NEW YORK — When Vince Carter‘s preferred Nos. 6, 12 or 23 were not available as a freshman basketball player at Florida’s Mainland High School, he took some advice from his mother, Michelle.
“My mom told me: ‘Find a number and make it famous,'” Carter said.
Carter and his much-celebrated No. 15 reached new heights again when the Brooklyn Nets retired it at halftime of their game Saturday against the Miami Heat.
Carter’s family, his former Nets teammates, ex-coach Lawrence Frank, team president Rod Thorn and fellow Nets number retirees Julius Erving, Bill Melchionni and Buck Williams were on hand to see Carter become the seventh Nets player with his number retired.
“This is truly something my family and I will cherish forever,” Carter said during the ceremony. “To be the seventh number to go up is insane. It is an honor to be up there with you gentlemen.
“No. 15 Carter is going up there, but we’re going up there together.”
Carter spent the game seated next to Erving, his boyhood idol. Former teammates Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson sent congratulatory messages, as did New York-area luminaries Eli Manning, Queen Latifah and rapper Fabolous.
Carter’s number banner will live directly next to Kidd’s No. 5, which is fitting since they were drivers of one of the most successful eras in team history. Carter also credited Kidd for reinvigorating him after the Nets acquired him from the Toronto Raptors in December 2004.
“There was new life,” Carter said of coming to New Jersey. “My role in Toronto was just give me the ball, and I’ll get you a [basket]. But when I got here, they had a guy … he made the game easier for me.”
Though he played only 374 games over four-plus seasons with the Nets, Carter holds the team record for single-season points (2,070 in 2006-07) and is third in the team history in total points (8,834). He ranks fourth in 3-pointers made (638) and playoff points (701).
He helped the Nets reach the postseason three times, and they twice won a playoff series before falling to the eventual Eastern Conference champions, the Miami Heat in 2006 and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2007.
“During that era, they never were able to get over the top, so they’ll probably never be recognized the way they should have been,” said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who was a Miami assistant when it won the league title in 2006. “That was a damn good basketball team, and [Carter] was a massive part of it.”
Carter, who is in his first season as a Nets television analyst, retired in 2020 after an NBA-record 22 seasons at age 43 and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024.
“I love seeing how his game evolved from when he first came in,” Spoelstra said. “From just being a dunker to being an impossible [player to] guard … and then he was able to be one of the very few in this league that could transition gracefully. That’s really amazing. It speaks to the type of human being he is.”
Despite playing 11 seasons after New Jersey traded him to the Orlando Magic in 2009 and spending time with eight NBA teams, Carter said some of his best days came with the Nets.
“We had fun, but we understood when it was time to lock in,” Carter said. “We hung out and actually enjoyed each other and played for each other, and that’s what made the game fun.
“I went out and did my job and had a darn good time doing it.”