When Vince Carter’s most popular numbers 6, 12 or 23 weren’t accessible as a freshman basketball participant at Florida’s Mainland Excessive Faculty, he took some recommendation from his mom, Michelle.
“My mother instructed me: ‘Discover a quantity and make it well-known,’” Carter mentioned.
Carter and his much-celebrated No. 15 reached new heights once more when the Brooklyn Nets retired it at halftime of its recreation Saturday towards the Miami Warmth.
Carter’s household, his former Nets teammates, ex-coach Lawrence Frank, crew president Rod Thorn and fellow Nets quantity retirees Julius Erving, Invoice Melchionni and Buck Williams have been available to see Carter grow to be the seventh Nets participant along with his quantity retired.
“That is really one thing my household and I’ll cherish without end,” Carter mentioned in the course of the ceremony.
“To be the seventh quantity to go up is insane. It’s an honour to be up there with you gents. No. 15 Carter goes up there, however we’re going up there collectively,” he added.
Carter spent the sport seated subsequent to Erving, his boyhood idol. Former teammates Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson, and New York-area luminaries similar to Eli Manning, Queen Latifah and rapper Fabolous despatched congratulatory messages.
Carter’s quantity banner will reside straight subsequent to Kidd’s No. 5, which is becoming since they have been drivers of one of the profitable eras in crew historical past. Carter additionally credited Kidd for re-invigorating him after the Nets acquired him from the Toronto Raptors in December 2004.
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“There was new life,” Carter mentioned of coming to New Jersey.
“My position in Toronto was simply give me the ball, and I’ll get you a (basket). However after I acquired right here, they’d a man … he made the sport simpler for me,” Carter added.
Although he solely performed 374 video games over four-plus seasons with the Nets, Carter holds the crew’s NBA file for single-season factors (2,070 in 2006-07) and is third within the crew’s NBA historical past in factors (8,834). He ranks fourth in 3-pointers made (638) and playoff factors (701).
He helped the Nets attain the postseason 3 times, they usually twice gained a playoff collection earlier than falling to the eventual Japanese Convention champion, Miami in 2006 and Cleveland in 2007.
“Throughout that period, they by no means have been capable of get excessive, in order that they’ll most likely by no means be acknowledged the best way they need to have been,” mentioned Warmth coach Erik Spoelstra, who was a Miami assistant when it gained the title in 2006. “That was a rattling good basketball crew, and (Carter) was a large a part of it.”
Carter, who’s in his first season as a Nets tv analyst, retired in 2020 after an NBA-record 22 seasons at age 43 and was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Corridor of Fame in 2024.
“I really like seeing how his recreation developed from when he first got here in,” Spoelstra mentioned. “From simply being a dunker to being an unattainable (participant to) guard … after which he was capable of be one of many only a few on this league that might transition gracefully. That’s actually wonderful. It speaks to the kind of human being he’s.”
Regardless of taking part in 11 seasons after New Jersey traded him to Orlando in 2009, and spending time with eight NBA groups, Carter mentioned a few of his finest days got here with the Nets.
“We had enjoyable, however we understood when it was time to lock in,” Carter mentioned.
“We frolicked and really loved one another and performed for one another, and that’s what made the sport enjoyable. I went out and did my job and had a darn good time doing it,” he added.