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How old is Vince Carter? Two of his new teammates—and most of the 2018 NBA Draft class—weren't even born when Carter was drafted
You know you're getting old as a sports fan when the athletes you root for start to get older than you are. It happens to all of us when we get older. How about for Vince Carter, and you're now playing with fellow basketball players who weren't even born when you started playing in the league?
Carter agreed to a deal to a $2.4 million, one-year deal on Wednesday with the Atlanta Hawks, where he'll team up with rookie Trae Young, who started at the University of Oklahoma last season. The crazy thing? Young was three months away from being born when Carter was drafted in the 1998 NBA Draft. Same for Hawks rookie Kevin Huerter, who played two seasons with the University of Maryland before being drafted by the Hawks this year. This will be Carter's 20th season in the league.
We'd hope the new class of NBA players have seen Vince Carter highlight videos—VC jumping over 7-foot-2 Fredric Weis and dunking on him in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney might be one of the best dunks in basketball history, as is VC's unparalleled hops in the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest a few months later (yes, millennials, that's where the Carter "it's over" GIF comes from.
Carter, at 41 years old, has become known as a timeless veteran in the latter part of his career, not just for his jumping glory. He's the oldest active player in the league (he's got seven months on Manu Ginobili), and if he completes this season, he'll become the fifth-oldest player in league history, behind only Dikembe Mutumbo, Robert Parish, Kevin Willis and Nat Hickey. And it stands today, by our counting, 21 players on current NBA rosters weren't born when Carter was drafted in 1998. And dozens of others, including 2017 first-overall pick Markelle Fultz, who was less than a month old when VC15 was drafted, that we can only hope they appreciate the dunking legend that is Vince Carter.
For them, here are a few highlight videos to brush up on VC's best dunks:
And this amazing split screen:
