Why Vince Carter should enter the 2019 Slam Dunk Contest

Still possessing some of the elite athleticism that made him a star, Vince Carter making an appearance in the 2019 NBA Slam Dunk Contest would create another memorable moment for the 21-year veteran.

Nowadays, Vince Carter spends his days coming off the bench for a young, rebuilding Atlanta Hawks team.

His numbers don’t jump off the page. As of Jan. 9, Carter is averaging 7.3 points per game with an 11.3 Player Efficiency Rating and a 54.8 true shooting percentage.

Every once in a while, though, he flashes some of his once otherworldly leaping ability, either in a game or during pregame warmups.

It’s clear that Carter is a lot closer to the end of his career than he is the beginning. He almost certainly won’t make an All-Star team this year or in any of the following seasons before his retirement, even with guys like Derrick Rose and a past-his-prime, retiring Dwyane Wade (and a broken-down Kobe Bryant preceding them) lowering the bar for that accolade.

So, the best way for Carter to soak in the respect and adulation from his peers, younger players and the fans in his twilight years is with an appearance in this year’s NBA Slam Dunk Contest — provided he wants to do it.

For one thing, Carter would inject some much-needed star power into an event that has taken plenty of criticism over the years for featuring few well-known names. Sure, stars like Paul George, John Wall and Damian Lillard have participated over the last few years, but for every recognizable player that throws his name in the hat for the Dunk Contest, there are usually several more that fans wouldn’t know without Googling them.

Most basketball followers attribute this to many of the big-name players hoping to avert embarrassment should they lose to a relative unknown and/or a possible injury in what amounts to a meaningless exhibition of athleticism.

Neither of those concerns applies to Carter. If he enters the competition and loses to, say, Glenn Robinson III, no one would bat an eye since Carter isn’t the athlete he once was. Plus, Carter seems like a guy that’s at peace with his player/mentor status in the league, so coming up short against youngsters that, in theory, should outperform him in an athletic spectacle wouldn’t bruise his ego.

While nobody wants to see Carter suffer an injury of any sort in something as trivial as a dunk contest, even in that worst-case scenario, it wouldn’t torpedo the Hawks’ season because they’re already headed for the draft lottery anyway. Carter could still serve as the veteran voice of the team while rehabbing.

Ultimately, Carter’s health is paramount, so if he feels that participating would jeopardize that, invite or no invite, then there’s no need to risk his well-being. But if he thinks his body can handle it, he should see what he can do opposite some of his younger contemporaries.

Carter probably can’t replicate some of the video game slams that made him famous, but if he duplicated the dunks he’s pulled off in warmups this year, then he’d be fine. It beats the heck out of watching Victor Oladipo miss dunk after dunk.

As for the NBA, it would have no trouble promoting a Carter Dunk Contest appearance; a cursory look through the league’s archives or its own YouTube page would provide the marketing department with everything those folks need to hype this up.

They could easily splice Carter’s classic highlights together with some footage of him breaking out windmills and 360s in warmups to recognize his history at the event and to temper expectations because, again, no one should expect him to do what he did in 2000. But it would establish that Carter’s presence is for more than just nostalgia; it would present him as a reasonable contender to win (he probably wouldn’t, but it’s not an insane notion).

The NBA needs something like this following a lackluster showing in last year’s All-Star Weekend, in viewership and quality. If the league doesn’t get lucky again with a Zach LaVine/Aaron Gordon duel or something equal to that, then a Carter Dunk Contest appearance would be the perfect substitute. It’s better than trying to convince viewers to care about some anonymous two-way signee that spends most of the season at the end of the bench in a jumpsuit.

When Carter finally calls it quits, he probably won’t have anywhere close to the numbers to warrant an All-Star appearance unless a player gives him the same courtesy that he once gave to Michael Jordan in Jordan’s final season in 2003 (or if the fans vote him in, which could happen).

A player like Vince Carter deserves more than to quietly fade out playing on a bad team. The fans should get a chance to celebrate his Hall of Fame career on a national stage, and there isn’t a better event than the one he helped resuscitate roughly 19 years ago.