Vince’s Flight Path To NBA Draft: Part 2
Posted by Matt Tumbleson
June 17, 2008

After years of work on the basketball floor, honing his game, dreaming of a career in the NBA, the moment had finally come for Vince Carter. Draft night 1998. The evening when he would fulfill his basketball dream and take part in one of the few instances where a baseball cap looks good with an expensive suit.

Carter had a good feeling coming into the draft that he would be selected in the top five. Dallas and Sacramento, who had the sixth and seventh picks, had both tipped their hands earlier in the week, telling the future All-Star that they didn’t think he would be available when they came on the clock.

Despite these assurances, Carter was still nervous sitting in the green room with his family waiting for his name to be called. One thing that did help sooth his anxiousness were all the familiar faces in the room.

"Antawn Jamison (Carter’s teammate at North Carolina) came out the same year, so my family and I were at our table, which was right next to Antawn’s and his family,” Carter said. “Paul Pierce and all the guys from the McDonald’s game that we played in from high school were there."

Although Carter and his former teammates and friends all hoped to be picked with the first or second pick, the camaraderie and friendships that had been forged over the years was not forgotten as the start of the draft inched closer and closer.

"There really wasn’t a competition amongst the guys in the green room, you just wanted to get drafted," Carter said. "The most important thing was to get the opportunity to prove yourself on the court."

As the draft got underway Carter waited patiently, knowing that his opportunity to meet NBA Commissioner David Stern for the first time was right around the corner.

The Los Angeles Clippers took center Michael Olawakandi with the first pick as expected, and even though the Vancouver Grizzlies had worked out Carter the previous day, their basketball braintrust went with Mike Bibby out of Arizona with the second pick in the draft.

"I had a feeling that Vancouver wasn’t going to take me at two because they were either going to go with a point guard or a big," Carter said.

With two picks down tension in the green room was starting to mount for the Carter camp. After Denver, who Carter sites as the team he had the best pre-draft workout with, selected Raef LaFrentz with the third pick, Carter’s good friend and college teammate Antawn Jamison was chosen by the Toronto Raptors with the fourth selection.

And then…

"With the fifth pick in the 1998 NBA Draft, the Golden State Warriors select Vince Carter from the University of North Carolina…"

"I just wanted to hear my name, and then once my name was called the only thing that I worried about was not tripping on the steps going up to the stage," said Carter.

Carter’s greatest fears on draft not were not realized, however, as one of the greatest athletes of his generation managed to navigate the stairs to the draft stage without a glitch. Shaking hands it Commissioner David Stern and moving on to start his career as a Golden State Warrior was a different story.

"I was going to shake David Stern’s hand, and he told me on stage to hold on for a second and that there was going to be a trade. It was funny because after you shake hands with the Commissioner you go and do your interview offstage, but Antawn was still sitting there," Carter said.

According to Carter, Nets President and then NBA Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations, Rod Thorn, who years later would complete a trade to bring Carter to the Nets, informed Carter that Golden State had traded him to Toronto for the rights to Jamison.

Just like that Carter’s career as a Golden State Warrior was over and he was the newest member of the Toronto Raptors.

Carter was thrilled to be joining any team in the NBA, but the draft night deal was not looked upon as highly by at least one member of Carter’s green room group.

"I had just got drafted by Golden State, and my stepbrother is from Oakland, so he was excited, getting his Warriors cap on, and when he found out that I’d been traded to Toronto he just threw his hat on the table," Carter said. "But, he told me that if you’re going to get traded, you might as well get traded for one of your good friends."

For Carter, the draft night trade represented his ‘Welcome to the NBA’ moment, but he didn’t waste much time reflecting on all the activities of that night.

"Once I got traded I thought it was a heck of a way to get welcomed to the business. I hadn’t played a second in the league and I had been traded," Carter said. "Right from there I wanted to leave my mark and shock the world."

A decade of basketball brilliance later, it is safe to say that Carter has done just that.