Nets retire Vince Carter’s number 15 jersey at Barclays Center
Carter’s family, former teammates, former coach Lawrence Frank, team president Rod Thorn and other former Nets players were on hand to see Carter become the seventh Nets player to have his number retired.
NEW YORK — When the favorite numbers of Vince Carter (6, 12 or 23) were not available as a freshman basketball player at Mainland High School in Florida, he took some advice from his mother, Michelle.
“My mom told me, ‘Find a number and make it famous,'” Carter said.
Vince Carter and their much celebrated number 15 reached new heights again when the Brooklyn Nets They removed him at halftime of their Saturday game against the Miami Heat.
Carter’s family, his former Nets teammates, former coach Lawrence Frank, team president Rod Thorn and other Nets number retirees, Julius Erving, Bill Melchionni and Buck Williams, were on hand to see Carter becoming the seventh Nets player to have his number retired.
“This is truly something that my family and I will cherish forever,” Carter said during the ceremony. “Being the seventh number up is crazy. It’s an honor to be up there with you gentlemen.
“Number 15 Carter will go up there, but we will go up together.”
Carter spent the game sitting next to Erving, his childhood idol. His former teammates Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson, as well as New York-area luminaries such as Eli Manning, Queen Latifah and rapper Fabolous sent congratulatory messages.
The banner with Carter’s number will be right next to Kidd’s No. 5, which is fitting since they were the driving forces behind one of the most successful eras in team history. Carter also credited Kidd for revitalizing him after the Nets acquired him from the Toronto Raptors in December 2004.
“There was a new life,” Carter said of coming to New Jersey. “My role in Toronto was just to give me the ball and I’d get you a (basket). But when I got here, they had a guy… who made the game easier for me.”
Although he played only 374 games in four-plus seasons with the Nets, Carter holds the team record for points in a single season (2,070 in 2006-07) and is third in team history in total points (8,834). . He is fourth in three-pointers made (638) and playoff points (701).
He helped the Nets reach the postseason three times, and they won a playoff series twice before falling to the eventual Eastern Conference champions, the Miami Heat in 2006 and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2007.
“During that era, they were never able to get to the top, so they’ll probably never be recognized like they should have been,” said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who was an assistant for Miami when it won the league title in 2006. “It was a very good basketball team, and (Carter) was a huge part of it.” “It’s like this.”
Carter, who is in his first season as a Nets television analyst, retired in 2020 after an NBA-record 22 seasons at age 43 and was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024.
“I love seeing how his game has evolved since he first arrived,” Spoelstra said. “From just being a dunker to being an unguardable player… and then he was able to be one of the few in this league who could make the transition gracefully. That’s really amazing. It speaks to the type of human being that is”.
Despite playing 11 seasons after New Jersey traded him to Orlando in 2009, and spending time with eight NBA teams, Carter said some of his best days were with the Nets.
“We had fun, but we understood when it was time to consolidate,” Carter said. “We hung out together and really had fun together and played for each other, and that’s what made the game fun.
“I went out, did my job and had a great time doing it.”
