Vince Carter, the Last Player of the 90's

Vince Carter was a McDonald's All-American coming out of high school, and played three years at North Carolina. Vinsanity, another one of his nicknames was drafted fifth overall in 1998 by the Golden State Warriors. He was immediately traded to the Toronto Raptors for his former North Carolina Tar Heel teammate in Antawn Jamison. Carter won rookie of the year in 1999 and instantly brought the Toronto Raptors on the map. They became one of the more popular teams especially after the very entertaining series in 2001 against Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers. He and Iverson were the two top scoring players in the league, and just kept going back and forth. The series went seven game as the 76ers were able to come out victorious. To go along with his rookie of the year feature, Vince is also an eight time all star and the 2000 slam dunk champion. Vince sky-rocketed to superstar status the late 90's and early 2000's with his gravity defying dunks.He had probably my all time favorite dunk in the 2000 Olympics, jumping over a 7'2" man!

Injuries slowed down Vince a little bit, and he was traded to the New Jersey Nets. With the Nets he was back to his old self. He worked hard to come back from injuries and while his dunking was not the exact same, his scoring numbers were coming back to his earlier days in Toronto. From New Jersey he has bounced around a little bit, but did have three year tenures with the Dallas Mavericks and Memphis Grizzlies. He is currently with the Atlanta Hawks and has become more of a three point shooter in the latter stage of his career.

Honestly I would love to see Vince play for as long as his body will allow him too. It's amazing to me the career this man has had. Everyone grew up idolizing Vince when he burst onto the scene. It's sad to see Vince has not won an NBA championship and I honestly don't see him winning one with the Hawks this year, but he has still had an amazing NBA career and doesn't need to win a championship. He has done enough to solidify a spot in the Hall of Fame when he is actually ready to retire.

I still go back and watch Vince Carter's dunk in the Olympics, and his 2000 slam dunk contest probably more times than I would like to admit. I most likely will after writing this. Currently having Vince Carter in the NBA reminds me of happy memories, such as my childhood and just how the NBA was when I first started watching basketball. The game has changed a lot in the last two decades since Carter entered the NBA. Vince has been able to adapt and while he can't throw it down like he use to, he still shows flashes even at 42 years old. I'm sure Vince will tell you himself that he enjoys today's rules more, with more fouls being called and players will get penalized for playing too rough. A good hard foul back in the 90's and early 2000's could eject you out of a game in today's game. This has reduced injuries and fights. There us to be a lot of fights back in the day!

While today's game has been changed as most kids now want to be like Stephen Curry and shoot three pointers. Most teams shoot three pointers these days due to advanced statistics in what constitutes as a quality shot in an NBA game. There is nothing wrong with that all, and is actually very entertaining to watch as well. I just wanna educate the kids a little bit in one of the all-time greatest dunkers ever! I have heard Vince doing some commentary at games, and the man has used all of his wisdom and experience to turn it into great basketball knowledge to pass down one day. I would love to see Vince Carter get into coaching one day just so I can continue to reminisce about a great player and a great time in the NBA!