Vince Carter is the greatest dunker of all time. The 2000 Dunk Contest. That dunk over 7-foot Frenchman Frederic Weis. When people talk about Vince Carter, they talk about his dunks. How he wowed fans across the world. How he made highlight reel after highlight reel. How every aspiring basketball player dreamed of dunking like Carter. While everyone used to want to emulate Michael Jordan’s high-flying dunks, Vince took that to another level. Now, he has become the benchmark for dunking, and he’s widely regarded as the best dunker in the history of the league.

And that acclamation is insulting to Vince Carter. What people have forgotten about Vince Carter is that he was not just a dunker. James White, who played 67 games in the NBA, was just a dunker. Shannon Brown, who once nearly jumped over a 6’6” guard in the middle of a playoff game, was just a dunker. Jeremy Evans was just a dunker. Gerald Green, though a reliable wing scorer, is widely regarded as simply a dunker. Vince Carter was not just a dunker.

VC was one of the best players in the NBA at his height. At the wing position, he even contended with the likes of Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady for the best at that spot. He brought basketball to Canada and the young Toronto Raptors. In his third season in the NBA, he arguably outdueled league MVP Allen Iverson in one of the greatest playoff series in NBA history. Vince was an all-around player who could score from anywhere, pass well for a scoring guard, and led the Toronto Raptors to multiple playoff berths almost entirely by himself. As his moniker suggests, Vince Carter was half man, half amazing during his prime. And if you look back at his career, you’ll understand why.

But to win an NBA championship takes some luck, and Vince never got lucky. He never played alongside a great teammate in Toronto. He played with his cousin Tracy McGrady, who eventually developed into a superstar when he left Toronto. But the cousins never got to play together as players. Eventually, Toronto fans perceived him as a quitter, and Carter became the most hated player in Raptors history. The organization thought he was feigning injuries just to escape from his responsibility of shouldering the team.
When the dust settled regarding that issue, Carter was traded to the New Jersey Nets and played alongside fellow All-Star Jason Kidd, but the Nets suffered from fatal flaws that prevented playoff success. They were a great duo at the guard position, but somehow, they just could not get over the hump with the supporting cast they had. Later with the Orlando Magic, VC played alongside Dwight Howard in his prime. However, Carter choked in the 2010 NBA Playoffs at the free throw line. After a miserable season in 2010-11 with the Phoenix Suns, Vince Carter looked