Raptors' Carter may return Sunday
WebPosted Fri Jan 24 00:15:25 2003
CBC SPORTS ONLINE - Toronto Raptors superstar Vince Carter hopes to celebrate his birthday by suiting up against the Sacramento Kings.
Vince Carter has cheered far more than he has played this season.
(CP Photo)
Carter, who turns 26 on Sunday, will have the strained patella tendon in his right knee re-evaluated by team doctors on Friday.
And if granted medical clearance, the superstar forward will take to the court for the first time since suffering the injury in a collision with a teammate at practice on Dec. 11.
"I feel great," Carter said. "Every week that goes by I get better and better.
"I'm just ready to get out there and play. To hell with waiting, sitting around and all this working out while they're on the road.
"Each game that comes up is significant because that's another chance for me to possibly get clearance to play on the floor."
Carter was also voted a starter for the Eastern Conference all-stars on Thursday.
"It's been a rough season and a lot of people have been taking shots at me once again," said Carter who, despite playing only 10 games this season, finished third (1,300,895) in overall fan balloting behind Kobe Bryant (1,474,386) and Tracy McGrady (1,316,297).
"It makes me feel better to see the fans still believe in me, know what I'm capable of, regardless of what the other side thinks. It's just my job now to get back on the court and show them why they voted for me.
"I need some games under my belt or it will look bad out there," Carter continued. "It's a great feeling.
"It's just made me work harder. It makes things a little brighter."
Carter has missed 33 of Toronto's 43 games this season, including the last 23.
In the 10 games he played, the North Carolina product averaged 19.2 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 31.4 minutes.
"I want to get back out there and play for my teammates and for the fans," Carter said. "And even the people that have doubts, doubts about me, written me off, say I suck, I want to get out there and play for them too.
"I want to let them know, I don't care how bad you talk about me, you've got to come better than that.
"I suck? If I suck, I wouldn't be here."
"There's no question about it, to have him on the bench and able to play hard will be a real lift for our team," said Lenny Wilkens, stuck at 99 wins as Raptors head coach for five games now.
"We have to get a rhythm as a team, get everyone back. Together, we have to find out how good we are, how bad we are."
Injuries have made such musings almost impossible to answer, especially with Carter, Michael Bradley (back), Chris Jefferies (back), Lamond Murray (foot), Eric Montross (foot) and Mamadou N'diaye (heel) all still sidelined.
Antonio Davis, Lindsey Hunter, Voshon Lenard, Jelani McCoy and Jerome Williams have also been unavailable at times, while Hakeem Olajuwon was forced to retire because of lower back problems.
Not surprisingly, the severely shorthanded Raptors find themselves wallowing in 14th place in the NBA Eastern Conference standings, 11.5 games back of eighth-place Washington and the final playoff spot.
At 10-33, they need to go 31-8 just to finish the season at .500.
Said Carter to reporters: "For you guys, it looks distant. For me, it's always a possibility.
"It's not over until they say there's no possible chance. And at the end, if we didn't win enough games, we didn't win.
"But if we start to think 'Okay, we're just playing for pride and there's no second season,' I don't believe in that. We can make history."
Carter's chronic knee problems date back to last season, when he strained a quadriceps tendon in his left knee in an 80-74 victory at San Antonio on Feb. 7.
The injury sidelined him for seven contests and the NBA All-Star Game and, eventually, necessitated season-ending surgery on Mar. 26.
As such, Carter was sidelined for Toronto's final 14 regular-season games plus its five-game playoff series against Detroit.
Prior to this latest setback, he missed 10 games earlier this season after straining the same quadriceps in an 88-76 loss at Houston on Nov. 2.
Yet Carter's confidence has not waivered one bit.
"There's nothing that can stop me and nothing that can take that drive and that love for playing basketball," he said. "That will never die.
"I don't care where I'm playing, who I'm playing against. I love to play, I love to win.
Vince Carter has played only 10 games for the Raptors so far.
(CP Photo)
"I would love for everyone that's involved in the situation I'm in, everybody in the Raptors organization -- I want everybody to experience joy and greatness."
Carter has averaged 24.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.38 steals, 1.09 blocked shots and 38.1 minutes in 277 games over five NBA seasons.
Minutes after being drafted fifth overall by Golden State in 1998, his rights and some cash were traded to Toronto for the rights to Antawn Jamison on June 24, 1998.
Carter signed a six-year, $94 million US contract extension with the Raptors on Aug. 1, 2001.
with files from CP Online
WebPosted Fri Jan 24 00:15:25 2003
CBC SPORTS ONLINE - Toronto Raptors superstar Vince Carter hopes to celebrate his birthday by suiting up against the Sacramento Kings.
Vince Carter has cheered far more than he has played this season.
(CP Photo)
Carter, who turns 26 on Sunday, will have the strained patella tendon in his right knee re-evaluated by team doctors on Friday.
And if granted medical clearance, the superstar forward will take to the court for the first time since suffering the injury in a collision with a teammate at practice on Dec. 11.
"I feel great," Carter said. "Every week that goes by I get better and better.
"I'm just ready to get out there and play. To hell with waiting, sitting around and all this working out while they're on the road.
"Each game that comes up is significant because that's another chance for me to possibly get clearance to play on the floor."
Carter was also voted a starter for the Eastern Conference all-stars on Thursday.
"It's been a rough season and a lot of people have been taking shots at me once again," said Carter who, despite playing only 10 games this season, finished third (1,300,895) in overall fan balloting behind Kobe Bryant (1,474,386) and Tracy McGrady (1,316,297).
"It makes me feel better to see the fans still believe in me, know what I'm capable of, regardless of what the other side thinks. It's just my job now to get back on the court and show them why they voted for me.
"I need some games under my belt or it will look bad out there," Carter continued. "It's a great feeling.
"It's just made me work harder. It makes things a little brighter."
Carter has missed 33 of Toronto's 43 games this season, including the last 23.
In the 10 games he played, the North Carolina product averaged 19.2 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 31.4 minutes.
"I want to get back out there and play for my teammates and for the fans," Carter said. "And even the people that have doubts, doubts about me, written me off, say I suck, I want to get out there and play for them too.
"I want to let them know, I don't care how bad you talk about me, you've got to come better than that.
"I suck? If I suck, I wouldn't be here."
"There's no question about it, to have him on the bench and able to play hard will be a real lift for our team," said Lenny Wilkens, stuck at 99 wins as Raptors head coach for five games now.
"We have to get a rhythm as a team, get everyone back. Together, we have to find out how good we are, how bad we are."
Injuries have made such musings almost impossible to answer, especially with Carter, Michael Bradley (back), Chris Jefferies (back), Lamond Murray (foot), Eric Montross (foot) and Mamadou N'diaye (heel) all still sidelined.
Antonio Davis, Lindsey Hunter, Voshon Lenard, Jelani McCoy and Jerome Williams have also been unavailable at times, while Hakeem Olajuwon was forced to retire because of lower back problems.
Not surprisingly, the severely shorthanded Raptors find themselves wallowing in 14th place in the NBA Eastern Conference standings, 11.5 games back of eighth-place Washington and the final playoff spot.
At 10-33, they need to go 31-8 just to finish the season at .500.
Said Carter to reporters: "For you guys, it looks distant. For me, it's always a possibility.
"It's not over until they say there's no possible chance. And at the end, if we didn't win enough games, we didn't win.
"But if we start to think 'Okay, we're just playing for pride and there's no second season,' I don't believe in that. We can make history."
Carter's chronic knee problems date back to last season, when he strained a quadriceps tendon in his left knee in an 80-74 victory at San Antonio on Feb. 7.
The injury sidelined him for seven contests and the NBA All-Star Game and, eventually, necessitated season-ending surgery on Mar. 26.
As such, Carter was sidelined for Toronto's final 14 regular-season games plus its five-game playoff series against Detroit.
Prior to this latest setback, he missed 10 games earlier this season after straining the same quadriceps in an 88-76 loss at Houston on Nov. 2.
Yet Carter's confidence has not waivered one bit.
"There's nothing that can stop me and nothing that can take that drive and that love for playing basketball," he said. "That will never die.
"I don't care where I'm playing, who I'm playing against. I love to play, I love to win.
Vince Carter has played only 10 games for the Raptors so far.
(CP Photo)
"I would love for everyone that's involved in the situation I'm in, everybody in the Raptors organization -- I want everybody to experience joy and greatness."
Carter has averaged 24.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.38 steals, 1.09 blocked shots and 38.1 minutes in 277 games over five NBA seasons.
Minutes after being drafted fifth overall by Golden State in 1998, his rights and some cash were traded to Toronto for the rights to Antawn Jamison on June 24, 1998.
Carter signed a six-year, $94 million US contract extension with the Raptors on Aug. 1, 2001.
with files from CP Online
