January 17, 2006

CARTER THE REAL CULPRIT FOR RAPTORS FALL FROM GRACE

       It has been nearly five years since that one indelible moment--frozen in Raptor history--took place.  It was May 2001 when Vince Carter’s last second shot bounced off the rim and kept Toronto from a date in the Eastern Conference Finals.  It was supposed to be the beginning, but turned out to be an end.  The club, which had slowly climbed up to that upper mid-level spot in the conference, spun wildly out of control almost immediately leading to the present club’s status as one of the worst in the league.  There is plenty of blame to go around to explain the club’s fall from grace, everyone from president Richard Peddie to former GM Glen Grunwald, but the one person who has to accept most of the blame is Vince Carter.

       To explain that statement we have to go back to that “high-point” in Raptor history.  Remember it was Charles Oakley who verbally attacked Carter during the previous playoff series against the Knicks telling the media that the team’s best player has to start playing like it.  Through the next three games of the Knicks series and the full seven games of the Philadelphia series Carter played liked the best player.  He also walked and talked and acted like the best player.  The organization was lambasted for allowing Carter to fly to North Carolina to accept his graduation diploma on the afternoon of the final game against the 76ers.  But the Raptors were more concerned with keeping Carter in the fold, after all they had watched their two previous stars—Damon Stoudamire and Tracy McGrady—walk away from the club, and they were intent on ensuring the same fate would not befall them again.  As such Vince was given many liberties, many too many in hindsight, to ensure that he would sign a long-term contract with Toronto.

       That ass kissing went even further.  Carter was content with the make-up of the Raptor roster and was certain that if it were kept together it would contend for a title.  Therefore, he let it be known to the organization that if they wanted him to re-sign with the club they would need to bring back the other players, his friends, that were free agents that off-season.  Thus, the club made a concerted effort to re-sign Antonio Davis, Jerome Williams and Alvin Williams.  While it was considered a bonanza when the club managed to re-sign each player it also hamstrung the organization.  If these players did not work out the Raptors would be stuck with three multi-year and multi-million dollar contracts.  And that is exactly what happened.  The Raptors are still trying to dig out from under those financial restrictions.

       The Raptors made a decision that, at the time, seemed to be the right one.  The club had come close to playoff success and seemed on the verge of greatness.  The window was closing around the club, however, as, apart from Vince and perhaps Alvin, the team was filled with aging veterans.  When the club spent its last dollars to sign an immobile Hakeem Olajuwon they were telling Vince that they were going for a championship right away.  But the team needed Vince to take his game to the next level and become the leader it had always hoped he would be.  The Raptors needed Vince to match his superstar talents with a similar amount of determination and effort.  They had taken a huge gamble in overpaying these players—they could not have re-signed them otherwise—and needed to club to succeed immediately.  But Hakeem quickly proved that he was done as a player, and it became apparent that Davis and JYD were simply parts of a puzzle and could not be counted on to earn their heavy contracts.  The Raptors made the playoffs, as the eighth seed that season without an injured Carter, for the last time.

       In their haste and their eagerness to sign Vince they forfeited their future for an opportunity for success in the present.  If Vince had lived up to his part of the bargain the Raptors would not have fallen so far so fast.  But he started to feel the pressure of being the man and, because he was still a child, could not handle it.  He started giving in to the minor bumps and bruises that afflict all professional athletes—it was easier for him to use injuries as an excuse for his lack of success.  When the club went on that late season spurt and made the playoffs without him in 2002 it was a telling sign.  Vince would never be the leader of this club. 

       The Raptors quickly fell to mediocrity and, unable to improve themselves because of the large contracts, the club was forced to make changes.  The veterans counted on to be integral parts of the team were too close to the end of their careers to contribute.  Davis, unhappy over his inability to negotiate a decent contract with his hometown Chicago Bulls, had come back to Toronto with a major chip on his shoulder and an unwillingness to be a part of Toronto’s future.  While JYD would have loved to stay in Toronto his contract was restricting and his talent was limited--he became part of the Davis trade to Chicago.  When Vince saw that the organization was intent on rebuilding he complained.  His hold over the organization had slipped dramatically and when his request to have Julius Erving named as the new GM was ignored he complained, first privately and the publicly, and asked for a trade. 

       For a brief period of time, especially after he won the slam-dunk competition, Vince Carter was easily the most popular athlete in Canada.  Unfortunately the man could never live up to the legend.  He always took the easiest path and when faced with a rather large obstacle preferred to run and hide always letting his agent or his mother take the lead.  A mature man would have felt the responsibility the franchise had handed him and would have sweated every ounce of energy out of his being to ensure that he earned every penny invested in him.  But in this day and age when boys are given large sums of money and expected to be men is it surprising that maturity never occurs.  Vince Carter will never win a championship unless, at the end of his career, he is a spare part on a championship team.  As long as he is counted on to lead, and as long as he earns a large share of a team’s payroll, that club will never contend for a title. 

       Sorry, New Jersey, you had your chance years ago.   The longer Vince is on your team, the more the likelihood is that Vince the immature selfish boy will show.  He helped destroy a Raptor organization that is still climbing out of its hole.  Nets’ fans better hope the same fate does not befall their club.