Toronto Raptors: Vince Carter Announces Retirement

Vince Carter was THE player to put the Toronto Raptors on the NBA map, and today is a very special day for him.

Earlier today basketball fans got the news that NBA veteran and Toronto Raptors legend Vince Carter has finally announced his retirement and calls it a career on the court.

Vince was currently on the Atlanta Hawks when COVID-19 put the season on pause, and there was so much uncertainty with if it’ll be his last season in the NBA or if he’ll come back next season and finish a full season.

With Vince Carter calling it a career, how good was he really?

Vince Carter Stats

Career stats – 1541 GP – 16.7 PPG – 4.3 RPG – 3.1 APG – .435 FG% – .371 3P% – .798 FT%

2019-20 stats – 60 GP – 5.0 PPG – 1.8 RPG – 2.1 APG – .352 FG% – .302 3P% – .793 FT%

Vince Carter came bursting into the scene in the NBA with the Toronto Raptors and thanks to him he put Toronto on the map and he made Toronto the team they are today.

Looking through his career stats, he was consistent for the most part, but obviously, with age, his numbers will decrease but when they decreased he managed to stay consistent with low PPG (Stats from Basketball-Reference.com).

Vince Carter Accomplishments

As we all know Vince Carter has now finished his career without winning basketball’s most prized trophy, and it kind of stinks to be honest. However he has a decent amount of accolades to his name, so lets’ go over them.

Going in chronological order here are his accomplishments…

• 1999 rookie of the year
• 1999 all-rookie first team
• 2000 NBA slam dunk champion
• 2000 All NBA third team
• 2000 Olympic gold medal
• 8x NBA all-star 2000-2007
• 2001 All NBA second team
• 2016 Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the year
• 25,728 total points (19th on the list)
• Only player to play in 4 different decades (90s, 00s, 10s, 20s)

He also currently holds 11 franchise records for the Toronto Raptors and 4 records for the New Jersey Nets.

Does Vince Carter Deserve to be in the Basketball Hall of Fame?

Another question that comes with Vince Carter is does he deserve to be in the basketball hall of fame one day? If it was up to me to decide I wouldn’t put Vince Carter in the hall of fame for multiple reasons. Now don’t get mad, I love him as a player he was a great player and helped Toronto be put on the map in basketball, however, he has never won an NBA championship along with obviously no finals MVP, no season MVPs, no scoring titles, no all NBA first team, no all-star MVPs, etc.

However, if you put that aside and look at what he did on the court, what awards he has throughout his career, and what he did for Toronto and Canada I think he deserves to be in the hall of fame. Although I don’t think that’s how it works and for him to be in the hall of fame he might’ve needed a championship, MVPs, etc, but hey you never know… he was very influential to many people during the early days of his career.