- Published in Top 50 Toronto Raptors
2. Vince Carter
Vince Carter brought the Toronto Raptors the International attention of the basketball world. “Vinsanity” went global, and he was a must watch player that made people fans of Toronto.
Vince Carter forced his way out of Toronto where he put the Raptors on the map and the landing point of “Air Canada” would be New Jersey.
Yes, we know that this is taking a while!
As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team. We have a new one to unveil today, that of the Brooklyn Nets.
The Nets were formed in 1967, as the New Jersey Americans an inaugural ABA franchise. They would relocate after one year to New York City, and became the Nets, and with the arrival Julius Erving in 1974, they would win the ABA Title in 1974 and 1976. The Nets were one of the four teams to join the NBA, but they did so without Erving. They would return to New Jersey in 1977, where they would stay until 2012. The Nets have yet to win the NBA Championship, but did win the Eastern Conference in 2002 and 2003. They moved to Brooklyn in 2012, where they have remained since.
As for all of our top 50 players in basketball, we look at the following:
Remember, this is ONLY based on what a player does on that particular team and not what he accomplished elsewhere and also note that we have placed increased importance on the first two categories.
This list is updated up until the end of the 2018-19 Season.
The complete list can be found here, but as always we announce our top five in this article. They are:
We will continue our adjustments on our existing lists and will continue developing our new lists.
As always we thank you for your support.
The career of Vince Carter is officially over.
We already knew this, as the COVID-19 virus wiped out the season, and as talks to resume play in the NBA began, it was early established that eliminated teams like Carter’s Atlanta Hawks would not be part of the resumption. The 43-year old had already stated that this would be his last year.
Carter played his college ball at North Carolina where he was a First Team All-ACC Selection in 1998. He was drafted fifth overall in 1998 by the Golden State Warriors who swapped him in a draft-day trade to the Toronto Raptors.
Carter brought star power to the young franchise as his electric dunks made regular appearances on highlight reels, and put the Raptors on the map. Named the 1999 Rookie of the Year, Carter put on one of the greatest dunking clinics at the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest which he easily won. Carter brought the Toronto to their first playoff, and was one of the most popular figures in Canada, helping to raise the game’s profile and inspiring a wave of young Canadians to play the game.
Sadly, for Carter and the Raptors, they had an acrimonious split as Carter grew frustrated with Toronto management and demanded a trade, which he got, when he was dealt to the New Jersey Nets in 2004.
As Carter’s skills eroded, he reinvented himself becoming the consummate teammate and role player. He even won the Teammate of the Year Award in 2016.
An eight-time All-Star, Carter will be eligible for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024. He is 19thall-time is Points Scored with 25,728. All players who have more Points than Carter and are Hall of Fame eligible have been enshrined.
We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to thank Vince Carter for the memories, and we wish him the best in his post-playing career.
