Carter soared, Billups started slow, but there’s more than one road to the Hall of Fame

UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Vince Carter remembers the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest prefer it simply occurred, when he went from an up-and-comer to a full-fledged phenom.

He had been the NBA Rookie of the Yr the season earlier than with Toronto and now he was a first-time All-Star. However when he slammed the ball down in Oakland, leaping so excessive with such power that he put his arm via the rim, he had created maybe the largest spotlight of a Corridor of Fame profession that will final one other 20 years.

“What the dunk contest did for me, in a single day it modified my life,” Carter mentioned Saturday throughout a press convention at Mohegan Solar On line casino to debate his induction.

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Some gamers have careers like that, the place they appear to hit the bottom working from the second they’re drafted and by no means cease — in Carter’s case till he had performed an NBA-record 22 seasons.

After which there are guys like Chauncey Billups.

The No. 3 decide within the 1997 draft was traded by Boston in his first season and had already performed for 4 groups in his first 4 seasons.

There’s a couple of technique to attain the Corridor of Fame.

Billups ultimately discovered his footing and on Sunday will be a part of Carter because the headline names within the 13-member class that might be enshrined in Springfield, Massachusetts, not removed from the place his first NBA cease went so poorly that some labelled him a bust.

Billups, now the coach of the Portland Path Blazers, wouldn’t have modified a factor.

“It’s simply my journey,” Billups mentioned. “All people’s is completely completely different and I say this on a regular basis. From the time that I used to be drafted to in the present day being on this stage and being right here this weekend, like, it was a troublesome highway for me. There was not quite a lot of site visitors on that highway.”

Lakers defensive ace Michael Cooper, high-scoring Phoenix star Walter Davis and former Knicks champion Dick Barnett are the opposite NBA gamers within the class, with Seimone Augustus and Michele Timms making it from the WNBA. Jerry West goes in as a contributor — his third induction being enshrined as a participant and with the 1960 U.S. Olympic group — together with Doug Collins and Pacers proprietor Herb Simon, and coaches Bo Ryan and Harley Redin from school and Charles Smith from highschool.

Augustus could have one eye elsewhere as she readies for the ceremony. The Minnesota Lynx, the group she helped win 4 WNBA championships, might be enjoying Sport 2 of the WNBA Finals in New York on Sunday afternoon.

“I’ve gotten so many textual content messages like, ‘We needed to be there,’” mentioned Augustus, who added that her response is: “Like, go on the market and get Sport 2 and hopefully carry house a championship.”

Billups ultimately acquired one, the NBA Finals MVP when the Detroit Pistons received the 2004 championship. He would make 5 All-Star groups with the Pistons and Denver Nuggets, however that was after the rocky begin to his profession.

There have been the 51 video games in Boston earlier than a commerce to Toronto, with brief stays in Denver and Minnesota previous his arrival in Detroit. There have been questions on what sort of level guard he was — or even when he was actually some extent guard.

“It simply didn’t translate quick sufficient, however I by no means believed what they mentioned about me,” Billups mentioned. “I simply saved combating, saved scrapping and it rotated.”

Carter by no means acquired a hoop like Billups or Cooper — who received 5 of them with the Lakers — however it wasn’t his main motivation as he saved enjoying late in his profession, noting a few of the groups he had joined weren’t severe contenders.

“I performed the sport as a result of I like it and it wasn’t about chasing cash and truthfully it wasn’t about chasing rings,” Carter mentioned.

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He had hoped to play 15 years within the NBA, however as soon as he acquired there, mentioned he’d play a pair extra years. He ended up turning into the one participant in league historical past to seem in 4 completely different many years.

The one cause the dunk contest championship wasn’t the undisputed spotlight of his profession is as a result of he had one other entry later in 2000 when he soared over France’s Frederic Weis for a rim-shaking slam whereas serving to the U.S. win an Olympic gold medal.

He had been envisioning his probability to slam for years, staying up late to observe and file All-Star Saturday nights. He was so amped up for the chance that he handled it like an actual sport day, taking his typical afternoon nap.

Then he delivered when it was time to placed on a present, saying that he had by no means even tried the arm-through-the-rim slam till that evening.

“Once I acquired that chance, I appeared into the stands and I used to be on one other stage so far as simply pleasure and hype for the second,” Carter mentioned. “I felt the routine that I had the evening earlier than wasn’t going to win and I took an opportunity, and we’re right here in the present day speaking in regards to the good as a result of it may have gone dangerous.”