Toronto Raptors

Scaletta: Toronto Should Give Tribute to Vince Carter in Dunk Contest

Icon Sports Media

There are two signature dunk contests: 1988 and 2000. All others are just also-rans. And the 2000 contest was made complete by the legendary performance of Vince Carter, who resurrected the event in a few breathtaking moments.

Now, for the younger readers who aren’t aware of what Carter once was, he had so much hops he could’ve been a beer. He once literally jumped over the 7’2″ Frederick Weis in a live Olympic game in what’s widely regarded as the greatest in-game dunk of all time.

Asked why he didn’t raise his hands on the play, Weis just quipped, “I never had anyone jump over my head before.”

Carter, at his best, was a dunk machine, with both incredible athleticism and power.

Carter was in the contest along with his cousin, Tracy McGrady, Steve Francis, Jerry Stackhouse and Larry Hughes. But when you think of the 2000 contest, you really only think of Carter’s magnificence.

So, when he took the court for the Dunk Contest, people were anticipating something special, and something special is what they got — from the get-go. Here was his first dunk of the evening: a reverse 360:

The extension coming up under the rim before he came back and hammered it down seemed to go against the laws of physics. The judges appreciated it and awarded him a perfect 50.

His second dunk was a 360 under the backboard from the baseline. Probably underrated if you don’t appreciate the distance he’s jumping both horizontally and vertically while he’s spinning and actually going against all that force to throw down the dunk:

His third dunk he made up while sitting on the bench just moments before. It’s the only dunk which required two tries, as McGrady didn’t quite get the pass right on the first one.

So, the very first time he ever tried this dunk in his life, this happened:

How one does that without ever trying it once is completely beyond me. But then, the only thing I can dunk is a donut.

The explosion from the crowd said everything, but not as much as the complete non-reaction on his next dunk — at least immediately. It took them a moment to realize what Carter had just done. This has become one of the most iconic moments in the history of the contest:

Carter smashed the ball through the rim, all the way to the crook of his elbow and then just hung there, as though he were asking, “Do you realize what I just did?” And the very thing was so unimaginably preposterous that it still took several seconds to absorb.

My favorite part of this is all the, “What did I just see?” expressions that came after it.

Carter’s final dunk was a bit anti-climactic, a two-handed dunk from a step inside the free throw line:

Not that it mattered much, history had been made already.

And the effect of it is still felt today, even to the extent of this year’s All-Star Weekend being held in Canada.

In 2000, there were only three native Canadian players, with two of them developed elsewhere. Bill Wennington grew up in New York. Rick Fox grew up in the Bahamas and Indiana. To that point, the all-time win shares leader for a player who attended high school in Canada was Mike Smrek. And if you’re asking, “Who the heck is Smrek?” The answer is, “Exactly.”

Jamaal Magloire, who was a rookie the next season, broke that “record.” Certainly Steve Nash, who was born in South Africa but grew up in Canada, helped raise interest too.

But there’s a decided difference in basketball culture North of the border now.

In 2015-16, there are 11 Canadian-born players in the NBA, with all but one of them eight years old or younger when Carter put on his show.

Anthony Bennett and Andrew Wiggins have been taken No. 1 in the draft. Tristan Thompson, Kelly Olynyk and Cory Joseph all look to have solid NBA careers. Trey Lyles looks promising. too.

And that had a lot to do with Carter putting Toronto on the map with his Dunk Contest performance.

So, as the festivities now come there, it’d be apropos for there to be some sort of tribute to the catalyst of it all: Vince Carter.

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