Vince Carter

Vincent Lamar Carter (born January 26, 1977 in
Daytona Beach, Florida) is a professional
basketball player for the New Jersey Nets of the
National Basketball Association.

He was a McDonald's All-American Player in 1995
http://www.mcdonaldsallamerican.com/alumni03_nba.h
tm.

He attended the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill|University of North Carolina for three
years. He was then picked fifth overall in the
1998 NBA draft by the Golden State Warriors and
immediately traded to the Toronto Raptors for the
rights to college teammate Antawn Jamison. Up
until his trade on December 17, 2004, he was the
franchise player for the Raptors, in addition to
amazing fans with spectacular slam dunks. He
easily won the Rookie of the Year Award for the
1998-99 season. Next year, Carter was selected to
be an All Star for the first time, and showcased
his athleticism by winning the NBA Slam Dunk
Contest. He has been an All Star several times
since then, and has been consistently voted into
the starting lineup through fan balloting. As of
2005, Carter has averaged 23.9 PPG, 5.3 RPG and
4.0 APG. His career high in points was 51 on
February 27, 2000 against the Phoenix Suns.

During the Summer 2000 Olympics Carter performed
one of the most memorable dunks in history when he
literally leaped over the 7' 3" frame of French
center Frederic Weis.

Carter is one of the lead endorsers of Nike
Basketball, along with LeBron James and Kobe
Bryant, cashing in on a 6 year 30 million dollar
deal signed in 2000. Since then, branded as a
signature athlete, Nike has released the Nike Shox
VC, the Nike Shox VC II, the Nike Shox VC III, and
the Nike Shox VC IV performance basketball
footwear (The Nike Shox VC V is scheduled for
release in January of 2006). Nike has placed
Carter as the face for its innovative Shox
technology and the ambassador for the recently
resurrected Flight Line of Nike Basketball
footwear.   

He is a distant cousin of former Raptors teammate
Tracy McGrady, who plays for the Houston Rockets
and is currently brother-in-law to Antawn Jamison
his ex-North Carolina Tar Heel teammate, who plays
for the Washington Wizards.

On the morning of the day of Game 7 of the 2001
Eastern Conference playoffs (Raptors vs
Philadelphia 76ers), Sunday, May 20, he attended
his UNC graduation, in which Stuart Scott gave a
graduation speech. In that game, Carter missed a
game-winning shot with 2.0 seconds remaining
http://www.nba.com/games/20010520/TORPHI/recap.htm
l.

Carter's mother, often a spokesperson for her
Mother's boy|son, made it clear in the 2004
offseason that he wanted to be traded from the
Raptors. Carter was traded to the New Jersey Nets
on December 17, 2004 by the Raptors for Alonzo
Mourning, Eric Williams, Aaron Williams and two
future first-round draft picks. In early January
2005, he admitted in a television interview with
TNT's John Thompson to not giving effort in his
last months as a Raptor; when asked if he always
played hard, Carter replied, "In years past, no. I
was fortunate to have the talent. You get spoiled
when you’re able to do a lot of things. You
see that you don’t have to work at
it.” Carter's play improved considerably
with the Nets. As a result of his higher level of
play, his popularity resurged, although his image
may be tarnished by the way he parted ways with
the Raptors and his admission that he did not play
hard in the final weeks on that team. As a Net
Carter averaged 27.5 points per game, along with
5.9 rebounds a game and 4.7 assists per game.
Vince made his return to the Air Canada Centre as
a member of the Nets on April 15, 2005 and scored
39 points in front of what many considered the
most hostile home crowd in Toronto Raptors
history.  The sellout crowd booed Carter
mercilously chanted his name from the pre-game
shootaround to the final buzzer, and many fans
brought derogatory signs to express their
frustration at Carter's apparent lack of effort in
his final days as a Raptor. Carter was able to
ignore the heckling of bitter Raptor fans and the
Nets would ultimately prevail in blowout fashion,
101-90. Upon the conclusion of the match, Carter
was seen clutching the game ball near the Nets'
team bench while emphatically stating, "this is
still my house!"

The resurrected Vince Carter would eventually
guide the Nets to an eigth-place seed in the 2005
NBA Playoffs. While New Jersey would eventually
swept by the Shaquille O'Neal-led Miami Heat, the
series marked Carter's first game in the NBA
postseason since 2001. Carter finished with
averages of 26.8 points per game, 8.5 rebounds and
5.8 assists, his playoffs highlighted by a
buzzer-beating two point fadeaway shot in the 1st
OT of Game Three that would force a second and
deciding overtime.

Carter was listed as the greatest dunker of all
time by a December 2002 issue of SLAM magazine.