Vince Carter's proud daughter Kai pays touching tribute to his historic jersey retirement honor
The Toronto Raptors are officially retiring Vince Carter's jersey. The team that drafted Carter in the 1998 draft is finally giving the former NBA player his flowers before he officially gets inducted into the Hall of Fame next month.
Amid the news of the Raptors jersey retirement, Carter's daughter Kai took to her social media to pay tribute to her father. She reposted a video posted by NBA Canada on her Instagram Story.
The video showed Vince Carter in tears as Raptors president Masai Ujiri announced the team's decision to retire Carter's jersey. Kai captioned the story:
"15 Forever," which was Carter's number with the Raptors.
Carter played the first seven seasons of his 22-year NBA career with the Raptors, and those were perhaps the most glittering years of his career. He played 403 games with the Raptors and averaged 23.4 points per game. He shot 44.6% from the field and 38.3% from the 3-point line. He also famously won the 2000 NBA Slam Dunk Contest.
Interestingly, the Brooklyn Nets are also retiring Carter's jersey. He played five seasons with the Nets after being traded from the Raptors.
Kevin Garnett credits Vince Carter for putting Rapotors on the map
There is a reason that Vince Carter was once known as "Air Canada" among NBA fans. The eight-time NBA All-Star was one of a kind when it came to dunking.
He was the biggest crowd entertainer with his out-of-this-world talent. Scotiabank Arena, then called the Air Canada Centre, became the spot for entertainment, and Carter was the biggest artist.
In conversation with Paul Pierce on "KG Certified", Kevin Garnett spoke in detail about the impact that Carter had on the Raptors as a franchise.
"When Vince got to Toronto he made that a place, boy. He made it," Garnett said. "He put the flag in the ground to not only come up here and watch us play, but, man, come up here in the summertime and see what Carabana's like and check out Canadian culture."
Garnett also added that it was because of the electrifying performances of Vince Carter.
"I actually thought that the emergence of Drake, the emergence of the Weeknd, the emergence of Tory Lanez, the emergence of Nelly Furtado, Steve Nash. it put all that on the map. Vince coming up there making the 'oohs and ahs' and giving Toronto that just made Toronto another melting pot. He changed the culture, changed the basketball culture."
Carter played 22 seasons in the NBA, a record that LeBron James will match this upcoming season. Unfortunately, even after playing so long in the league, Carter never won an NBA title.