and averaged an electric 23.6 points.
“You see two ball-headed, light-skin dudes racing, running for a lob,” Carter reminisced in a Q & A with Richard Jefferson at Thursday’s premiere of his documentary film “From Daytona Beach to Brooklyn.”
The only numbers the Nets have retired are the late Dražen Petrovic (3), Jason Kidd (5), John Williamson (23), Bill Melchionni (25), Julius Erving (32) and Buck Williams (52). Kidd was the last, in 2013 while he was coaching Brooklyn.
That changes Saturday.
“What Joe Tsai is trying to do — what Sean Marks, my former teammate, is trying to do and has done in granting me this honor — I’m truly blessed,” Carter said. “I’ve had a couple of conversations with Joe Tsai, and he’s like, ‘This had to happen. This was going to happen.’ … And him wanting to do it on his watch is pretty darn spectacular.”
So was Carter.
He ignited the Nets’ with his offense, like his famous 2005 posterization of Alonzo Mourning.
Jason Collins made a veteran move to help screen Mourning under the basket on that iconic play. But as much as a dunker or scorer, Collins remembers Carter as a friend, somebody who immediately supported him when he came out as gay.
“Yeah, he’s been great. When I made my announcement, he was one of the guys who reached out in support,” said Collins, teammates with Carter from 2004-08. “Every time I see him … you’re always just picking right back up with, ‘Hey, how’s it going? How’s your family doing?’ And all that again. He’s a great teammate.”
He wasn’t an All-Star but a superstar — one of the few the franchise has had.
“I stand by he’s one of the most talented athletes to ever walk the face of the planet,” said Jefferson, who played alongside Carter for four years. “It’s not just the dunks. It’s his ability. It’s his body control. It’s his quickness. It’s handles. It’s him shooting 35-foot 3s when no one was doing it in 2006. It’s just like he’s just a different human being. He was good.”
It’s why he’s had such an enduring impact on the culture, not just the game in Canada but the wave of players emulating his style.
In a post-Jordan NBA, fans were looking for the singularly spectacular.
They found Carter.
“It’s just iconic,” Cam Johnson said. “When you’re growing up watching the game, you want to play like Vince Carter. That seems like the coolest way to play. Just go in and dunk on everybody and you can shoot from anywhere. What could be better?”
