boutons_
04-23-2006, 01:37 PM
April 23, 2006
The Nets' Carter Is Committed to Redefining a Playoff Image
By JOHN ELIGON
The defining playoff images for some players include hoisting trophies and flashing diamond-studded rings.
Vince Carter's (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/vince_carter/index.html?inline=nyt-per) postseason reputation is a bit less sanguine: It is defined by a wayward shot at the buzzer and the criticism of his decision to attend his college graduation.
This season's Nets are providing Carter with his best opportunity to create pleasurable playoff memories. It might be one reason he took time out last week to poke fun at his biggest postseason mishap.
"We were one shot away from moving on to that conference final that year, but, unfortunately, the guy who took the shot missed it," Carter said with a grin.
He was referring to the second round of the 2001 playoffs when, as a member of the Toronto Raptors (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/torontoraptors/index.html?inline=nyt-org), he missed a jumper in Game 7 that would have lifted his team past the eventual Eastern Conference champions, the Philadelphia 76ers (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/philadelphia76ers/index.html?inline=nyt-org).
Carter's missed shot was overshadowed only by something for which he received even more flak. On the morning of that Game 7 in Philadelphia, Carter returned to his alma mater, North Carolina, to receive his diploma.
Carter, 29, said he had moved past that postseason and was looking forward to starting this one.
The third-seeded Nets, who begin the playoffs against the Indiana Pacers (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/indianapacers/index.html?inline=nyt-org) today, are the best team Carter has been a part of in his eight-year N.B.A. career.
Carter has long been recognized as a bionic playmaker and an All-Star. But playing for a legitimate contender, Carter could add a new label to that list: winner.
"If we win a championship," Nets guard Jacque Vaughn said, "there'll be no more lingering questions about his career, about anything that anyone brings up: injuries in the past; ability to sustain for a season; ability to lead a team. Those questions won't exist anymore."
Carter's main objective on the basketball court has always been clear, Dean Smith, his coach at North Carolina, said.
"What he wants to show more than anything else is the fact that they won the game," Smith said in a recent telephone interview. "I think he's really excited about being part of a real good team like the Nets (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/newjerseynets/index.html?inline=nyt-org) are this year."
The Nets have a difficult path to the N.B.A. title.
The Pacers have two All-Stars in center Jermaine O'Neal and swingman Peja Stojakovic, and several talented role players surround them.
The Miami Heat (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/miamiheat/index.html?inline=nyt-org), led by Shaquille O'Neal (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/shaquille_oneal/index.html?inline=nyt-per) and Dwyane Wade, is a potential second-round opponent. And in the conference finals, the Nets could face the two-time defending champions in the East, the Detroit Pistons (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/detroitpistons/index.html?inline=nyt-org), who posted the league's best record this season.
All this could mean the Nets would need some special performances from Carter to get by.
"That's the only thing that I want to do is win," Carter said. "There's nothing else; no hidden agendas. My job is, whatever they need me to do, I'm going to do."
Playing for the Nets has provided Carter with a role that seems to satisfy him: he can be the man on the court without always having to bear the burden of his team's failures.
Carter came to the Nets from the Raptors in a midseason trade last season. Much to his delight, he joined two players of his caliber: Jason Kidd (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/jason_kidd/index.html?inline=nyt-per), the team's undisputed leader, and Richard Jefferson.
Carter's final months in Toronto were tumultuous. He had requested a trade in the off-season. The fans booed him. His production dropped, and people criticized his effort.
New Jersey seemed to rejuvenate Carter's game and attitude.
"He is a much friendlier, happier, more palatable person to deal with today than he was two years ago," Michelle Carter-Scott, Carter's mother, said by telephone from her home in Florida. "He was disgruntled, and that's just not Vince Carter's personality."
But shortly after Carter arrived in New Jersey in December 2004, many people labeled him a slacker because of comments he made during a TNT interview in which he seemed to suggest that he did not always work his hardest in Toronto.
John Thompson, the current TNT analyst and the former Georgetown basketball coach who conducted the interview, said he felt people misinterpreted Carter's words.
"That boy never said to me, 'Coach, I just laid down and quit,' " Thompson said in a telephone interview last week.
"I was embarrassed and felt awful about it for his sake, because I knew what he was communicating to me. I think he was more expressing a desire of wanting to do better, as we all do."
Carter's statistics this season — 24.2 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.3 assists a game — are right around his career averages.
Perhaps the epitome of why the Nets are the perfect fit for Carter, is that during the Nets' 14-game winning streak late in the season Carter eclipsed the 30-point mark only once. With Kidd and Jefferson there to share the load, Carter can show off more than his scoring.
Nets Coach Lawrence Frank has touted Carter's passing abilities and unselfishness all season long. Carter also has shown moments of defensive genius, as when he stifled the Lakers' (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/losangeleslakers/index.html?inline=nyt-org) Kobe Bryant (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/kobe_bryant/index.html?inline=nyt-per) into an off-balance, last-second 3-point attempt last month to help preserve a Nets victory.
Charles Brinkerhoff, Carter's coach at Mainland High School in Daytona Beach, Fla., said Carter seemed comfortable with the Nets because of a mutual trust with his teammates and coaches.
Brinkerhoff said he believed that understanding would continue in the playoffs.
"He doesn't have to do anything different but bring the intensity the playoffs require," Brinkerhoff said. "Is he ready to bring that intensity? From my perspective, absolutely."
Copyright 2006 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)
========================
Vince is struggling badly thru middle of 3rd qtr Game1, 6/21 FGs, including 1/7 3Gs. take it to the hoop, Vince
SJax is hot.
The Nets' Carter Is Committed to Redefining a Playoff Image
By JOHN ELIGON
The defining playoff images for some players include hoisting trophies and flashing diamond-studded rings.
Vince Carter's (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/vince_carter/index.html?inline=nyt-per) postseason reputation is a bit less sanguine: It is defined by a wayward shot at the buzzer and the criticism of his decision to attend his college graduation.
This season's Nets are providing Carter with his best opportunity to create pleasurable playoff memories. It might be one reason he took time out last week to poke fun at his biggest postseason mishap.
"We were one shot away from moving on to that conference final that year, but, unfortunately, the guy who took the shot missed it," Carter said with a grin.
He was referring to the second round of the 2001 playoffs when, as a member of the Toronto Raptors (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/torontoraptors/index.html?inline=nyt-org), he missed a jumper in Game 7 that would have lifted his team past the eventual Eastern Conference champions, the Philadelphia 76ers (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/philadelphia76ers/index.html?inline=nyt-org).
Carter's missed shot was overshadowed only by something for which he received even more flak. On the morning of that Game 7 in Philadelphia, Carter returned to his alma mater, North Carolina, to receive his diploma.
Carter, 29, said he had moved past that postseason and was looking forward to starting this one.
The third-seeded Nets, who begin the playoffs against the Indiana Pacers (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/indianapacers/index.html?inline=nyt-org) today, are the best team Carter has been a part of in his eight-year N.B.A. career.
Carter has long been recognized as a bionic playmaker and an All-Star. But playing for a legitimate contender, Carter could add a new label to that list: winner.
"If we win a championship," Nets guard Jacque Vaughn said, "there'll be no more lingering questions about his career, about anything that anyone brings up: injuries in the past; ability to sustain for a season; ability to lead a team. Those questions won't exist anymore."
Carter's main objective on the basketball court has always been clear, Dean Smith, his coach at North Carolina, said.
"What he wants to show more than anything else is the fact that they won the game," Smith said in a recent telephone interview. "I think he's really excited about being part of a real good team like the Nets (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/newjerseynets/index.html?inline=nyt-org) are this year."
The Nets have a difficult path to the N.B.A. title.
The Pacers have two All-Stars in center Jermaine O'Neal and swingman Peja Stojakovic, and several talented role players surround them.
The Miami Heat (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/miamiheat/index.html?inline=nyt-org), led by Shaquille O'Neal (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/shaquille_oneal/index.html?inline=nyt-per) and Dwyane Wade, is a potential second-round opponent. And in the conference finals, the Nets could face the two-time defending champions in the East, the Detroit Pistons (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/detroitpistons/index.html?inline=nyt-org), who posted the league's best record this season.
All this could mean the Nets would need some special performances from Carter to get by.
"That's the only thing that I want to do is win," Carter said. "There's nothing else; no hidden agendas. My job is, whatever they need me to do, I'm going to do."
Playing for the Nets has provided Carter with a role that seems to satisfy him: he can be the man on the court without always having to bear the burden of his team's failures.
Carter came to the Nets from the Raptors in a midseason trade last season. Much to his delight, he joined two players of his caliber: Jason Kidd (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/jason_kidd/index.html?inline=nyt-per), the team's undisputed leader, and Richard Jefferson.
Carter's final months in Toronto were tumultuous. He had requested a trade in the off-season. The fans booed him. His production dropped, and people criticized his effort.
New Jersey seemed to rejuvenate Carter's game and attitude.
"He is a much friendlier, happier, more palatable person to deal with today than he was two years ago," Michelle Carter-Scott, Carter's mother, said by telephone from her home in Florida. "He was disgruntled, and that's just not Vince Carter's personality."
But shortly after Carter arrived in New Jersey in December 2004, many people labeled him a slacker because of comments he made during a TNT interview in which he seemed to suggest that he did not always work his hardest in Toronto.
John Thompson, the current TNT analyst and the former Georgetown basketball coach who conducted the interview, said he felt people misinterpreted Carter's words.
"That boy never said to me, 'Coach, I just laid down and quit,' " Thompson said in a telephone interview last week.
"I was embarrassed and felt awful about it for his sake, because I knew what he was communicating to me. I think he was more expressing a desire of wanting to do better, as we all do."
Carter's statistics this season — 24.2 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.3 assists a game — are right around his career averages.
Perhaps the epitome of why the Nets are the perfect fit for Carter, is that during the Nets' 14-game winning streak late in the season Carter eclipsed the 30-point mark only once. With Kidd and Jefferson there to share the load, Carter can show off more than his scoring.
Nets Coach Lawrence Frank has touted Carter's passing abilities and unselfishness all season long. Carter also has shown moments of defensive genius, as when he stifled the Lakers' (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/losangeleslakers/index.html?inline=nyt-org) Kobe Bryant (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/kobe_bryant/index.html?inline=nyt-per) into an off-balance, last-second 3-point attempt last month to help preserve a Nets victory.
Charles Brinkerhoff, Carter's coach at Mainland High School in Daytona Beach, Fla., said Carter seemed comfortable with the Nets because of a mutual trust with his teammates and coaches.
Brinkerhoff said he believed that understanding would continue in the playoffs.
"He doesn't have to do anything different but bring the intensity the playoffs require," Brinkerhoff said. "Is he ready to bring that intensity? From my perspective, absolutely."
Copyright 2006 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)
========================
Vince is struggling badly thru middle of 3rd qtr Game1, 6/21 FGs, including 1/7 3Gs. take it to the hoop, Vince
SJax is hot.