MIAMI – The game came down to one shot. With 2.2 seconds left, Vince Carter fired away from deep on the left side, one shot for salvation or elimination. Make it, go to the 2001 Conference Finals. Miss it, go home.
Carter and his Toronto Raptors went home.
His desperation Game 7 shot hit the back rim, Philly won, and Toronto exited the playoffs. That was the last moment Carter spent on an NBA playoff floor until today. And that is what many remember of Carter’s playoff career.
Never mind he scored 20 points with nine assists and seven rebounds in that game. Forget he scored 50, 39 and 35 points in three of the previous games in that series. All that mattered was The Miss.
“A year,” Carter said with a smile when asked how long it took him to get over that shot – which was scrutinized even more because that was the weekend he flew to Chapel Hill, received his diploma from North Carolina, then returned to Philadelphia in time for the game.
Carter’s prime playoffs memory is his first series victory, a first-round five-gamer over the Knicks in ’01. But if that miss is what folks recall about Carter’s playoff games – not a 25.7 scoring average – then Carter wants to rectify it.
He can start today at 3 o’clock here when the No. 8 seed Nets face the No. 1 seeded Heat in Game One of the Eastern Conference playoffs first round.
“The past is the past. Let’s give the guy credit for what he’s done since he’s been here,” Lawrence Frank said. “All these knocks and his bad raps, look at what he’s done. The guy has been tremendous. Jason [Kidd] obviously is our leader.
“But Vince has been great. I wish there was more credit given to him. His teammates feel the same. The guy has been phenomenal for us.”
That would include 27.4 points as a Net, including 32.2 in the 15-4 close that carried once-dormant New Jersey into the playoffs.
Now Carter needs to arise once again so his playoff legacy isn’t, “Missed The Game 7 Shot.”
Carter said it doesn’t bother him. Deep inside it must.
“I don’t to get into that. In the end, if you win a championship or not, sometimes they still say it’s not good enough,” Carter said. “I’ve seen that happen to a lot of great players who didn’t win the big one. Some guys didn’t really do well in the playoffs, [but] that doesn’t take away their ability and what mark they’ve made in the game. Ever since that moment, I’ve just really haven’t worried about it.”
Carter has had many raps. He’s soft. He quit on the Raptors. He doesn’t do well with pressure. But since he’s been with the Nets, he has overcome most of the negative stuff.
He has played in pain. He produced in his return to Toronto, a pressure game for the Nets played in an atmosphere as friendly as a bag of vipers. Maybe some raps are unfair, but that’s the reality.
“That’s why I don’t get caught up in it,” Carter said. “Our jobs as players are to come in and do what we do night in and night out, play the best you can and that’s how it goes. Everybody’s going to have something to say regardless. You can have a great series in 2005, but then they can say, ‘Oh, but in 2000 he didn’t play that well.’ You’re going to drive yourself crazy.”
But Carter has the chance to erase much of it, starting today.