This game is more in line with what I expect a guy who’s 42 years old to be doing in the NBA: hitting threes and nothing else. Three-pointers are easy on the legs, especially if your shooting form doesn’t entail a lot of jumping. I’ve personally played against old guys who can barely move and have beer guts and have about two inches of lift (but only after thirty minutes of pregame stretching) but are still assassins from three-point range. When you think of extremely old dudes in the NBA, you think of slightly younger and more mobile versions of those older dudes at the park. Lots of three-pointers, lots of easy jogging down the court, lots of no defense.
But Vince Carter’s not an ordinary 42 year old. He’s quite possibly the most springy and capable forty-plus player in NBA history. He still dunks it with regularity even if he loses feeling in his legs after ten minutes of running up and down the court. Three-point attempts outnumber two-point attempts by a two-to-one ratio for him, but the fact that he can do anything inside the paint is a miracle in and of itself.
When I’m 42 years old, I hope I’m still mobile enough to make highlight videos. You might be thinking right now, how mobile does one even have to be to sit at a computer and edit together NBA footage into bite-sized chunks suitably for consumption by internet users? And the answer is “not very mobile at all”. But you still have to be able to type and click and stuff. Those are the things I hope I’m still capable of when I reach that age.