NEW YORK — When Vince Carter‘s most popular Nos. 6, 12 or 23 weren’t out there as a freshman basketball participant at Florida’s Mainland Excessive College, he took some recommendation from his mom, Michelle.
“My mother advised me: ‘Discover a quantity and make it well-known,'” Carter stated.
Carter and his much-celebrated No. 15 reached new heights once more when the Brooklyn Nets retired it at halftime of their recreation Saturday in opposition to the Miami Heat.
Carter’s household, his former Nets teammates, ex-coach Lawrence Frank, staff president Rod Thorn and fellow Nets quantity retirees Julius Erving, Invoice Melchionni and Buck Williams have been available to see Carter turn out to be the seventh Nets participant along with his quantity retired.
“That is actually one thing my household and I’ll cherish perpetually,” Carter stated in the course of the ceremony. “To be the seventh quantity to go up is insane. It’s an honor to be up there with you gents.
“No. 15 Carter goes up there, however we’re going up there collectively.”
Carter spent the sport seated subsequent to Erving, his boyhood idol. Former teammates Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson despatched congratulatory messages, as did New York-area luminaries Eli Manning, Queen Latifah and rapper Fabolous.
Carter’s quantity banner will reside instantly subsequent to Kidd’s No. 5, which is becoming since they have been drivers of probably the most profitable eras in staff historical past. Carter additionally credited Kidd for reinvigorating him after the Nets acquired Carter from the Toronto Raptors in December 2004.
“There was new life,” Carter stated of coming to New Jersey. “My position in Toronto was simply give me the ball, and I am going to get you a [basket]. However after I acquired right here, they’d a man … he made the sport simpler for me.”
Although he performed solely 374 video games over four-plus seasons with the Nets, Carter holds the staff file for single-season factors (2,070 in 2006-07) and is third within the staff historical past in whole factors (8,834). He ranks fourth in 3-pointers made (638) and playoff factors (701).
He helped the Nets attain the postseason 3 times, and so they twice received a playoff sequence earlier than falling to the eventual Japanese Convention champions (the Miami Heat in 2006 and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2007).
“Throughout that period, they by no means have been capable of get excessive, so that they’ll most likely by no means be acknowledged the best way they need to have been,” stated Warmth coach Erik Spoelstra, who was a Miami assistant when it received the league title in 2006. “That was a rattling good basketball staff, and [Carter] was an enormous 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 Basketball Corridor of Fame in 2024.
“I really like seeing how his recreation developed from when he first got here in,” Spoelstra stated. “From simply being a dunker to being an unattainable [player to] guard … after which he was capable of be one of many only a few on this league that would transition gracefully. That is actually superb. It speaks to the kind of human being he’s.”
Regardless of taking part in 11 seasons after New Jersey traded him to the Orlando Magic in 2009 and spending time with eight NBA groups, Carter stated 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 stated. “We frolicked and really loved one another and performed for one another, and that is what made the sport enjoyable.
“I went out and did my job and had a darn good time doing it.”
