Kris Dunn was five years old when Vince Carter won Rookie of the Year honors with the Raptors following the lockout-shortened, 50-game season of 1988-99.
“I had his jersey when I was a kid,” Dunn said. “What he did for the culture was unbelievable.”
Saturday night at the United Center, Carter made his final appearance in Chicago, scoring 2 points in 12 minutes and getting a standing ovation when he exited late in the fourth quarter. The Hawks forward, who turns 43 next month, is in his NBA-record 22nd season and still averages close to 16 minutes per game.
“And he’s still capable of dunking and making plays? That’s unbelievable,” Dunn said. “And I like the transformation of his game throughout the years. That’s the thing people kind of sleep on. We know him as a dunker — Vinsanity. But you can’t leave him open now. He can shoot the 3 so well.
“I’m definitely appreciative to be able to play against him but also of my earlier days to watch him on TV and see what he did.”
One of those 'Half-Man, Half-Amazing' plays came during the 2000 Sydney Olympics. That’s when Carter jumped over 7 foot, 2 inch French center Frederic Weis and dunked.
“Who the (expletive) does that? A freak of nature. That’s who,” Dunn said. “Incredible. He jumped over a whole body.”
Bulls radio play-by-play man Chuck Swirsky called Carter’s first preseason game, first regular-season game and his entire six-plus season run in Toronto, which included 15 playoff games.
“With all due respect to the people who preceded him, he put the country on the map for basketball,” Swirsky said. “He did such a beautiful job representing the franchise.”
NBA
Swirsky noted how when Carter arrived in Toronto for the Raptors’ fourth seasons of existence, Mats Sundin ruled the roost for the NHL’s Maple Leafs and Carlos Delgado starred for MLB’s Blue Jays.
“Vince comes onto the scene, and immediately his athleticism and dunking ability drew people in,” Swirsky said. “Even if you were a novice or occasionally looked at a basketball game and really didn’t understand the sport, you were amazed by this high flier. He’d posterize players on a nightly basis.”
One of those posters came seven months before Carter’s memorable dunk over Weis in the Olympics. At the All-Star game in Oakland’s Oracle Arena, Carter performed a jaw-dropping series of dunks to win the slam dunk context.
“That put him on the map,” Swirsky said. “It also really put the Raptors on the map.”
And here Carter is, almost two decades later.
“He’s going into the Hall of Fame,” Swirsky said. “What he has done in his career is incredible.”
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