Has There Ever Been A Less Worthy Jersey Retirement Than Vince Carter for the Nets?

[Scalabrine]

He played 4.5 of his 22 seasons with the New Jersey Nets. 374 games total (not including playoffs) of his 1541 career games (not including playoffs), which equates to less than 1/4 of his entire career.

Nets made the playoffs in 3 of the 5 post seasons.
They made it out of the first round 2 times
They made it out of the second round 0 times.
They were SWEPT in the first round 1 time.

He averaged 23.6P/5.7R/4.8A on 44/37/81 shooting splits over his Nets career.

He never played a single game in Brooklyn after their "re-brand". Hell, I was born and raised in the area and remember the trade and went to Nets games when he was on the team and I barely remember him as a Net.

I just can't remember a time when a player had his jersey retired by a team and did fewer or had a less memorable tenure there. It'd be one thing if they had a memorable amount of playoff success, or they were a legendary leader and captain. I don't think Vince Carter was ever even the best player on any of those Nets teams! Toronto makes more sense, as he was this iconic legend who kind of put the Raptors in the spotlight for the first time in their franchise history. The Nets though? Seems so silly!

There might be some tragic player deaths that resulted in jersey retirements like Drazen Petrovic, Bobby Phills or Malik Sealy (that one is still kinda weird to me), but has there been a less deserving jersey retirement from a player than the Nets and Vince Carter?

[-Luke-]

Heat retiring MJ's number. He played zero minutes in zero years for them.

[UcanUwill]

I think it is up to the franchise to decide waht their bar is and what to retire, so I am not judging, but what are your thoughts on Grit and Grind players getting their jerseys retired in Memphis? Overall, cool team, but they never even were real contender, and none of these players were big stars.

[Dr Aki]

Heat and MJ's jersey

[uncleduck13]

It’s one of the silliest jersey retirements ever. Steve Nash had a better tenure in Dallas.

[Kingdibs19]

Pretty pathetic. Seems like they just did it to be petty towards the Raptors and of course the soft Raptors caved and immediately retired his jersey as well even though he sulked his way out of the city by refusing to dunk, telling the other team the Raptors plays and basically sabotaging them until he was traded.

[Gatorade Sax]

Phoenix/Cavs better get that Shaq jersey in the rafters asap.

[Dominator83]

Pretty pathetic. Seems like they just did it to be petty towards the Raptors and of course the soft Raptors caved and immediately retired his jersey as well even though he sulked his way out of the city by refusing to dunk, telling the other team the Raptors plays and basically sabotaging them until he was traded.

Wow. Yea i was gonna say that as a Bulls fan, I'm not a big fan of the D Rose jersey retirement (I'm sure I'm in the minority here but as a rule of thumb I feel like there should be a 1 championship minimum for jersey retirings, or maybe like a decade of superstar play like KG in Minnesota if no championship). Rose really only had 1 great season and a few very good seasons. Not enough to warrant a jersey retirement IMO

But he's more worthy than Vince in Toronto that's for damn sure. Rose got at least an ECF appearance and was derailed by legit injuries. Not fake injuries like Vince that magically healed when he got to New Jersey. Vince forced his way out while Rose cried his eyes out when he got the call that he had been traded.

[Sixers in 4]

There has been plenty.

Nick Collison Thunder.
MJ Heat
Nate Thurmond Cavaliers

[JCS]

Why Are People Writing Like This? It Makes Absolutely No Sense And Hurts The Eyes

[doogie_hauser]

No comment but still baffled why KG's number and jersey hasn't been retired in Minnesota yet.

Glen Taylor is the NBA's Palpatine. Spiteful old fart

[ryan in Maine]

Counterpoint --

Watch on YouTube

[Blame Rasho]

I am a big nba fan, and I am sure if you ask Blazer fans about their retired numbers, most wouldn’t be able to name them, and their stats are shockingly bad. Basically anyone who was on the 77 team got their jersey retired.

Personally, for the Spurs… Johnny Moore seems pretty egregious.

Heat retiring MJ number is pretty damn stupid as well.

[mcfly1204]

There has been plenty.

Nick Collison Thunder.
MJ Heat
Nate Thurmond Cavaliers

Collison makes a ton of sense though. Was he a great player? Nope. Did he play his entire 14 year career for the same franchise, giving it all he had throughout his tenure? Yep.

I also have no problem with the HEAT retiring 23. The league retired #6 when Russell passed, the same thing is going to happen to #23 eventually.

[Blame Rasho]

There has been plenty.

Nick Collison Thunder.
MJ Heat
Nate Thurmond Cavaliers

Collison makes a ton of sense though. Was he a great player? Nope. Did he play his entire 14 year career for the same franchise, giving it all he had throughout his tenure? Yep.

I can buy Collison as well. Some players basically have their entire identity with a team. I know most people think the Spurs picks of Bowen and Johnson are particularly bad, but they were/are big members of the local community which means a lot for a place like San Antonio that doesn’t have anything else besides the Spurs.

[Big J]

23 should be retired league wide.

[MrPainfulTruth]

Why Are People Writing Like This? It Makes Absolutely No Sense And Hurts The Eyes

This question is actually more meaningful than the topic.

[Mak]

Iguodala about to enter this conversation. Around 80 games started? If he does not win that MVP, this does not happen, right?

[NYKnickerbocker]

I think it is up to the franchise to decide waht their bar is and what to retire, so I am not judging, but what are your thoughts on Grit and Grind players getting their jerseys retired in Memphis? Overall, cool team, but they never even were real contender, and none of these players were big stars.

Kinda get it with them. That was like the teams identity for almost a decade. Couple of years people ( at least here) would say they could be a dark horse contender. Beat some tough teams in the playoffs and would lose to tough teams in hard fought series almost every year.

I can understand not wanting to let that team era go unacknowledged or appreciated

[Myth]

Pretty pathetic. Seems like they just did it to be petty towards the Raptors and of course the soft Raptors caved and immediately retired his jersey as well even though he sulked his way out of the city by refusing to dunk, telling the other team the Raptors plays and basically sabotaging them until he was traded.

Vince did a lot of reputation repair, but as a fan I soured on him for a while because of that. Going to NBA games was a rare treat growing up and then in college there was a game the Blazers played against the Raptors. I was a huge Vince fan as many were when I got the ticket, but then he started to do the sabotage stuff you described and refused to dunk and put on a show. He finished the game with 4 points and just about the lousiest effort I had ever seen.