On Thursday, the Orlando Magic surprised Shaquille O’Neal during the NBA on TNT broadcast by informing their former star that the franchise was set to honor his long-time wish and retire his jersey. The four-time NBA Champion is set to become the first player to have his jersey retired by the Magic. This leaves only two teams in the NBA that haven’t retired a jersey – the Los Angeles Clippers and the Toronto Raptors.
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The Raptors not having any retired jerseys recently irked 11-year NBA veteran Austin Rivers. The former first-round pick expressed his frustration at the franchise not honoring future Hall-of-Famer Vince Carter by retiring his jersey. On an Instagram post, Rivers recently commented, as per NBA on ESPN:
“The fact that Vince Carter doesn’t have a jersey retired there is beyond me. There’s only a documentary about him and how he changed the way basketball was looked in Toronto.“
Rivers makes a valid point. The Raptors were one of the two teams, alongside the Vancouver Grizzlies, to join the NBA in 1995 as part of the league’s expansion. They endured three horrendous seasons, winning 22 games on average. In 1998, they acquired Vince Carter in a draft day trade with the Golden State Warriors.
Carter’s arrival changed the trajectory of the team. They went 23-27 in his first season with the franchise as Carter won the Rookie of the Year award, establishing himself as the face of the franchise. His excellent start to his sophomore season earned him his first All-Star nod. He also received the most All-Star votes from fans, showcasing his incredible popularity.
During the 2000 All-Star weekend, Carter delivered one of his greatest hits. In the Dunk Contest, the Raptors superstar obliterated the rim and got his peers off their seats with his vicious dunks. Carter’s performance in the 2000 Dunk Contest is still considered the greatest in NBA history by many.
Vince Carter also led the Raptors to their first playoff appearance and established himself as one of the top players in the league. They fell in the first round of the playoffs against the New York Knicks, but it was a massive step forward for the franchise. The following year, the 6 ft 6″ forward led the Raptors to a second-place finish in the Eastern Conference.
Toronto avenged its loss from the previous season and beat the Knicks 3-2 in the first round to win the first playoff series in franchise history. The Philadelphia 76ers eliminated the Raptors after a grueling seven-game series in the East semifinals, but it was another massive step forward for Carter and the team.
In their fourth season together, the Raptors were 30-38 when Carter suffered a season-ending knee injury. Despite his absence, Toronto went 12-2 and earned a playoff spot. However, Carter’s absence was too much to overcome against the Detroit Pistons, and the Raptors were eliminated after a five-game thriller.
Vince Carter has averaged 23.4 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.9 assists in 403 games for the Raptors in his career. Even though Kawhi Leonard has a strong argument as the greatest Toronto Raptor ever, it was Carter who set the groundwork for the franchise to flourish. Therefore, the eight-time All-Star certainly deserves the franchise’s first jersey retirement honors despite not bringing home an NBA title.
Vince Carter and the Raptors’ ugly divorce
Vince Carter and the Raptors were synonymous with each other until 2002. That’s when trouble started brewing in Toronto. Carter had a rough year healthwise and was limited to only 43 games. The team couldn’t repeat their late-season heroics from the previous year in Carter’s absence and went 24-58.
The following year, he was healthy and played 73 games. However, the Raptors continued to struggle on the court. Despite the superstar averaging 22.5 points, 4.8 assists, and 4.8 rebounds, Toronto went 33-49. After two below-par seasons, Carter became disillusioned with the franchise. He wasn’t satisfied with the team’s effort to improve the roster and demanded a trade in the 2004 offseason.
The Raptors did not honor it and Carter started the 2004-05 season with the team. However, he was disinterested.
Carter’s numbers also slumped dramatically. He averaged career-lows in points, rebounds, and assists with 15.9, 3.3 and 3.1 respectively. New Raptors general manager Rob Babcock realized the superstar was mentally checked out of Toronto. He traded him to the New Jersey Nets in December 2004, ending his six-and-a-half-year stint with the franchise.
Raptors fans were irked by Carter’s behavior in his final six months with the team. To make matters worse, the former Raptors star put up MVP-calibre numbers for the Nets. In 57 games, he averaged 27.5 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 4.7 assists. The final nail in the coffin of his relationship with the Raptors was his admission on TNT that he did not push himself in his final years with the franchise.
Those comments ended what little love the Raptors fans had for Vince Carter. The franchise endured a rough eight-year spell after his exit. They had one season with a winning record and made it to the playoffs twice. Carter has never felt the need to make amends with the Raptors nor has the franchise extended an olive branch to its first superstar.
As it stands, the Raptors have no interest in retiring Vince Carter’s jersey. And it’s safe to assume that will be the case for the foreseeable future.
