Vince Carter Announces Retirement After 22 NBA Seasons

Atlanta Hawks’ guard Vince Carter has announced his retirement from the NBA after a career spanning for 22 years as he made the announcement on The Ringer’s podcast ‘Winging It’ on Thursday. 

Carter had started his career in 1998 as a rookie when he was a part of Toronto Raptors in 1998-1999 season. The 43-year-old has not been performing in the last few years, averaging below 10 points since the 2014-15 season. 

The 6ft 4 In veteran is an eight-time All-Star and a two-time All-NBA Team selection player, and he is the only player in the history of the NBA to play for 22 seasons, spanning for four different decades. 

Carter is considered one of the greatest slam dunkers in NBA and also won the contest in 2000 All-star weekend. Besides, carter has made 1541 NBA games appearances, only behind Robert Parish (1,611) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1,560) in the all-time list. 

He started his career with the Toronto Raptors and went on to play for New Jersey Nets (now Brooklyn Nets), Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings and finally ending his career with Atlanta Hawks. 

Earlier he had already announced that 2019-20 season could be his final season but it was hampered by shortened by the coronavirus pandemic. Now since the NBA season is about to restart with 22 teams, Atlanta Hawks is not the part of those 22 teams, due to their horrendous season. All the teams will be heading to Disney complex near Orlando, Florida, for finishing the remaining season. 

“It’s kind of a cool situation for me because I came into the league on a shortened season and I walk away from the league on a shortened season. So for me, it’s just kind of a unique situation.” Carter said during the podcast. 

Carter is the 19th in the list of highest scorers in the NBA history with 25,728 points and considered the legend for his longevity in the game.