Looking Back At Vince Carter’s Missed Championship Opportunities
By Tyree Morton
Vince Carter appears that he will fall short of winning an NBA Championship; we look back at the times he was close
Vince Carter was must-see TV the moment he entered the league. He was often compared to Michael Jordan early on because he was a high flyer out of MJ’s Alma mater, UNC, and Carter was obviously a great player also.
His superstar play for the Raptors made him one of the biggest stars that not only Toronto has ever seen, but Canada as a whole.
Vince Carter’s rookie campaign was an impressive one. Carter averaged 18 points, nearly six boards and three assists per game.
It was his sophomore season, though, when he really made a name for himself. He made his first all-star appearance and was selected to third team All-NBA. Vince Carter put up an impressive 25.7 ppg, 5.8 rpg and 3.9 apg stat line.
The world got to see more of his high-flying aerial arts during the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest. Vince Carter put on arguably the greatest show in Dunk Contest History. NBA fans had never seen anything like it. You know the saying, “and the rest is history”.
Raptors fans didn’t take Vince Carter’s departure from the team during the 2004-05 season too lightly. When he left Toronto, he bounced around the league a little bit. He was upset about how things were going. He wasn’t too fond of the Raptors management and felt like they would never be an elite team with Richard Peddie as the Raptors’ president.
Carter was traded to the Nets in December of 2004. He played there for about 4 1/2 seasons before he was traded to his hometown team, the Orlando Magic, on draft day in 2009. Also playing for the Suns, Mavericks, and Grizzlies, there were a few championship opportunities that Carter had just missed out on before arriving to these teams.