Remembering the night Vinsanity conquered the business

With the NBA coming to Toronto for the first time for its All-Star party, the stock-taking has inevitably included Vince Carter’s star turn 16 years ago in Oakland. As someone who was privileged enough to have been there, sitting baseline behind the basket where Vinsanity truly came to rest by an elbow hanging on the rim, that 2000 slam-dunk final is among the most electric things I’ve ever witnessed.

What’s been less evident in the reminiscing is the backdrop to that Saturday night that came 48 hours after Carter, Tracy McGrady and the rest of the Raptors party left Toronto in Larry Tanenbaum’s private jet. Carter came off the plane and headed pretty much straight to a late-night Sports Illustrated photo shoot. The next morning was an early wakeup call and he was on the move again through the day, and the pace never let up on Saturday nearly right up till showtime.

Any All-Star is going to have to go through this gauntlet of glad-handing and promotional work. But that weekend, Carter was especially filled up with business. His agent at the time, Tank Black, was mere weeks away from being indicted for embezzlement and with Carter his lone client remaining, if only by a slender thread, this was his last stand. Everybody knew it, too. The hotel and arena was a great spot for intrigue, other agents standing by and looking on hungrily for any stray tidbits that might fall their way from the Carter camp (IMG would eventually add Carter as a client).

Just whose shoes he was going to wear was one of the meatiest questions that wasn't answered until he arrived on court. Carter had signed a big deal with Puma but gave up wearing the shoes quite quickly, saying they weren't comfortable (Puma ended up suing him for breach of contract later on in the summer). Back at the ACC, it was an open secret that Vince was a footloose free agent; he was being FedEx’d pairs of competing shoes to try out, and they piled up at his locker so much that the team had to commandeer a broom closet to store the excess boxes.

By late Saturday afternoon, the guy was worn out – at least, he said he was worn out when I talked to him. That he was able to deliver that performance (in And 1 sneakers, finally) was one of the more pointed examples of an entertainer at work, drawing energy from the crowd and summoning up a moment of magic.

Yesterday the NBA released a Carter mixtape. My favourite comes at about the 1:50 mark, at a raucous Market Square Arena in Indianapolis that knew its basketball and was quite stingy with acknowledging visitors. Not that night. When he really cared, Carter could light it up like few others. And in the end, 16 years later, caring seems to me the only thing that prevented Carter from keeping up with the Kobes, the Pierces and the Garnetts and taking over the champions spotlight as assuredly as he did that night in Oakland.