Raptors fans torn over team’s decision to retire Vince Carter’s jersey: Kyle Lowry ‘should be first’

Former Toronto Raptors star and 22-year NBA veteran Vince Carter will reportedly have his No. 15 retired by the franchise this season, according to multiple reports.

The 47-year-old, who is widely known for putting the NBA in Toronto and basketball in Canada on the map, will become the first player in Raptors franchise history to receive the honour.

Carter was a superstar during his time in Toronto — one who put Canadian basketball on the map and was crucial in the Raptors franchise eventually becoming one of the most respected in the NBA. But, should that be enough to earn him the prestigious honour of jersey retirement, especially before someone like beloved former guard Kyle Lowry?

According to TSN’s Josh Lewenberg, there are “high-ranking members of the organization” who feel Lowry — who spent nearly a decade with the Raptors, was the leader of the team during its most successful era, tallied six All-Star selections while in Toronto and was an integral piece to the team’s 2019 championship triumph — should be the first Raptors legend to have his number retired.

And those current Raptors executives weren’t alone, as plenty of Raptors fans took to social media to express similar sentiments.

Lowry is, however, still an active player — though his career is nearing an end as he enters his 19th NBA season with his hometown Philadelphia 76ers. A jersey retirement typically only occurs when a player has officially retired himself. The Raptors easily could have waited another couple years or so to honour Lowry before Carter and made him the first player in franchise history to be immortalized in rafters of Scotiabank Arena, but, according to Lewenberg, there were a few factors that pushed Carter’s jersey retirement to the forefront.

Carter is set to be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame this season, which coincides with the Raptors’ 30th season, the timing, per Lewenberg “felt right” and there was a strong push to retire Carter’s jersey made from within the organization.

Once the decision was officially made, the organization wanted to kick off their anniversary celebrations with something big, so the team chose a date (Nov. 2) early in the 2024-25 season. This also gives the Raptors the opportunity to be the first NBA team to honour Carter after the Brooklyn Nets announced they would be honouring Carter in the same fashion this season, on November 25.

That particular date makes plenty of sense as well, as the Saturday night game comes just two weeks into the team’s 30th season and its opponent that night, the Sacramento Kings, is one of Carter’s ex-teams. This also ensures that Raptors legends DeMar DeRozan (who now plays with Sacramento) and Lowry himself (whose 76ers have the night off) will also be able to attend the ceremony that night.

Carter’s legacy not all roses and sunshine

The mixed feelings around Carter being honoured before some other franchise legends — or at all — are mostly related to how Carter’s tenure ended in Toronto.

The latter half of his time with the team was marred by injury after injury, and plenty of controversy. Fans started turning on “Air Canada” after he flew to North Carolina to attend his college graduation ceremony the same day the Raptors face the 76ers in Game 7 of a playoff series with the Philadelphia in 2001 — which many criticized and called a distraction, especially after Carter bricked the final shot in the contest to seal Toronto’s defeat.

His tenure ended with a public trade request that essentially killed Toronto’s leverage and forced the team to ship him to the New Jersey Nets for a meagre return as many claimed he “quit” on his team.

Carter then received relentless boos from scorned Raptors fans every time he returned to Toronto over the next 10-plus years with another team.

Fans didn’t start changing their tune towards Carter until 2014, a decade after that fateful trade, that the Carter, a member of the Memphis Grizzlies at the time, got emotional and acknowledged the Toronto crowd as those longtime boos turned into a standing ovation when Toronto honoured him with a tribute video for the team’s 20th anniversary.

That was fans — some, at least — started to believe Carter’s number could end up in the arena rafters someday.

Why it makes sense to retire Carter’s No. 15 first

Carter, aptly nicknamed “Half-Man/Half-Amazing” and “Air Canada” almost immediately became one of the NBA’s most electrifying young young superstars after Toronto acquired the North Carolina Tar Heels product via trade during the 1998 NBA draft.

The fledgling franchise needed a shot in the arm to gain legitimacy — especially as the only NBA club outside of the United States — and thats exactly what they got in Carter, who would go on to win NBA Rookie of the Year before leading the Raptors to their first-ever playoff berth the following season and their first postseason series victory the year after that.

To many, Carter is the easy choice to have his number retired by the Raptors before anybody else — even Lowry.

His electrifying Dunk Contest performance in 2000 — which many consider the greatest All-Star performance of all-time — was another iconic moment for the Raptors franchise and fans alike.

The moment is so legendary that this season’s City Edition jerseys will commemorate Carter’s performance on that February night in Oakland.

Carter is widely credited for putting the Raptors organization on the map and for spearheading a quickly-growing basketball movement in Toronto and across Canada — which, in large part to Carter’s influence, now finds itself among the game’s elite nations on the world stage despite a somewhat disappointing showing in Paris this summer.

Carter, despite ranking 12th in games played for the franchise, still ranks fourth on the team’s all-time scoring list with 9,420 points in Raptors uniform.

Toronto has four players either already in or set to enter the Hall of Fame — Hakeem Olajuwon, Tracy McGrady, Chris Bosh, and Chauncey Billups — with strong ties to the organization, but Carter will be the first player inducted who started his career — and spent the majority of his years — with the Raptors franchise.

Carter was a six-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA selection during his time in Toronto, while averaging 23.4 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.3 steals over 403 games with the club.

The 47-year-old will be officially enshrined in the Hall Of Fame on October 12.