Before I begin, I’ll point out that I am in no way comparing the magnitude of the two shots, but as pointed out by a commenter in the DeRozan buzzer-beater post, the shot DeMar made to beat the Magic in Orlando was very similar to the shot Vince Carter famously missed in Game 7 of the 2001 Eastern Conference semifinals in Philadelphia.
Have a look for yourself…
The Raptors will look to end a six-game losing streak when they host Vince Carter and a Mavericks team that has been hanging tough without Dirk Nowitzki.
This week’s “Story Time with Jalen Rose” animated short story on Grantland is must-watch material for Raptors fans, as Rose tells the story of the night Vince Carter slammed Sam Mitchell…literally.
Kyle Lowry blowing by Steve Nash is something we hope to see at the ACC on January 20
In one of the more anticipated days of the summer for basketball junkies, the NBA announced its’ 2012-2013 schedule on Thursday, and as usual, there are some games that obviously stand out from the rest.
While I doubt the Raptors are featured in many, if any, of those games for the casual NBA fan, we’re here to cater to Raptors fans. And with that, here are the games we think you should circle on the calendar:
On Thursday night we unveiled Vince Carter as the No. 1 Raptor (surprise, surprise) in the finale of our Ultimate Raptors Rankings.
What I didn’t mention in that post is that Scott and I actually had a chance to talk to Vince a couple of weeks ago, during the final week of the regular season.
Vince was great to chat with, took a good amount of time to answer our questions and was honest with his answers when we got to the tougher questions about the John Thompson interview. It was kind of interesting to hear him surprisingly say “oh, wow” when we explained that the reason we wanted to interview him was because we were naming him the best Raptor in franchise history for our Raptors-related blog. He sounded genuinely surprised and flattered, which kind of caught me off guard. Perhaps he was just surprised that fan frustration over his departure hasn’t clouded their judgement of his peak performance, or perhaps Carter is humbler than people give him credit for.
Either way, as a lifelong Raptors fan, it was fascinating to get a few minutes with Vince Carter for RaptorBlog and to get some answers to questions Scott and I have always had, as I’m sure you have, too.
Here’s the interview, transcribed in its entirety:
