The Brooklyn Nets have announced that they plan to retire former guard Vince Carter’s number 15 jersey in a ceremony set for next season.
Carter, who was recently elected into the basketball hall of fame, spent a little over 4 seasons with the Nets franchise following a blockbuster trade with the Toronto Raptors. The 47 year old currently owns the club’s single season points record with 2,070 which he accumulated during the 2006-07 campaign.
The only player in NBA history to have played in 4 different decades, Carter will become the 7th Nets player to have his number retired by the club joining Julius Erving, Buck Williams, John Williamson, Drazen Petrovic, Jason Kidd and Bill Melchionni.
Known for his high flying dunks, and other worldly athleticism, Carter shot to superstardom as a member of the Raptors organization from 1998-2004. Eventually, the former Tar Heel was flipped to the Nets in exchange for Alonzo Mourning, Aaron Williams, Eric Williams and 2x first round draft picks. A trade that continues to make Raptors fans wince to this day.
Carter would go on to spend 5 years in New Jersey before having stops in Orlando, Phoenix, Dallas, Memphis, Sacramento, and Atlanta.
“When you talk about Vince’s career in Toronto and New Jersey, he’s played everywhere,” former teammate Jason Kidd said. “When you’ve had that type of career for that long and what he meant for me as a teammate in New Jersey — also as a Team USA member — it makes the game easy.”
“He had the ability to take over games scoring, and the ability to catch any bad pass and make you look good,” he continued when asked about Carter’s election into the Hall of Fame.
An 8x All-Star, “Vinsanity” was named NBA rookie of the year in 1999, Slam Dunk champion in 2000, All-NBA 3rd team in 2000, All-NBA 2nd team in 2001, and the NBA Teammate of the Year in 2016. Amongst his many accolades, Carter averaged 16.7pts/4.3reb/3.1ast per contest across 1,541 games played in the Association.
Photo: Tom Thai. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.