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Carter Not Expected to Be Welcomed in Return to Toronto
New Jersey Star Plays in Canada for First Time Since December Trade
By CHRIS SHERIDAN, AP Sports
and the reception he'll receive Friday night should be as icy as wintertime in Winnepeg.
"They're probably going to let him have it," former teammate Jalen Rose predicted.
Nearly four months have gone by since the Raptors dealt their disgruntled superstar to the New Jersey Nets, but the passing of time has done little to mend the hurt feelings in a country whose average fan isn't quite the same as his basketball-loving brethren south of the border.
"Canadians tend to be a little more personal about their sports. We don't get attached to franchises or programs the way they do in the states, it's more of a personal thing," Raptors broadcaster Norma Wick said.
"We fall in love with the person, and Vince was someone who was easy to love - especially when the team was doing well. But then when he began to shrink, from the court and from the fans, then ultimately rejected them, that was painful. And what you'll see on his return will be the remnants of all those feelings."
Not all that long ago, Toronto and Canada had a love affair with Carter, a combination of adoration and infatuation that gave the American the sense he had almost been adopted as an honorary Canadian.
"Yeah, I did see that, and it's not like you're becoming a new member of a fraternity," Carter said. "They're considering you an honorary citizen, so it was different, but it was pretty neat."
Carter spent the first six-plus seasons of his NBA career as the face of the Raptors, a franchise whose rise climaxed one basket short of the Eastern Conference finals in 2001 and whose subsequent fall ultimately led to Carter's departure - a divorce that left a sour aftertaste in the mouths of those who had cheered the player nicknamed "Air Canada."
The end of that era came quickly, Carter's physical breakdowns and mental disengagement sending the franchise into a downward spiral that culminated in his exile to New Jersey.
Friday night is the first chance for the fans Carter left behind to make their feelings known.
"St. Augustine used to say all hatred is disordered love, and what you're going to see from Raptors fans is really a response to a broken heart," said Wick, a Canadian citizen. "I think Vince Carter leaving - and by not being the Vince everyone believed he could be before he left - was heartbreaking.
"And then his admission that he didn't always try hard was a real slap in the face," said Wick, a reference to Carter's acknowledgment that he didn't always push himself as hard as he could in Toronto.
Making the breakup harder for Raptors fans to come to grips with, Carter has experienced a resurgence with the Nets, scoring 30 or more points 21 times, 20 or more 45 times (in 53 games) -and earning Player of the Week honors last week after averaging 34.7 points as the Nets went 3-0 to stay alive in the playoff race.
Wednesday night's loss to Indiana left New Jersey 1 1/2 games behind Philadelphia for the East's eighth and final playoff spot.
The Carter Era was a time when he captured the imagination of sports fans in hockey's homeland, warming them to basketball while becoming one of the most popular players in the sport - a perennial All-Star who garnered more votes in fan balloting than anyone in the NBA, at least until Yao Ming came along.
Carter's absence from 39 games in 2002-03 and nine more games last season helped contribute to the Raptors' demise, though the team continues to draw well and many of its games are televised nationwide.
On the Raptors' official Web site, a chat board entry from a fan posting as "Tech-Tonic" seemed to sum up the general post-Carter mood.
"Thank you, Vince, for making Toronto the laughingstock of the NBA. Thanks for thinking you own the place and trying to make your mom seem like she has a clue, and thanks for demanding a trade and thanks for slacking it (its not acceptable at all), and thanks for falling on the floor and crying ... over and over and over again."
Carter has often struggled in front of hostile crowds and in big games, and his challenge Friday will be to try to find a way to ignore nearly 20,000 angry voices.
Teammate Jason Kidd has experienced playing in front of a combative crowd, having endured taunts and worse when he returned to Phoenix for the first time after the Suns traded him to New Jersey.
"You start to see the faces of your ex-teammates, and remembering all the memories you've had," Kidd said. "It's a matter of keeping your emotions in check, but that's (easier) said than done."
Rummaging though his duffel bag earlier this week, Carter came across a wad of $400 in Canadian currency that he never exchanged after being traded. The money was a reminder of the place he left behind, a country Carter grew to enjoy.
Asked if he had any message to send to his former fans, Carter stumbled to choose the right words.
"I don't know what to tell them. I still have ties with Toronto and Canada, I still have friends there that I talk to frequently," Carter said. "It's not like I hated Toronto. I loved Toronto, but it was just one of those things where it was time."
04/14/05 16:04 EDT
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/sports/article.adp?id=20050414160609990013&_ccc=5&cid=942
New Jersey Star Plays in Canada for First Time Since December Trade
By CHRIS SHERIDAN, AP Sports
Vince Carter is returning to Toronto for the first time since being traded,
and the reception he'll receive Friday night should be as icy as wintertime in Winnepeg.
"They're probably going to let him have it," former teammate Jalen Rose predicted.
Nearly four months have gone by since the Raptors dealt their disgruntled superstar to the New Jersey Nets, but the passing of time has done little to mend the hurt feelings in a country whose average fan isn't quite the same as his basketball-loving brethren south of the border.
"Canadians tend to be a little more personal about their sports. We don't get attached to franchises or programs the way they do in the states, it's more of a personal thing," Raptors broadcaster Norma Wick said.
"We fall in love with the person, and Vince was someone who was easy to love - especially when the team was doing well. But then when he began to shrink, from the court and from the fans, then ultimately rejected them, that was painful. And what you'll see on his return will be the remnants of all those feelings."
Not all that long ago, Toronto and Canada had a love affair with Carter, a combination of adoration and infatuation that gave the American the sense he had almost been adopted as an honorary Canadian.
"Yeah, I did see that, and it's not like you're becoming a new member of a fraternity," Carter said. "They're considering you an honorary citizen, so it was different, but it was pretty neat."
Carter spent the first six-plus seasons of his NBA career as the face of the Raptors, a franchise whose rise climaxed one basket short of the Eastern Conference finals in 2001 and whose subsequent fall ultimately led to Carter's departure - a divorce that left a sour aftertaste in the mouths of those who had cheered the player nicknamed "Air Canada."
The end of that era came quickly, Carter's physical breakdowns and mental disengagement sending the franchise into a downward spiral that culminated in his exile to New Jersey.
Friday night is the first chance for the fans Carter left behind to make their feelings known.
"St. Augustine used to say all hatred is disordered love, and what you're going to see from Raptors fans is really a response to a broken heart," said Wick, a Canadian citizen. "I think Vince Carter leaving - and by not being the Vince everyone believed he could be before he left - was heartbreaking.
"And then his admission that he didn't always try hard was a real slap in the face," said Wick, a reference to Carter's acknowledgment that he didn't always push himself as hard as he could in Toronto.
Making the breakup harder for Raptors fans to come to grips with, Carter has experienced a resurgence with the Nets, scoring 30 or more points 21 times, 20 or more 45 times (in 53 games) -and earning Player of the Week honors last week after averaging 34.7 points as the Nets went 3-0 to stay alive in the playoff race.
Wednesday night's loss to Indiana left New Jersey 1 1/2 games behind Philadelphia for the East's eighth and final playoff spot.
The Carter Era was a time when he captured the imagination of sports fans in hockey's homeland, warming them to basketball while becoming one of the most popular players in the sport - a perennial All-Star who garnered more votes in fan balloting than anyone in the NBA, at least until Yao Ming came along.
Carter's absence from 39 games in 2002-03 and nine more games last season helped contribute to the Raptors' demise, though the team continues to draw well and many of its games are televised nationwide.
On the Raptors' official Web site, a chat board entry from a fan posting as "Tech-Tonic" seemed to sum up the general post-Carter mood.
"Thank you, Vince, for making Toronto the laughingstock of the NBA. Thanks for thinking you own the place and trying to make your mom seem like she has a clue, and thanks for demanding a trade and thanks for slacking it (its not acceptable at all), and thanks for falling on the floor and crying ... over and over and over again."
Carter has often struggled in front of hostile crowds and in big games, and his challenge Friday will be to try to find a way to ignore nearly 20,000 angry voices.
Teammate Jason Kidd has experienced playing in front of a combative crowd, having endured taunts and worse when he returned to Phoenix for the first time after the Suns traded him to New Jersey.
"You start to see the faces of your ex-teammates, and remembering all the memories you've had," Kidd said. "It's a matter of keeping your emotions in check, but that's (easier) said than done."
Rummaging though his duffel bag earlier this week, Carter came across a wad of $400 in Canadian currency that he never exchanged after being traded. The money was a reminder of the place he left behind, a country Carter grew to enjoy.
Asked if he had any message to send to his former fans, Carter stumbled to choose the right words.
"I don't know what to tell them. I still have ties with Toronto and Canada, I still have friends there that I talk to frequently," Carter said. "It's not like I hated Toronto. I loved Toronto, but it was just one of those things where it was time."
04/14/05 16:04 EDT
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/sports/article.adp?id=20050414160609990013&_ccc=5&cid=942
