Seventeen years ago this week, Vince Carter made the most important decision in the history of Toronto basketball — he decided to stay with the Raptors on a contract extension, rather than bolt to a team in the Lower 48, as so many in the media had predicted he’d do. He made a commitment to the team, and shored up what had been the shaky status of the NBA in Canada with the departure of the Grizzlies from Vancouver.
This summer, Raptors team president Masai Ujiri made what may be the second-most important decision in team history, trading away a star guard — DeMar DeRozan — who had made a similar commitment to playing in Toronto. The Raptors got Kawhi Leonard, a bigger star, in return, but Leonard has made no such commitment to the team or city.
Carter was, to put it mildly, surprised.
"I think I’ll just say wow," he said on Thursday. "That’s it. Simple as that."
MORE: Why DeRozan felt disrespected by Raptors
Much has changed with the Raptors since Carter was there, and he understands the frustration that DeRozan felt in being shipped off to the Spurs after having shown nothing but loyalty to Toronto. Carter pointed to team management.
"Let’s say GMs, they have a different view of maybe the city, the player," Carter said. "It just depends. DeMar has done so many great things, which he has, and he deserves to finish his career there, especially if he wanted to, like we all know he did. It’s just one of those things where the organization, I guess they are different.
"Who knows if it works or not? If it works, I think everybody forgets about it. If it doesn’t, then it blows up in their face."
Of course, it has been 14 years since Carter was traded from Toronto to New Jersey. He will turn 42 in January, and he is a decade removed from his days as a 20-point-per-game scorer. And yet Carter remains an active player in the NBA, having signed on with the Hawks for next season, his 21st in the league.
He knows the end of his career is getting close, and this could be his final go-round. But he was not quite ready to commit to that.
"Honestly, I mean, I say this is my last year, and honestly, I fight with it every day," Carter said. "My friends, family, they’re all like, ‘Man, you don't really know.’ And honestly, I don’t think I know. I think this is my last year of playing. I feel great, but sometimes you just know when it’s time.
"But if you asked me this probably last month, I was like, ‘No, man, I can give it another year after this, I know I can.’ I’m pretty much 90 something percent sure this is it... but I’m going to go through this year, and once the season is over, that's kind of when I'll make my decision."
PHOTOS: Raptors' history of great dunkers
To be sure, Carter is preparing for his post-NBA life, having gotten increasingly involved with broadcasting, and he will be game analyst for Fox’s broadcasts of the Jr. NBA World Championship next week. He has done broadcasting work, too, during the playoffs and in the NBA’s Summer League.
"I enjoy coaching the game, but I don’t want to be a coach," Carter said. "And I think this is another way you can coach the game but to a different crowd, because like everybody watches the game and sometimes they wonder, why do they do this, why do they say this, or they have their opinions.
"So I can now respect it from the inside, if you will, as an NBA player on what they think there, what they’re talking about, what it means or what teams are trying to accomplish while you're watching the game as opposed to playing in it. So I get to do that every night for a couple hours a game, and I think it’s another way to be a coach without having the head coaching position."
For Carter, the question that most frequently comes up here as his career winds down is why he doesn’t sign on for a bench role with a team that has a chance to win a championship. When asked about not chasing a ring with the rebuilding Hawks, Carter said, "Atlanta is chasing a ring," before laughing and adding, "Kidding, go ahead."
His answer boiled down to wanting to stay on the court, wanting to continue to play meaningful minutes. He understands that players now seek championships above all else, but that’s not his mentality.
"Let me say, I would love to play on a team — hey, we don’t have a lot of minutes, but I can sit on the bench and we can use you as a mentor," Carter said. "It’s easy to do. I probably could have done that anywhere. I still want to play the game. Whatever minutes are there, I want to play the game. I enjoy teaching. I'll do that for any team.
"But that’s not a question. That's just who I am. I think just coming from — I’m coming from an era where that’s not how it was, so that’s still instilled in me, and I don’t have any problem with how it’s done. It's just not for me."
Carter was an innovator when he opted to sign an extension to stay in Toronto.
By choosing to get on the court for a lowly team like Atlanta, he’s now a throwback.