Report: Former Raptors star Vince Carter elected to Hall of Fame
Posted April 3, 2024 11:14 am.
Last Updated April 3, 2024 7:54 pm.
Former Toronto Raptors superstar Vince Carter and one-time NBA champion Chauncey Billups have been elected into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame class of 2024, The Athletic‘s Shams Charania reported Wednesday.
The Hall will make the official announcement on Saturday as part of Final Four weekend in Phoenix.
Carter — who played 22 NBA seasons, the most in league history — was named a finalist in February in his first year of eligibility.
Carter was the fifth-overall pick in the 1998 NBA Draft and quickly earned the nickname “Air Canada” for his soaring dunks while a member of the Raptors.
Carter was the cornerstone of the first run of success in Raptors’ history, including the club’s first playoff appearance in 2000 and the first series win in franchise history the following year.
The Raptors traded Carter to the then-New Jersey Nets in 2004, and he went on to have a 22-season career with the Magic, Suns, Mavericks, Grizzlies, Kings and Hawks. Carter’s final game came on March 11, 2020, before the NBA shut down the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and he retired at the age of 43 that spring.
Carter is third all-time in games played in the NBA, with 1,541, and 20th in total points, with 25,728. He is the only player in NBA history to have played in four decades.
Billups, the current coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, won an NBA title with the Detroit Pistons in 2004.
The five-time All-Star played for the Raptors for 29 games in 1997-98.
