“LeBron James, Don’t Put me on The Highlight Reel!”: Vince Carter Unintentionally Broke a No-Dunk Pact With a young King

LeBron James and Vince Carter once made a deal to not put each other on a poster. However, Vince inadvertently reneged on his words.

For those of us who weren’t around for Air Canada’s prime, we have but second-hand tales to know of his brilliance. But the man apparently was a fixture on Sportscenter’s top 10 reels for several weeks on end during the regular season.

Although he wasn’t a disproportionately high-volume dunker like big men, the quality of some of his dunks was ridiculous. This man could pull out a windmill dunk even in traffic.

Carter wowed fans worldwide with perhaps the greatest 5-dunk sequence in Dunk Contest history. The thing that separates him from other great contest dunkers is that his in-game dunks were probably even better.

Carter carried the legacy of high-flying UNC guards, starting from Michael Jordan, into the NBA. He’s universally considered the greatest dunker of all time, and for good reason.

LeBron James and Vince Carter formed a pact not to dunk on each other, but the latter broke it

LeBron James, meanwhile, is undoubtedly the most athletic forward to ever play the game. He won the genetic lottery for sure, but the best aspects of his game are his IQ and feel for understanding and feeling opponents out.

However, it is clear that he’s also an insanely talented highlight reel maker, and will undoubtedly have the greatest retirement mixtape of all time. His ability was clear early in his career, and Vince decided he’d rather avoid reversing roles on Sportscenter for once.

In a 2019 interview, he revealed a nice anecdote to Malika Andrews for Bron’s 35th birthday:

“I was with the Nets — that’s how long ago [this game] was. And we were talking about not dunking on each other. It was a very athletic conversation, believe it or not. He was like, ‘Don’t put me on the highlight reel.’ And I said, ‘You don’t put me on the highlight reel!'”

“But I remember in the game I had a tip dunk. It wasn’t nothing crazy. No ‘ooh, aahs.’ You know when you go for the rebound and you tip it in? And he looked at me, and I was like, ‘My bad.’ I’m glad he didn’t wind up on me after that.”

https://t.co/oNQuoeNzXL pic.twitter.com/lr46oVIG6u

— Amulya Shekhar (@tweet_amulya) March 21, 2023

Can LeBron overtake Vince Carter?

Despite being older than Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter played in the NBA for 21 long seasons. His retirement, which came inadvertently due to Covid-19, prevented us from getting a final on-court farewell.

James is already on course to finish 20 seasons right now. He’s stated his intent to play with his son in the league – which will not be possible until the conclusion of next season.

It is all but certain that James will fulfil his ambition and play on the same team as Bronny James, unless he busts quite badly in college basketball or the G-League.