Agree or Disagree: Vince Carter Jersey Retirement

[OakleyDokely]

Lets find out board consensus.

[MessiahUjiri]

Do we need a new thread on this topic? Maybe we need a poll for that.

[xAIRNESSx]

Glad it's happening.

VC is an important part of Raptors history.

[Tom_Foolery]

I don't like vince , but I know many people absolutely love him.

I guess it gives them some type of back-up event if the Raps do poor this season.

Voted undecided.

And now what if Bosh wants his retired? That's 2 people I don't really like.

[Marksmen]

Fine with Vince getting jersey retired, but Lowry should get the honour of being first jersey retired.

[ontnut]

I've typically been against jersey retirements unless that person's legacy is undeniable, or at least nearly so. If it's not 90%, I don't see why it should be retired. To me, if anyone get's retired, it should be Lowry, but even that I'm probably against.

Carter was a great big part of our early history, but there's a HUGE black mark going right through his legacy, and his legacy has also been surpassed in some regards. I'm against it.

Retiring Carter's jersey in some way feels like us putting up that Atlantic division banner. It's a bit laughable when you see the other jersey's retired in the rafters around the league. He played 6.5 years for the Raptors, the last 1.5 years of which were mediocre at best.

He didn't even get us past the 2nd round. Like...I'm sorry, but I do care about team success when thinking about legacy, and I think the minimum for jersey retirement is to get to the NBA Finals, be a MVP, or have served 10+ years in a high capacity on a team through your prime. Anything less than that feels like retiring a jersey for the sake of it.

[DreamTeam09]

I've typically been against jersey retirements unless that person's legacy is undeniable, or at least nearly so. If it's not 90%, I don't see why it should be retired. To me, if anyone get's retired, it should be Lowry, but even that I'm probably against.

Carter was a great big part of our early history, but there's a HUGE black mark going right through his legacy, and his legacy has also been surpassed in some regards. I'm against it.

Statues should be highest honour you're holding jersey retirements too.

[ontnut]

I've typically been against jersey retirements unless that person's legacy is undeniable, or at least nearly so. If it's not 90%, I don't see why it should be retired. To me, if anyone get's retired, it should be Lowry, but even that I'm probably against.

Carter was a great big part of our early history, but there's a HUGE black mark going right through his legacy, and his legacy has also been surpassed in some regards. I'm against it.

Statues should be highest honour you're holding jersey retirements too.

You can tear down a statue, you can't un-retire a number lol.
But even though I guess statues are held in higher regard than jersey retirements, I STILL don't think Carter deserves a jersey retirement.
Put him in a ring of honour like we do for the Jays, fine by me. I'd put him right up there with Derozan.

If it wasn't for the dunking, is his legacy really any greater than Delgado or Halladay? Dunking was entertaining, absolutely. But winning matters to me, as well as not sh*tting on your franchise on the way out.

[Raptorfan2012]

Glad it's happening.

VC is an important part of Raptors history.

Of course he is. Some people here are arguing whether Vince was the best Raptor or more or less deserving than guys like Lowry. Vince is a HUGE part of our history; first All-Star, first Raptor to make an All-NBA team, first franchise player to lead us into the playoffs, first franchise player to win us our first playoff series. He goes up first because his era was first and he retired first. Lowry will get his jersey retired when he chooses to retire from the NBA. Its not one jersey or another.

[Beerpapi]

It’s a jersey retirement not a participation award or nod to being an all star or playing with the team for more than 5 years. I don’t get the rush to lower the bar just because we don’t have any jerseys retired.

We don’t have anyone worthy. Only one close is Lowry and I don’t think he was good enough.

[Backcountry]

Sure, I still don't like the way the guy left, but he made the Raptors a respectable team finally. First playoffs, first playoff series win in 2001 (next one wasn't until 2016!), ROY, allstar, and a huge reason for the popularity of the Raptors and basketball in general in Canada. Arguably we could have followed the Grizzlies south if some sort of success hadn't happened (not likely, but a definite possibility). Vince was that spark. If we had better management who had managed to keep him (and TMac) around, the early history may have been even better. The only Raptors jersey or tshirt I remember seeing in the early 2000s was Carter's (and I never lived anywhere near Toronto). He's a good choice on a short list of jerseys to retire in the 30th season.

[Bank Shot]

I just don't think he did enough on the court to warrant it.

His era consisted of six playoff wins over his three good years in one of the worst conferences ever followed by 3.5 years of garbage where the highlight was Vince getting hurt and the team getting significantly better and sneaking into the playoffs. This is about feels/PR, not basketball.

[Madvillainy2004]

I disagree but I guess we need something to distract from the inevitable 33 win team were trotting out.

[Tofubeque]

Even jersey retirements are about branding and marketing, and the NBA is an entertainment product at the end of the day. Raptors Vince was an all-time entertainment product.

They’ll be playing his dunks after we’re all dead and gone, so can’t be too mad about making him part of the franchise legacy. I bet Lowry, DeRozan and Kawhi will be there in the future. It’s easy ticket and merch sales.

[ItsDanger]

The bar has been set low by retiring his number. Usually retired numbers are associated with championships but we'll have to settle for dunk contests instead. The franchise just hasn't won much over the almost 30 years so the standards must be shifted. If Vince's number is retired, how does one argue against Demar, Lowry or Siakam even? I still remember how he left. It wasn't all his fault but integrity matters.

[LoveMyRaps]

Glad it's happening.

VC is an important part of Raptors history.

As well as Canadian basketball history.

[Childs]

Fine with it. To me it's not really a big deal. If the front office decided to retire Hedo Turkoglu's jersey then I may be more offended.

[vado]

Well I definitely know one game I'm not going to watch this year

[refshateRaps]

This is the lowest bar for this level of reward.

Likely has more to do with the fact they have drove this franchise to the ground and are desperate to find ways for fans to cheer this year

Very weak, desperate franchise, no honour .

[Lateral Quicks]

Disagree. He put his personal interests ahead of the team in the Sixers series - possibly costing them the series win. Played poorly, forcing a trade, and leaving the franchise in a poor state (no matter if the front office wasn't treating him well, it was still really unprofessional). Has shown no remorse for how things ended. Plus he was only here 6.5 years and his teams never really won much of consequence.

Really, really bad move to retire his number. This is the franchise saying that marketing/money means more than loyalty. They're setting the bar low for jersey retirements.

Lowry deserves to be the first jersey retired.