Air Canada

Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Shawn Kemp, Julius Erving, Dominique Wilkins, Blake Griffin, Larry Nance, Jason Richardson, Isaiah Rider.

Everyone has been dancing or still squinting spectacularly.

With all due respect to all of them, nobody approached Vince Carter. A happy birthday to a man who redefined the notion of an attractive player.

And 15 years later, the most honestly I wonder how it's possible that a lively man at the highest level of basketball is slamming like Vince Carter did.

Never for my life, we did not expect NBA action with such impatience as when Vince arrived in Toronto. On Sunday night since 1998, well over the next three years, there was nothing else. Food and drinks were brought, there was no girlfriend or exit who could have broken those half an hour, that's exactly the last five minutes of the "top ten countdown" when the monster Vince Carter stepped on the scene.

We jumped out of the couch, yelled, yanked the fives to each other. How many times has he just said: "Aaaaaa who crazy !!", even an elderly gentleman who spotted his typing through the open window of the living room cried out: "How are these kids in PM !!".

We took care of all the postulates of the basketball we taught. For team work, for winning, for the title. We just wanted to watch Vince Carter smash it. Everything else was incidental in his game. He could have missed 20 balls in a row, just to smash it once over Mutombo. Anyone who has enough years and regularly follows basketball, remembers what euphoria caused his dunk. Back behind Indiana, tomahawk over Mutombo, windsurfing against Bucks, turning 360 degrees against Knicks, a series of dashing over Ratliff that threatened to end the career of this center, two tied over Robinson.

Raptors commentators lost their voices every time "OOOO myyyy goddd !!! DUNK MACHINE STRIKES AGAIN!".

He picked up the Alley-oops near the top of the board, always taking care not to break, tipping the rejected balls through the centered hands of the center from 216, dribbling through the legs in a full run and slamming back with the ball back far behind the head, the lobby against Clippers caught a seemingly standing in the air and then pulled out of the snooker a dash that almost demolished the hall.

He knew that the audience was eager for a spectacle, and he offered it in huge amounts every night. There was no effort in his pimples. The center would, for example, Ben Wallace jumped to blink his dunk, and Vince would stand as if standing in an invisible elevator, prolonging his jump even more and finishing the job.

His victory at the Oakland 2000 Twisting Championship still stands today as the biggest dominance of a single player in that competition ever. All Carter's dunk was for memory. The NBA stars jumped with joy, and Vince, after the competition, admitted that he had been preparing for a long time, but that he had given up indefinitely before the start and decided to go by the feel ...

His first typing that made us stunned was still at college. He whispered that at that moment it looked like a complete Peterson Clemson (I believe it exists somewhere on youtube). We saw a bunch of spectacular typing before, but such a jump and explosiveness have never been before. Vince, like Michael Jordan, brought in assistant coach Bill Guthridge to North Carolina. Carter High School had too little room for everyone interested, so they came up with the idea to produce a TV signal and put it in a couple of nearby cafes so that more people could see the little guy jumping to the top of the board. This team Caroline was also the last one that was led by the walking legend Dean Smith. His eternal assistant, already mentioned Guthridge, took on the team at one point, but the team with Carter, Jamison, Shammond Williams, Ed Cot and Ademol Okulai never managed to win the title. Carter, in agreement with Smith and Guthridge, decided to go to the NBA after it became clear that he would be among the top ten on the draft.

His first two years in the league were such a positive shock that he was immediately elected to the Olympic team.

In Sydney, the US team defended a gold medal with a lot of trouble. For the first time they won with less than 10 differences, and semi-finals against Lithuania went through the needle's ears. Carter acted incomprehensibly arrogantly. Lactao is the opponent's player, brought them in the face, provoked. He and Garnett first tried to start a fight in every game, and the highlight was the incident at half time with Russia when only a quick intervention by the American coaches averted a shame. However, the basketball tournament in Sydney at the end of the day is remembered only once. "Death of death", so it was called by the French.
After returning to Toronto, Vince made his best season, unfortunately ever. It was only his third year in the league. Almost 28 points per game, with the selection for the other five league games. Raptors kicked out Knickse in the playoffs, then fell out in seven difficult games from Philadelphia. The duels of Iverson and Carter were fiercely advertised The crayfish played some great matches in that series.

Before the seventh game, the first of many controversies that followed Carter up to these days appeared. Vince, before the decisive match against the 76ers, decided to go to Chapel Hill and receive a college degree. This news triggered the first of a number of analyzes that were later discussed in the same way: "Does Carter really care about basketball to the extent that he is ready to go to the end or give up as soon as it's no longer a party?"
Raptors were defeated in that match, and Carter missed the shot to win, and of course he struck the avalanche of questions: "And what about staying with the team all the time?". Charles Oakley, his teammate, criticized the move and said that "his heart is killing differently". This result with the Raptors in the playff Carter will no longer be repeated.

Although due to college and powerful reflection was generally compared with Michael Jordan, Carter never accepted the comparisons "No, I'm not even close."

Vince's role was Mr. Julius Erving, for his smoothness, fine manners, elegance in the field and the ability to entertain the audience. Carter simply did not have the instinct of a basketball killer like MJ or Kobe.

The car that started Carter van Toronto just happened because of Dr. J-a. After Toronto missed the playoff, a complete management was released, and Vince called the president of the team and suggested that Julius Erving be named a genuine manager because he is the person to be the first to win high quality players in Canada. After finding out that it was just a conversation to calm the best players and that the Raptors had no intention of engaging Erving at any point, Carter was angry. His first statement came up that if the team did not want to compete for the highest ranking, they should let him go. Of course in Toronto, they were aware of who filled the hall, whom the fans watched, and whose jerseys were buying. After all, Carter signed an extension of the contract worth $ 94 million.

Then there are events that have put a stain on his career.

If you ask Toronto fans, Viunce Carter sabotaged the team in the upcoming period. Vince says that the truth will come out once. Again no matter how much Carter has been dragged about such moves as simulating injuries, refusing to go for a breakthrough, and the highlight of the campaign drawn on time-out for the anti-gamblers is really a move that can not be justified. At one point frustrated by the constant accusations for simulating injuries, Carter physically bounced back with former coach Sam Mitchell, who had chosen the wrong moment to start a debate on the tutu. After the complete dressing room was laughing at the Mitchell account while lying on the floor it became clear that the attitude of the coach and the best player could no longer be repaired.

Raptors have changed their best player for Alonzo Mourning, Eric and Aaron Williams and two choices for the first round of the draft. Mourning never reported to Raptors, so Vince went to New Jersey for free. The next year, Carter, up to nowadays, spectacular dashes took place (his typing over Alonzo while playing for Netse was just brutal) but also with very little team success. There was a chance when Carter was sent home, more precisely to Orlando where he teamed up with Dwight Howard in probably the last attempt to reach the title. They sang in the final of the conference against Boston, and Carter was once again modest when solving the issue of the winner.
Even today, when he is 37, Carter is a player who can offer a spectacle at a given moment. There continues to be the recognizable ease of jumping and dancing that reminds him of the days when he was by far the most attractive player of the league. Vince found all the place to retire in Dallas. Finally he no longer hurts a leg after every break, enters the bench and a series of points can still do damage to any team in the NBA.

The owner of Dallas Mark Cuban loves him and considers it top-level professional, something that most Toronto fans would not agree to. Carter will probably remain one in a row of top players who will not win the title. And while Barkley, Malone, Stockton, Ewing and others did their best and stayed short. For Vince Carter, I'm not sure we can say the same.

Vince had a rich talent that, unlike Lebron, Kobe, or Durant, did not develop to the maximum, and be sure he was as talented as they, perhaps even more talented. Very often Vince was not ready to leave everything on the ground, when he became aware of it, it was already late. Again he is one of the few players that we are ready to ignore both the substance and the final result and childish behavior, all because of the moves that always evade enthusiasm.

When Vince Carter is reflected in the racket, you forget everything.