The Raptors wanted to bring 40-year-old free agent Vince Carter back to Toronto this summer, tweets Ryan Wolstat of The Toronto Sun.
Many observers were surprised when Carter elected to sign with the Kings instead of trying to finish his career with a contender. Money was certainly a factor, as Sacramento offered $8MM for one season, along with the chance to play for former Grizzlies coach Dave Joerger again. The Kings signed Carter, Zach Randolph and George Hill as veteran presences on an otherwise youthful team.
Despite his age, Carter has remained a productive player. He appeared in 73 games for Memphis last season, starting 15, and averaged 8.0 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.8 assists per night. He could have provided wing depth to a Toronto team that traded DeMarre Carroll to the Nets in July and sent Terrence Ross to the Magic at the February deadline to pick up Serge Ibaka.
Carter has a checkered history in Toronto, winning Rookie of the Year honors in 1999 and spending more than six seasons there before demanding a trade. However, that was almost 13 years ago and it didn’t prevent the management team currently running the Raptors from reaching out to him.
Too bad the Raps could’ve used him and would have been a fantastic PR move to repair the relationship with the franchises best player.
I don’t know that I would call Carter the Raptors’ best player. It could be argued that Chris Bosh was better. Not to mention Lowry and DeRozan. Carter is definitely in the conversation though.
True, the Raptors have other greats but he opened the door. Also inspired a generation of great Canadian players like Wiggins, Olyniuk, Joseph, Etc.
There is a documentary at TIFF on VC’s affect.
At the end of the day the NBA is a business and Toronto probably wouldn’t have been able to offer much more than the veterans minimum
Probably a verbal that they’d sign him if he didn’t get any offers. They will probably do the same next year if the wheels don’t fall off.
It’s jarring to see that name as a player. Wirh him stuff happened eras ago not just years ago . But his stats are still better than they were in the second millenium.
noone brought more fans to the seats of the raptors than Vince Carter!!! no argument!!!!