TORONTO – Nearly 26 years after scoring the first-ever basket at Scotiabank Arena, formerly Air Canada Centre, Vince Carter will become the first Toronto Raptors player to have his jersey go into the rafters.
The Raptors are planning to retire Carter’s No. 15 when they host the Sacramento Kings on Nov. 2, sources tell TSN. This marks the first jersey retirement for the franchise, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary season in 2024-25.
It’s part of a busy few months for the 47-year-old from Daytona Beach, Fla., who will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in October and will also have his jersey retired by the Brooklyn Nets on Jan. 25.
Carter played for eight teams in 22 NBA seasons, setting a league record for longevity (LeBron James will match the mark this fall). He spent his prime years with the Nets in New Jersey, and his deepest playoff run came with Orlando, but he’s most commonly associated with Toronto, where his legendary career began.
The Raptors acquired the University of North Carolina swingman on draft night in 1998. With his jaw-dropping dunks, Carter quickly became one of the game’s most popular and dynamic young stars. Dubbed “Half-Man/Half-Amazing”, he would win Rookie of the Year, lead Toronto to its first postseason appearance as a sophomore, and then to its first playoff series victory in his third campaign.
His electrifying Dunk Contest performance in Oakland – which was 25 years ago this coming February – and iconic showdown with Allen Iverson in the 2001 seven-game second-round series against Philadelphia were seminal moments for basketball fans throughout the country.
Carter’s impact is widely credited for inspiring the rapid growth of the sport in Canada, as well as putting a Raptors organization that was still in its infancy on the NBA map. He’s still fourth on the team’s all-time scoring list (9,420 points) despite ranking 12th in games played.
Still, his legacy remains complicated. The latter half of his seven-season tenure was mired by injury and controversy, and ultimately a trade request leading to the ill-fated deal that sent him to New Jersey for pennies on the dollar.
In just a few years, Carter went from being the franchise’s greatest hero to its most notorious villain. With each visit back to Toronto, he returned to relentless boos from a spurned fan base that held him responsible for the ugly breakup.
It wasn’t until 2014, a decade after the trade, that the perception began to shift. Carter, then a member of the Memphis Grizzlies, was moved to tears as boos turned to cheers and eventually a standing ovation when the Raptors honoured him with a tribute video for their 20th anniversary.
He has said that he plans to represent Toronto when he is officially enshrined as a Hall of Famer the weekend of Oct. 12. The relationship between player and fanbase, or player and organization, has healed considerably in recent years – winning a title in 2019 didn’t hurt – but the decision to retire Carter’s jersey will be a polarizing one. Even internally, it wasn’t a slam dunk.
There were high-ranking members of the organization who maintained that Kyle Lowry should be the first to receive the honour, having spent nearly a decade with the club, been the face of its most successful era, and led it to a championship.
However, Lowry is about to begin his 19th NBA season; he’s in the back nine of his career, but his retirement is at least a few years off. With Carter’s Hall of Fame induction coinciding with the Raptors’ 30th season, the timing felt right and there was a strong push made on his behalf. It gained steam in May when the Nets announced that they would be retiring Carter’s jersey.
Once the decision was made, the Raptors wanted to find a date early in the season, which would give them a monumental event to help kick off their anniversary celebrations, while also allowing them to beat Brooklyn to the punch. The Oct. 25 game against Lowry’s 76ers was considered.
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The Nov. 2 date checked off a few boxes. It’s a Saturday night contest just two weeks and seven games into the season. The opponent, Sacramento, is one of Carter’s former teams and won’t draw too much attention away from the festivities (Toronto hosts James and the Lakers the night before).
It also means that DeMar DeRozan – who signed with the Kings over the summer and will one day have his No. 10 immortalized next to Carter’s No. 15 and Lowry’s No. 7 – will be in attendance for the ceremony.
The NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs, who share the building with the Raptors, have honoured 19 players with jersey retirements. Currently, the only Raptors banners hanging atop Scotiabank Arena commemorate the franchise’s inaugural season, division wins, conference title, and championship. Soon, Carter’s No. 15 will join them.
