As nuanced as the relationship between Vince Carter and the Toronto Raptors has been over 25-plus years, it really does boil down to the dunks.
Carter could do it all, of course. A deadly three-point shooter a decade ahead of the curve; owner of as deep a mid-range bag as any 80s or 90s superstar. VC was a scorer’s scorer. But it’s the graceful thunder; the windmills and 360s and other assorted aerial affronts to the laws of physics and time that spawned Vinsanity.
Dunks make us feel. The absence of dunks makes us feel bad. The Carter-Toronto dynamic, told in 12 words.
“I was that guy that wanted to fly around arenas and dunk on people,” the Raptors legend said before he had his number 15 retired to the rafters on Saturday night. “Which is why people fell in love, which is why I understand why people were sad and had their feelings.”
Tongue-in-cheek or not, Carter’s “I don’t wanna dunk anymore” practice scrum in November 2004 was the piece of the divorce that stung the most, or at least it was for the yam-obsessed then 11-year-old now writing this newsletter.
Watching Half Man, Half Amazing become Half Man, Half Trying during the waning weeks of his time in Toronto might stand as the single lowest point in 30 years of Raptors ball. I wasn’t mad about getting the Williamses back in the trade so much as I was despondent that the Cool Dunks Guy wasn’t on my team anymore.
Time heels, and so do dunk montages. In the ramp up to Saturday’s beautifully executed, hatchet-burying ceremony for Carter, the much welcomed inundation from Vince slam reels overloaded all those nerve endings that went numb the day he became a Net, and slowly but surely regained feeling over the last 20 years.
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The impact of Carter’s many impacts with buckets was all over Saturday’s game. You might even call the night’s script kinda hacky if it came from a writer’s room desk.
RJ Barrett, one of the stars of the golden generation of Canadian hoopers VC helped usher in, going toe-to-toe down the stretch with DeMar DeRozan, a fellow former Face of the Franchise, while childhood Vince-head Chris Boucher has his best game in years? A little on the nose, wouldn’t you say?
Most of the Raptors were somewhere between diapers and kindergarten when Carter last called Toronto home, but his iron-hammering has clearly bridged eras.
In the mid-second quarter, Ochai Agbaji threw down a bounding two-handed transition slam, probably the most Carter-evoking play of the night. I asked him if it held significance to have the loudest dunk on the night devoted to honouring the franchise’s loudest dunker.
“It is a badge, I shoulda done the celebration with it too,” he said, miming the classic Carter motorcycle rev that Boucher himself busted out during the game.
Dunking, no matter the context, is badge-worthy, of course. A big rim rock is the most joy-sparking split-second in sports; in most cases way more enduring than the result of the game it takes place in. It’s the feat fandom is built on.
We loved VC because he dunked. And for a while there we hated him because he stopped.
But the best thing about dunks is they can’t get un-dunked. Once a ball gets flushed, it stays flushed for good. The sight, the sound, the poster — it’s with us forever. And now, rightfully, so is Vince Carter.
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On Today’s show Vivek Jacob joins me to discuss the incredible Carter ceremony, takeaways from another wildly entertaining weekend of Raptors hoops, and more! Enjoy the show.
