Vince Carter  
 

  • Vince wanted to wear number 23 like Michael Jordan when he was a teenager. His parents suggested he pick another number and “make it famous.” He chose 15.
  • The first college recruiter to meet Vince was Hank Raymonds of Marquette. He was recruiting Vince’s uncle Oliver while two-year-old Vince sat on the coach’s lap.
  • Vince was offered more than 50 basketball scholarships. One school, Bethune-Cookman, offered him a music scholarship.
  • Vince won a high school slam dunk contest with six perfect dunks. One was a one-handed 360. Another saw him take off from behind the foul line. The runner up in the contest was Kevin Garnett.
  • Vince signed a written contract with his mother before he left for college in the summer of 1995. It stated that he would earn his diploma at UNC no matter what happened in his basketball career.
  • After Vince’s freshman year, Michael Jordan invited him to work at his summer basketball camp.
  • In college, Vince kept a detailed written log of all his dunks.
  • Vince was a second-team All-American in 1998.
  • When Ray Allen nabbed the final spot on the 2000 Olympic team, Vince and his teammates took it as a snub. In their next meeting, Vince singed Allen for 47 points.
  • Vince got into a shoving match with Australian star Andrew Gaze during an exhibition contest before the 2000 Olympics. He was later booed throughout the tournament in Sydney.
  • Shaquille O’Neal once called Vince his favorite player. Shaq says he’s “Half man, half amazing.”
  • Vince is one of only 10 players in history to have a career playoff average over 25 points a game.
  • Vince got some unexpected bad news in 2004. A federal jury concluded that his former agent, William "Tank" Black, was due $4.7 million in lost commissions and damages from him. Vince had parted company with Williams in 2000 after discovering that he had stolen millions from his NFL clients. Though disappointed by the decision, Vince looked on the bright side, saying at least he could put the episode behind him.


 

 


Michael Jordan, Wheaties Box


Shaquille O'Neal, Yahoo! Magazine

  

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