-
Tim Bontemps, ESPN
Vince Carter’s jersey will be taking flight to the rafters in two arenas this season.
Carter, who is going into the Hall of Fame next month, will have his jersey retired by the Toronto Raptors on Nov. 2, when the Raptors face the Atlanta Hawks, sources confirmed to ESPN, making him the first player in franchise history to have his number retired.
He’s also set to get the same honor from the Brooklyn Nets this season, after they officially announced last week that they will raise Carter’s No. 15 to the rafters on Jan. 25 against the Miami Heat.
Carter was an eight-time All-Star, two-time All-NBA selection, the 1999 Rookie of the Year and 2000 slam dunk contest champion. Carter’s longevity was as impressive as his accolades. He played 1,541 games across his 22-year NBA career, the third most in the history of the league behind fellow Hall of Famers Robert Parish and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Carter also is the only player to have appeared in four different decades in his NBA career.
He spent the first 5½ seasons of his career with the Raptors, where he was dubbed “Air Canada” and led all NBA players in All-Star voting in four of them. He also led the Raptors to their first postseason appearance in 2000, and their first playoff series victory in 2001, before they lost in seven games in the Eastern Conference semifinals to Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers.
But his time in Toronto abruptly came to an end in December 2004, when Carter was traded to the then-New Jersey Nets for a package including fellow future Hall of Famer Alonzo Mourning.
That left Carter as the target of fans’ ire in Toronto for years, with him regularly being showered with boos upon returning to play there. Eventually, though, that began to shift in the other direction — most notably when he was honored to a massive ovation during Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals, which saw the Raptors claim their first NBA championship by defeating the Golden State Warriors in six games.
Now, that turnaround has come full circle, with Carter set to be honored permanently by the Raptors — leaving the LA Clippers as the only NBA team that has yet to retire a single player’s jersey.
Carter will go into the Hall of Fame on Oct. 13, alongside Chauncey Billups, Michael Cooper and Walter Davis, among others.
TSN first reported the news of Toronto retiring Carter’s jersey.
