Vince Carter broke the 25,000 point barrier in the game against the Toronto Raptors. Even at the age of 41 the former All-Star and Dunk-Champion doesn’t think about quitting for a long time. He is not interested in rings, instead he seems to have found his calling.
Hawks rookie Kevin Huerter wasn’t even aware that he could be part of a historical moment. “We need to get Vince six more points,” Trae Young told his fourth-quarter colleague. The Point Guard had done their homework and knew that Vince Carter was about to reach the 25,000 point milestone.
With 2-28 minutes to go, Carter reentered the Philips Arena court in Atlanta, where the hosts were already hopelessly behind against Toronto Raptors. So why not take the chance to give the 41-year-old his moment? Against Toronto, against the team VC started his career with. For the team, which he almost single-handedly hoisted onto the NBA map with his spectacular dunks.
And indeed: A few seconds before the end, Huerter grabbed a Carter miss and immediately helped the veteran again, so that after a cut he was able to climb up again and collect his points 25,000 and 25,001 per Dunk.
Carter then renounced his signature jubilation, instead grabbed the Spalding, looked towards the hall ceiling and breathed out deeply. “I’ve lost a lot of my shoulders right now,” reported VC, who broke this barrier as the 22nd player in the story. “There was a lot of talk about it at the beginning of the season and I didn’t notice it at all. If you’ve been there as long as I have, you’ll achieve certain things.”
A similar answer probably would have been given by Dirk Nowitzki, who together with Carter is the last player from the draft 1998. Consequently, it is the 21st season for Half man, helped amazing, whose image has changed once again to the positive at the end of his career. Gone are the days when fans took his inglorious farewell in Toronto in a crooked way. Gone are the days of debating whether or not Carter was a winner (just a participation in the Conference Finals).
Quite the opposite: in the meantime he is highly credited for not going on a ring hunt like other veterinarians, joining a Contender and sitting on the bench at the end. “I come from a time when this was not usual,” Carter explained. Already in summer 2017 the oldie had an offer from Golden State, he let this chance pass.
Instead, his last stations were Sacramento and now Atlanta, where he will lead the young players and continue to get his minutes. “I want to keep playing, I enjoy teaching the young players, I do that for every team.”
And Carter’s actually playing, eight times he’s started for the Hawks. 7.4 points, 2.5 rebounds and a triple quota of 37.5 percent have been recorded so far, a more than respectable yield for someone who, for example, is almost a year older than Hornets coach James Borrego.
“It inspires me how he still plays like that at the age of 41 and at the same time is an absolute role model for the young players,” said Kent Bazemore, who was also astonished recently. “It’s great to have someone like him. He’s a great guy. It is an honor to play with him because I saw him in my childhood and now I can learn so much from him.”
The same can be heard from all the other youngsters in Atlanta. Carter has become the super-father of the team, treating his teammates like sons, protecting them and drawing attention to their mistakes. This means that Carter is always committed, focused and fully involved with the bank.
When No.5-Pick Young made a step mistake against the Miami Heat and was frustrated by the refs, the 41-year-old intervened and ran around the side line like a Rumpelstiltskin to collect the technical foul himself. “He needs to focus on basketball,” Carter rebuked his rookie afterwards to explain his own actions.
“I feel the burden of having to defend my boys at all costs, so I took the technical foul. Tell them to save their money.” The situation could not have been solved better and it shows why Carter has such a high status within the organisation.
The former bon vivant, who ran his own club in Toronto, has become a dutiful veteran who works as hard as few other players in the NBA. And who knows, maybe VC will actually hang on for another season – out of love for the game.
Out of existential fears or a subsequent emptiness he will certainly not do it. Not by chance did Carter choose Atlanta as his next stop, the place where Turner Sports has its studios. When the former highflyer will stop, the fans will surely see him as a commentator and TV expert. Already in the Summer League he tried his hand as a play-by-play man several times and made a routine and solid impression.
But for Carter, this will certainly remain a dream for the future for a while, after all, he can still keep up to a certain extent even at the age of 41. And not only that: As long as a Vince Carter can still dunk, the world is fine, even if the oldie will probably feel every single bone the next day after such actions. “It’s not about climbing up. It’s the landing that causes me more problems,” Carter reported about his Dunks two years ago.
Last season there were 11 of them, and this season he already felt the pain of landing four times. But that doesn’t stop him from playing. Carter is and will remain a driven, 41-year-old, who also jumps through the halls of the NBA with a grey beard like no other before him. Half grey, half-amazing!
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