The Toronto Raptors retiring Vince Carter's jersey is the right move | NBA Talk - video Dailymotion

Peter Klein

The Toronto Raptors are retiring Vince Carter's jersey. Some have an issue with this but Peter Klein explains why it makes complete sense. He also explains his compromise for those who want to honour the GROAT Kyle Lowry.  Apple Pod: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/couch-potato-diary/id1564122189 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3QgazeHcSKSteZbBIubcuM Twitter: twitter.com/primetimeklein IG: instagram.com/primetimeklein Facebook: www.facebook.com/Couchpotatodiary Twitch: twitch.tv/primetimepk Email: couchpotatodiary@yahoo.com We Had No Idea: every Wednesday morning,  instagram.com/wehadnoideapodcast

Transcript

00:00Alright, so the Toronto Raptors are reportedly going to retire Vince Carter's jersey November

00:122nd, as Vince Carter gets set to go into the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame this year.

00:18And it leads to an interesting conversation, and one that we have had around these parts

00:22for a while.

00:25Vince Carter, um, it's a weird legacy with the Raptors.

00:31Because as time goes on, and as, again, like you see the dude behind me, um, Kawhi Leonard,

00:38you know?

00:39That guy did his thing for one year, and all of a sudden the sins of the past are forgotten.

00:43And as you get further away from that, and as the team won playoff rounds, and made it

00:48to Eastern Conference Finals, and then won a championship, as that stuff happened, the

00:54road that we took to get here, it starts to look a little bit more paved with gold than

00:59it was.

01:00And you start to see more of the highlights, and the between the legs, and the honey dip,

01:05and all of the windmill that is still one of the great dunks in the history of people

01:09dunking basketballs into rims.

01:11And you see all of that, and you forget how it ended.

01:15You just remember the good times, because that's how we're wired, and all of those

01:18things, and you forget about how frustrating it was at the end.

01:22Where he was like, yeah, I'm not going to dunk anymore.

01:24And then he forces his way out, in a trade that set the franchise back for YEARS.

01:29And reputationally, I think, set them back for decades, as a place that star players

01:33shouldn't go, because, well, Vince wouldn't want to be there, like, why should we?

01:38Like, he did all these great things, and then he wanted to leave, so why would I even want

01:42to go there?

01:43Like, I think, reputationally, it set them back.

01:45But ALSO, he kept this team above water at a time where the Grizzlies were shrinking.

01:50And I get, there's a documentary on it, and there's a whole lot of other things

01:51going on around it, so maybe the narrative of the Raptors would have been folded if Vince

01:56Carter wasn't a thing.

01:58I do think that that maybe gets overblown a little bit.

02:01But STILL.

02:02He made this team must-see.

02:04And he made this team important.

02:05He put them on national television.

02:07He got them to within one shot in the corner in Game 7 against the Philadelphia 76ers away

02:14from making it to the NBA's Eastern Conference Finals.

02:18And so, to have that go, and then turn around into, I hate this team and I want to leave,

02:25that is a little bit difficult to swallow.

02:27And when he's that important, it just, it hurt.

02:30It really did hurt.

02:31And there's a reason why.

02:32He got booed just relentlessly for, like, ten years.

02:36And then, eventually, he just hung around long enough.

02:38It was the reverse of Harvey Dent, right, like, he, you either die a villain or you

02:43live long enough to see yourself become a hero.

02:45That's kind of what happened.

02:46He just played long enough that we were just like, ah, no, it was pretty dope, though.

02:49Right?

02:50Like, all the, you know, like, the woo-woo and the ba-boom and all that, like, that was

02:52pretty sweet.

02:53Cool?

02:54Yeah.

02:55No, he's great.

02:56It's funny how that, like, time really did heal that wound.

03:00And when you see what he was able to do, and how important he was to that franchise at

03:04that time, I don't see how this is a bad decision.

03:09And I understand, like, for, for whatever, like, that this is the first jersey that you

03:13are retiring.

03:15And so, you, like, Kyle Lowry is the greatest Raptor of all time, given, like, what he did.

03:20And then, you know, like, he got this team beyond the points that Vince was able to take

03:24them to, and then to a championship.

03:26And then his performance in the championship clinching game, when he scored the first twelve

03:29points on his own, is the stuff of legends.

03:31And cements him, it is in pen, not pencil, that he is the greatest Raptor of all time.

03:36And yes, like, romantically, it would have been best if he could have had his jersey

03:41retire first.

03:43He also started his career, like, a decade after Vince.

03:45And Vince Carter's going in the Hall of Fame this year.

03:48And aside from, like, the funny Hakeem Olajuwon thing, we don't got many of those, right,

03:53and, like, the, the, the, the, the, the, Bosch, but, like, yes, the timing, it would have

03:59been perfect, to, like, the second Kyle Lowry's jersey goes up, then all of a sudden, alright,

04:04yeah, Vince's is there, too.

04:05and we just do this whole big thing.

04:06But the time, like, it doesn't have to work that way.

04:09Kyle Lowry is going to get his jersey retired.

04:11And it doesn't make it less retired

04:13if he is the second one that gets his jersey retired.

04:18If you want to build a statue for him outside, go nuts.

04:21And he can be the first statue

04:22that the Raptors have outside.

04:24And then Vince's between the legs dunk can be the second.

04:26And we can bring balance and harmony

04:28to the universe that way.

04:30There are always going to be people

04:31who view Vince negatively for how he left Toronto.

04:35And that is not an unjustified spot,

04:38given all that we just went through about how he did that.

04:42But I will say, to just ignore how important

04:46he was to this team, and to ignore all

04:49that he did accomplish with this team,

04:51and then to ignore what is happening with him

04:54as a Basketball Hall of Famer,

04:56just so that we can wait on Kyle Lowry

04:58not playing out the string of his career,

05:01I feel like that is just trying to create a scenario

05:04that just doesn't work.

05:05That there is absolutely nothing wrong

05:06with Vince being the first jersey retired

05:09and for what he did for this Toronto Raptors franchise.

05:13So I just wanted to get that out there.

The Toronto Raptors retiring Vince Carter's jersey is the right move | NBA Talk

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