Vince Carter inspired Canadians to new heights, leading to current NBA boom

TORONTO — Ask any Canadian playing in the NBA about Vince Carter and they'll tell you they're there because of him. And there are a lot of them.

Carter will have his Toronto Raptors jersey retired in a ceremony at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday, the first player in franchise history to be so honoured. Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray of Kitchener, Ont., said it's a fitting tribute to a player who motivated the current cohort of Canadian NBAers.

"I always talk about Vince, you know? I mean, he was my inspiration for playing basketball," said Murray on Monday after Denver beat the Raptors 127-125 in overtime. "I always had my own love for the game, but he took it to another level.

"He showed me what the game could be for an individual and be able to show that throughout the game and throughout his character."

The iconic No. 15 — presumably in the Raptors' original purple, red and white colour scheme — will be raised to the arena's rafters alongside Toronto's 2019 NBA championship banner. The pre-game ceremony will be held before the Raptors host the Sacramento Kings.

"I wish I was here for it, for the ceremony," said Murray in the conference room at Scotiabank Arena. "I know it's going to be great, it's well deserved.

"He's put a lot of inspiration in a lot of young kids, and he's inspired me to put inspiration in others like he did for me. It just comes full circle."

When Carter started his NBA career in the 1998-99 season there were three Canadians in the NBA: Rick Fox, Steve Nash and Bill Wennington. When he played in his final game in 2020, there were 16. Last season there was an all-time high 27 Canadians on opening day rosters and this year there were 23.

"It's been amazing. His impact is huge," said Toronto Raptors swingman RJ Barrett of Mississauga, Ont. "Everybody that really plays basketball in this country knows who Vince Carter is.

"What he's done for the game is huge."

Carter averaged 23.9 points, 5.3 rebounds, four assists, 1.3 steals and a block per game in his tenure with the Raptors, including the 2004-05 season where he was traded after 20 games to the New Jersey Nets.

His Hall of Fame career ended at the age of 43 with the Atlanta Hawks in the pandemic-impacted 2019-20 season. Over his 22 NBA seasons he averaged 16.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists, and finished with a total of 25,728 points, 6,606 rebounds and 4,714 assists.

Carter was the second Raptors player to be named the NBA's rookie of the year after Damon Stoudamire. He earned eight all-star appearances over his career.

But it was how he played basketball that had the biggest effect on Canadians. Dynamic, explosive plays punctuated by slam dunks that brought fans to their feet around the league.

His performance at the 2000 NBA Slam Dunk Contest — aided by Raptors teammate and cousin Tracy McGrady — was the stuff of legend before YouTube made it easy to share basketball highlights, with Carter nailing all four of his revolutionary dunks on the first try.

Raptors forward Kelly Olynyk, who grew up in Toronto but moved to Kamloops, B.C., as a teenager, was as close to Carter as an adolescent fan could be as his mother Arlene worked for the team from 1995 to 2004.

"He was a walking highlight reel. Everybody that came to the game knew that you were going to see something that had to be seen," said Olynyk. "He just made it cool or bold to play basketball and to do it at a high level.

"He broke some barriers on what people even tried to do with the dunk contest. A lot of kids, including me, went into their backyards and tried to emulate what he did on the court. I think that effect is huge."

Carter also held his own basketball camps in the Greater Toronto Area, showing up to teach the fundamentals of the sport to children.

"That's huge for young kids growing up and wanting to play basketball, aspiring to go to the NBA," said Barrett. "People thought that they're going to be able to go to the NBA just from watching him and watching the Raptors.

"You see it just go from like (Olynyk) and Tristan Thompson and Cory Joseph and those guys to all the way down to guys like myself and Andrew Nembhard and Shaedon Sharpe and Bennedict Mathurin. Just where the basketball is now, it really started with Vince."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2024.

John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press