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Tim Bontemps, ESPN
Vince Carter played 22 years in the NBA, becoming the only player to appear in the league across four different decades. He scored over 25,000 points, made eight All-Star teams, won the 1999 Rookie of the Year award and was named to a pair of All-NBA teams.
But his most celebrated accomplishment was winning the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest — widely considered the greatest showing in the event’s history. And, during the news conference for this year’s Naismith Hall of Fame class — of which Carter is a leading member — he admitted the routine he did that day was one he came up with on the fly after deciding the one he’d prepared wasn’t good enough to win.
“I looked in the stands, and I was on another level as far as excitement and hype for the moment,” Carter said. “I felt the routine I had the night before wasn’t gonna win. And, I took a chance. We’re here talking about the good, because there could have been a lot of bad … I just wanted to show the world my athleticism. I put some things together, had some safe landings.
“I just felt good about the night. After the first dunk, a lot of excitement and confidence came out of me, and the sky was the limit from there.”
That first dunk — a reverse windmill — left the crowd in stunned silence for a moment as it tried to wrap its collective mind around what had taken place. Carter, though, admitted it was one he’d barely been able to do in practice leading up to the contest — which he’d religiously watched for years as a kid — but with the adrenaline flowing through him he decided, in the moment, it was one he could pull off.
“I tried that, worked on it so many times and could barely make that dunk in practice,” Carter said. “But my adrenaline was so, so high to where I said, ‘You know what? I think I can pull it off.’ That’s just what it was.
“[Kevin Garnett] probably hyped me up from afar because I remember walking out on the court, got the ball, nervous, hands, a little sweaty. I had just had surgery on my middle finger, so if you go back, you see my finger is taped up. I see all the guys I either played college ball with or against or in the pros and the excitement on these professional superstars’ face for what I was gonna do.
“So I’m like, ‘Let’s give him a show baby.'”
The rest was history. Carter went on to win the contest and put himself into the history books en route to the Hall of Fame, becoming one of the league’s most popular players during his time with the Toronto Raptors and New Jersey Nets before becoming a steady veteran and role player over the second half of his career.
The other headlining player in this year’s class, Chauncey Billups, took a far different path. The third overall pick in the 1997 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics, Billups was traded three times in his first three NBA seasons before rebuilding his career as a backup with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
He then got his big break in 2002, when he signed a five-year deal to join the Detroit Pistons and became a key cog in one of the defining teams of this century — a group that won the 2004 NBA title and was led by Billups and fellow Hall of Famer Ben Wallace, plus Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown. And while his path wasn’t as simple as Carter’s to stardom, Billups said he was happy with the way his career played out.
“It’s my journey,” Billups said. “Everybody’s is totally different. And I say this all the time, from the time that I was drafted to today, me getting on this stage and being [here] this weekend, it was a tough road for me. There was not a lot of traffic on that road, to be honest with you. Not a lot of people, third pick in the draft, five teams my first five years … I wasn’t playing poorly, it was just circumstances. Obviously I wasn’t playing good enough, but it is what it is, and I learned so much about me along that way in that process that just made me.”
And then there’s Doug Collins, who went into the Hall as a contributor and has endured all sorts of highs and lows across his basketball life. He famously made what appeared to be the two game-winning free throws in the gold medal game in the 1972 Olympics, only for Team USA to lose in extraordinarily controversial fashion to the Soviet Union. He then was the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft in 1973 by the Philadelphia 76ers and went on to make four All-Star teams, but injuries cut short his career before he could win a title with the 76ers.
He then went on to coach in the NBA — most notably coaching Michael Jordan before he was replaced by Phil Jackson just before the Bulls became a championship juggernaut. And all of that, he said, left him feeling like this induction made his basketball career feel complete.
“I think that this has sort of put a bow on on my career, and the fact that standing here … I feel like I belong here,” said Collins, who was inducted as a contributor. “And for the longest time I didn’t. I beat myself up a lot. I never gave myself the grace that I gave others, and I’m trying to be better at that.”
The other contributors in this year’s class are Herb Simon, the longtime owner of the Indiana Pacers, and the late Jerry West, who had a brilliant career as an executive with the Los Angeles Lakers, Memphis Grizzlies, Golden State Warriors and LA Clippers on top of his legendary exploits as a player.
One of the players who was intimately involved with West’s second act in basketball was Michael Cooper, the 1987 Defensive Player of the Year and an 8-time All-Defense selection who was the sixth man and defensive ace on the great “Showtime” Lakers teams of the 1980s and who is also being inducted this weekend.
Cooper said West’s influence extended far beyond the basketball court.
“Jerry was always kind of there, being that guy that would help you through things,” Cooper said, holding back tears as he spoke. “The day that I found out he had passed away was probably the hardest day of my life. He’s truly missed. But you know what? How we carry on his legacy is by the things he taught us, and in the way that we live.”
Leading the way on the women’s side was Seimone Augustus, one of the greatest players in WNBA history who won four championships during her illustrious career with the Minnesota Lynx — the only team she played for across her 14 seasons in the league.
Not surprisingly, the six-time All-WNBA selection was thrilled with the Lynx’s comeback victory in Game 1 of the WNBA Finals Thursday night against the New York Liberty, and both she and Michele Timms — another WNBA inductee — said how happy they were to see the continued growth of the women’s game, and in particular how much it’s grown in the past year or two.
“I’m so proud,” Augustus said. “It’s a lot of generations that came before us, trailblazers that didn’t, didn’t get a chance to see the increase in visibility, the increase in brand coverage, the financial means that the girls have today. And I was able to see that. I just retired in ’21. My knees are still crackling when I get up, but to be able to see the young ladies get everything that they deserve and then some is amazing. And I’m glad I’m able to see it.”
Those honorees, plus the rest of the class — New York Knicks legend Dick Barnett; the late Walter Davis, a six-time All-Star; college basketball coaches Bo Ryan and Harley Redin; and high school coach Charles Smith — will all officially be inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame Sunday in Springfield, Mass.