Vince Carter is in his 21st season in the league. Only four other players have played that many years in the NBA without perishing in the process. You know the list already, but here it is again:
-Robert Parish
-Kevin Willis
-Kevin Garnett
-Dirk Nowitzki
-Vince Carter
It is a sign of how much I respect those dudes that I didn’t even put funny commentary in parentheses after their names. Normally when presented with something in list format I can’t help myself, but these guys are legends except for Kevin Willis who was just a guy.
There has never been a player to play 22 seasons. You know what I’m thinking right now: why not Carter? He’s still looking semi-decent-ish out there. He’s contributing to wins, or at least, he contributed to a win tonight. He can still dunk, and of course he can still shoot threes. He’s basically useless on defense, but has that ever stopped him before? No. If nothing else, he should stick around for the first few games of next season, play a few garbage-time minutes, then feign an injury and ride off into the sunset and land straight in a cushy media job.
And if Dirk Nowitzki somehow drags his decrepit booty to season 22, well, I bet Carter can hit 23. Besides, didn’t he say he wasn’t going to retire until he couldn’t dunk anymore?