Vince Carter is still incredibly building upon his hall of fame career at age 41, but as a player with a minimal role for one of the worst teams in the NBA, the Sacramento Kings, and on a one-year contract, the tea leaves seem to be reading that he will be bought out in the coming weeks.
Carter even fed into this with his answer to a question if he will ever return to the Raptors, the place where he established himself as one of the greatest players of his era, by saying “It will happen one day.”
So that begs the question, if Carter were on the market would the Raptors welcome a reunion on the court this season? Apparently not…
Here is from Josh Lewenberg of TSN:
“After speaking with a few team sources, I can confirm that they’ve had internal dialogue and debate about the idea of bringing Vince Carter back. It’s something that they wanted to do over the summer. That’s why they made him an offer, something that I’ve reported in the past. And it’s also something that they’d be open to in the future, perhaps next year in some capacity. But they’ve decided now is not the right time. And I think the consensus seems to be there’s so much going on right now, and they want this season to be about this team, their accomplishments and their playoff push and not the sideshow that I think would come with a Vince Carter return.”
While it makes sense, the Raptors are currently the No. 1 seed and seemingly have the best chance they have had in their franchise history to legitimately win the eastern conference and reach the NBA Finals and they don’t want to rock the boat or have any distractions, it is still a pretty big bummer.
Who wouldn’t want to see Carter have a big game or moment in the Raptors playoff run that could be a perfect cap to his career and provide nostalgia for millions of basketball fans?
According to reports, the Raptors have shown interest in Arron Afflalo from the Magic if he is bought out to fill out their 15th roster spot down the stretch.
If Carter is available do what is right Toronto, the world wants Air Canada back home.
