07-19-2017, 03:13 AM
On Wednesday night, the man who put the Toronto Raptors on the map returns to the Air Canada Centre for what could be the final time. Vincent Lamar Carter is no longer the lean, athletic dynamo who dazzled Raptors fans with eye-popping dunks that posterized even the leagues best defenders. Carter is also no longer the petulant man-child who fans feel gave up on his team and his city and forced a move away from the franchise that he legitimized. At almost 37, Vince Carter is an NBA veteran, perhaps not grizzled, but a far cry from the two sides of the one man that Toronto Raptors fans remember with both fondness and disdain. In Torontos case, the latter greatly outweighs the former. Carter first returned to Toronto after his acrimonious exit as a member of the then-New Jersey Nets in April, 2005. To say that the reception he received was unwelcome would be kind. Few things stir up anger in sports fans like being jilted by a player they once idolized. The torrent of abuse directed Carters way didnt seem to faze him as he ended up dropping 39 on his former mates in a Nets win. When Carters Dallas Mavericks take on the Raptors on Wednesday night, Carter is likely to once again be met by vociferous boos as he always has been since the first time he came back to the ACC as a member of the enemy, but, of course, with each subsequent visit, the jeers have gotten quieter. The anger that once consumed Raptors fans just isnt there anymore for the most part. When Vince Carter is booed again tonight, it will be more out of habit than anything else. Much like the case with his cousin, the now-retired Tracy McGrady, the booing is just what you do. All of this, then, begs the question: Should time heal all wounds? In what might be the last time Toronto Raptors fans see Vince Carter at the Air Canada Centre, is it time for Raptors fans to let the good outweigh the bad and welcome the prodigal son back into the fold? Lets not kid ourselves. The break-up was bad and Carter had more than a big hand in it. On the morning of the biggest game in franchise history - Game 7 of the 2001 Eastern Conference Semifinals with the Philadelphia 76ers - Carter decided to fly to Raleigh to collect his degree from the University of North Carolina. Its anybodys guess as to why he chose to go then and not in the summer, but unrelatedly or not, Carter missed the game-winning shot that evening with only two seconds left on the clock. And then there was the meddling with the front office. Obviously, most franchises try to jibe with their best players wishes, but many felt Carter overstepped his bounds. The impetus to bring in a broken-down Hakeem Olajuwon and offer him a pricey extension appeared to come from Carter. It was a spectacular failure. Carter was constantly in managements ear and attempting to mold the club in ways that he wanted. Outside of a brief stint in the Orlando Magic front office as vice-president, Julius Erving had no managerial experience, yet this was the man who Carter championed to almost the point of insistence for the Raptors general manager job in 2004. When the team went with Rob Babcock, Carter took this as an affront. When the situation became untenable that season, Babcocks hands were tied to the point that all he could fetch from the Nets in exchange for Carter were bench pieces Eric Williams and Aaron Williams, a past-his-prime Alonzo Mourning - who never played a game for the team and was almost immediately released, but not before receiving a $9 million buyout package – and a pair of first-round draft picks. The cruelest blow, though, came the month after he was traded when he sat down with legendary Georgetown coach John Thompson, then working as an analyst for TNT, and told him that he had begun to coast in his last years in Toronto. "I was just fortunate enough to have the talent," Carter said. "You know, you get spoiled when youre able to do a lot of things and you see that, and you really dont have to work at it. But now, I think with all the injuries and the things that have gone on, I have to work a little harder and Im a little hungrier. Thats why getting the opportunity to have a fresh start with New Jersey has made me want to attack the basket for a lot of reasons." To hear your franchise player admit to dogging it is beyond the pale and probably reason enough alone for the idea of some sort of reconciliation to be out of the question. Recently, though, Carter has claimed that he never wanted to leave the Raptors and told as much to Babcock, but was informed that a deal had already been agreed upon with the Nets. Former Raptors coach Sam Mitchell corroborated Carters account, but considering this information became public almost 10 years after the fact, it came across as little more than damage control for what is seemingly an irreparable image in this city. Still, as the spectre of Carters exit still casts a shadow over what he did as a Raptor, is it time that the two arent mutually exclusive? It was Carter who led the team to its first ever playoff spot. It was Carter who led the team to its first ever series win. It was Carter who got the Raptors onto national American television broadcasts and into the larger basketball consciousness as something other than just that team that plays in Canada. To say nothing of the fact that Carter remains the franchise leader in points per game and second in total points. Is it time Raptors fans let Carters legacy outshine the acrimony of his exit? Or is the exit his legacy with the Toronto Raptors? As always, its Your! Call. Jakub Kindl Panthers Jersey . Moments after his Brooklyn Nets teammates ran out onto the court to congratulate him following their 100-98 overtime win over the Phoenix Suns on Friday night, Johnson could only shake his head at scoring only 13 points on 6-of-19 shooting. Jussi Jokinen Panthers Jersey . -- The San Francisco 49ers have re-signed cornerback Perrish Cox to a one-year contract. http://www.hockeypanthersauthority.com/j...rsey-c-18/ . - Considering where Jeff Gordon was after Richmond, left out of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship in part due to some late-race shenanigans, he couldnt have been happier on Sunday. Henrik Borgstrom Panthers Jersey .Y. -- Mark Steenhuis scored four goals and added two assists to lead the Buffalo Bandits over the Toronto Rock 12-10 in National Lacrosse League action on Saturday. Shawn Thornton Panthers Jersey Authentic . According to USA Today the Finns have tapped forwards Jarkko Immonen and Sakari Salminen to replace injured forwards Mikko Koivu and Valtteri Filppula at the Sochi Games.(SportsNetwork.com) - Craig MacTavish and Todd Nelson got a closer look on Tuesday just how rough of a season it has been for the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers look to rebound from yet another heart-breaking loss and avoid a sixth setback in a row on Thursday night as they visit the San Jose Sharks. Edmonton hit the ice on Tuesday to take on the hosting Arizona Coyotes just one day after the club fired Dallas Eakins as its head coach. MacTavish, the general manager, joined Nelson on the bench and will help coach for the near future until Nelson is comfortable enough to take the role of interim coach on his own. He may need some additional time after watching the Oilers lose a 2-1 overtime decision to the Coyotes when Arizona defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored with just 0.3 seconds left in the extra frame. With time winding down, Martin Erat skated the puck into the Edmonton zone and dished it to his right for Sam Gagner, who then fired the puck over to the left wing where a skating Ekman-Larsson blasted a shot into the right corner of the net just before the final buzzer. Heartbreaker. It was five seconds, the play was on the wall near our bench then all of a sudden they have a rush and Larsson makes a great shot, said Nelson. It was a dead play on the wall. Then the puck squirted loose and they were able to get one last rush off it. We had a bit of duplication on the coverage and Larsson was open. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had the only goal of the game for the Oilers, who have dropped 16 of their past 17 (1-11-5). When you give a guy like Ekman-Larsson a shot like that, hes not going to miss too often, said Oilers goaltender Ben Scrivens, who finished with a season-high 42 saves.dddddddddddd. Edmonton may have forward Boyd Gordon back in the lineup tonight. He has missed the last five games with a sore back, but has been practicing the past few days. The Oilers will need all the help they can get given that the Sharks have won seven of their past eight, including the first three of a five-game homestand. They won their sixth straight as the hosting club overall with Saturdays 2-0 win over the Nashville Predators. Antti Niemi made 29 saves for his second shutout of the season and 29th of his career. He made 18 of those stops in the third period. Tomas Hertls goal 5:01 into the game stood up as the winner and Joe Thornton added an empty-netter -- his 350th career goal. The whole first period we had a game plan and we all bought into it, said Sharks coach Todd McLellan. It wasnt just 15 guys; it was all 20 who executed it. The whole night we stuck to it. It was a good team win. The Sharks and Oilers have split their first two meetings this season, a home- and-home set on Dec. 7 and 9 in which each club won a game in its own building. San Jose has won nine of the past 11 overall as well as four in a row and nine of the last 11 at home in this series. Niemi is 9-1-1 lifetime versus the Oilers with a 2.40 goals against average and .906 save percentage, while Scrivens is 2-3-1 against the Sharks with a 2.98 GAA and .915 save percentage. Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Jerseys From China Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys ' ' '