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| Birth Name(s) : Vince Carter |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
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Partner:
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| Profession:
Athlete |
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Full Vince Carter Biography
Vincent Lamar "Vince" Carter (born January 26, 1977) is an American All-Star basketball player in the NBA. He currently is a starting shooting guard for the New Jersey Nets. He is considered one of the best scoring guards in the game today.
Carter was drafted by the NBA's Golden State Warriors 5th overall and then traded to the Toronto Raptors for Antawn Jamison, his UNC college teammate and best friend. Carter and Jamison played together at the University of North Carolina. Carter's rookie season was the shortened 50-game 1999 season after the NBA locked out its players in 1998-99. Carter started almost every game for coach Butch Carter and eventually won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. The next year, Carter was selected to an All-Star Team for the first time, and showcased his athleticism and dunking abilities in the 2000 NBA Slam Dunk Contest. He won the contest by performing an array of dunks including a 360° windmill, a between the legs, and an "elbow dunk." Though he has not competed in the dunk contest since, Carter has been voted into the Eastern Conference NBA All-Star Team starting lineup several times through fan balloting.
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, although he arrived in Philadelphia before the rest of the team did. In that game, Carter missed a game-winning shot with 2.0 seconds remaining and shot just 6 of 18 from the field.
During the 2003 NBA All-Star Game, under great public pressure, Carter gave up his starting All-Star spot to the Washington Wizards' Michael Jordan to allow Jordan to make his final start as an All-Star.
As his Raptor tenure progressed, Raptor fans began to witness a transition in Carter's offensive game that featured more perimeter shooting. This was in stark contrast to Carter's initial repertoire of regular drives to the hoop for dunks which had subsequently gone on a decline. This, combined with Carter's chronic injury problems, predominantly from Jumper's Knee, had Raptor fans questioning his toughness & durability. Carter's work ethic was also questioned with his play declining as the years went on, culminating in a mediocre 15.9 points per game in 2004-2005 and the team failing to make the playoffs. Carter became frustrated with the Raptors' management team as he felt they failed to surround him with players who could help carry the load offensively. At the same time, Raptors' management was equally frustrated, as they thought he was a player who could carry a load offensively without feigning an injury during a poor shooting performance - a feat he proved incapable of performing. On November 22, 2004, when pressed by the local media about his lack of dunks, Carter responded, "I don't want to dunk anymore."
During the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Carter performed a memorable dunk when he flew over 7-foot-2 (2.18 m) French center Frédéric Weis. Carter took off, spread his legs in midair, and slightly scraped Weis's head before slamming the ball. Teammate Jason Kidd said it was "One of the best plays I've ever seen". The French media later dubbed it "le dunk de la mort" ("the Dunk of Death"). He helped the team to win the gold medal that year.
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."
Months after the TNT interview, Carter returned to Toronto as a member of the Nets on April 15, 2005. Carter scored 39 points in front of a hostile Toronto Raptors crowd that booed him throughout. The fans chanted his name the entire game, but the Nets won 101–90.
Carter guided the Nets to an eighth-place seed in the 2005 NBA Playoffs. Although New Jersey was swept in the first round by the Miami Heat, Carter finished the series with averages of 26.8 points per game, 8.5 rebounds and 5.8 assists; highlighted by a buzzer-beating two-point fadeaway shot in the first overtime of Game 3 that forced a second overtime.
In the 2005-06 NBA season, he co-led the Nets to 49 wins, an Atlantic Division title, and the number three seed in the playoffs, while averaging 24.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game. He led the Nets to the second round of the playoffs before losing to the eventual NBA champions Miami Heat in five games. Carter averaged 29.6 points, 7.0 rebounds and 5.3 assists in 11 playoff games.
Carter has a player option in his contract that, if he does not exercise, will make him a free agent in the summer of 2007.
After the Nets were eliminated from the playoffs by the Cleveland Cavaliers (lost series 4-2), rumors of the Nets trading Carter again arose. After the New York Knicks and Nets discussed a trade around February of Carter (which was ended with the trading deadline), the two teams again revisted the subject. Carter, who opted out of his contract on June 30, reportedly wanted a three-year, $60 million deal however, which the Knicks are wary of. On July 1, 2007 Carter signed a 4-year $61.8 million with the Nets. |
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