Vince Carter: On His Birthday, Remember What Should Have Been

Today is Australia Day, according to a calendar hanging in the kitchen. It's also Vince Carter's birthday.

It's only appropriate that those two holidays should coincide. Those who saw it will never forget Carter's "Here I am" showing in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, including the sight of him leaping over France's Frederic Weis in a single bound.

In those Olympics, however, a microcosm of Carter's career can be uncovered. No one then could fathom Carter reaching an entertaining, yet unfulfilled status on the NBA stage. After all, those Olympics were mere months after Carter's awe-inspiring performance at the slam-dunk contest.

While Carter's forays in red, white, and blue grabbed the world's attention, only observant critics continually mentioned the increasing difficulty with which Team USA managed to win. A semifinal game was won by a mere basket, just eight years after the Dream Team's romp through the competition by an average of over 43 points per game.

No one knew it then, but the tale of Carter's personal excellence while his team underachieved was just unfolding.

Could Carter Be Like Mike?

Carter was, like every other shooting guard with All-Star talent, compared to Michael Jordan. The similarities were so striking, Next Jordan seekers didn't even need to dig that deep.

Like Jordan, Carter was 6-foot-6. Like Jordan, Carter hailed from the University of North Carolina. Like Jordan, Carter came to a moribund franchise in need of a savior.

And like His Airness, Carter captured the imagination of everyone from rabid fan to casual observer. The creativity, explosiveness, and unpredictability with which he unleashed his dunks were revolutionary.

The 2000 NBA Sprite Slam Dunk Contest affirmed all of this. Any other year, a dunk contest field featuring a young Steve Francis and healthy Tracy McGrady would have been one for the ages. Carter made them both irrelevant footnotes to a legacy many thought was just beginning. What Dwight Howard needs props to do now, Carter could do with his own body and talent.

Shortly after that memorable All-Star weekend, Carter led the Toronto Raptors to their first playoff berth, averaging 25.7 points per game in the regular season. If Carter could put Toronto on the NBA radar, surely the sky he walked was Vince Carter's limit.

Instead, Vince Carter proved to be Vince Carter's limit.

Failure Brings Rationalization, Not Determination

While Carter had a Jordan-like physical gifts, "Air Canada" was nowhere close to Jordan's competitive atmosphere.

After helping the Raptors earn playoff stripes at the hands of the Knicks in 2000, Carter's star shone even brighter the following year. Toronto dispatched the same Knicks in the first round of the 2001 playoffs.

What followed can be debated in terms of right and wrong. Toronto and the Allen Iverson-led Philadelphia 76ers came down to a deciding seventh game. On the morning of that game, Carter attended his college graduation ceremony at North Carolina, then flew to Philly to play.

Carter missed the potential game-winning shot with two seconds left. It's impossible, even unfair, to say the travel or that morning's happenings were directly responsible for that moment.

What can be wondered about, is how invested Carter was in the game and its potential for the franchise. Could Carter have shown a more competitive edge and focused with the team that morning on the task at hand? Were his teammates affected by his absence before the biggest game in that franchise's history?

Only three years into his career and with cousin/star-in-the-making Tracy McGrady at his side, Carter could have thought there would be many more opportunities to contend.

Of course, there weren't. McGrady left that summer for Orlando, and Carter never played in the playoffs for Toronto again, either due to injury or the team's regular season record.

A Star Loses Its Luster

As players like Jordan or Kobe aged, they altered their game from overpoweringly athletic to intelligent craftiness. 

Carter, on the other hand, opted to simply rely on an erratic and questionable jump shot, usually 20 feet from the basket, if not further. Highlights still appeared, but the jumper's presence was more pronounced.

In individual games, the transformation was more visible, and startling, for those who had hoped for Air Canada's reign over the NBA. As the game clock diminished, so did the likelihood of Carter challenging the defense. Instead, with the game on the line, Carter resorted to the sometimes-miraculous, ofttimes errant, always ill-advised jumper from 20 feet-plus.

Carter responded to his team's postseason failures the same way he answered the call of crunch time—he shied away from meeting the challenge head-on.

The man who countless fans wanted to become the next Jordan was obviously so much less. Instead of constant improvement, Carter consistently remained stagnant. Instead of working on his defensive game, Carter tried to cover up his weaknesses with memorable offensive spurts.

There was never a sense that Carter wanted to reach his limitless potential. For that, above all else, many fans are embittered toward him (and not just the jilted ones in Toronto). A Vince Carter who maximized his talent, with Jason Kidd in his prime as his running mate, would have won at least two championships.

Instead, Carter is riding the cape of Dwight Howard, another ridiculously talented slam-dunk contest winner, who many criticize for not maximizing his potential.

For the sake of fans and the NBA, let's blow Carter's birthday candles and wish for a better outcome.