The Brooklyn Nets to Retire Vince Carter’s Jersey Next Season

Vince Carter‘s iconic number 15 jersey will officially be displayed alongside his teammate Jason Kidd in the Barclays Center. The team announced in a video this morning, with Vince included, that his jersey will be retired and put up in the rafters.

Toronto traded Carter in 2004, and Carter had the opportunity to find a new life and play some of his best years during his five-year stint in New Jersey until 2009. Jason Kidd and Carter are two legendary players who found success together because of their feel for the game. 

Carter still holds the single-season record for most points in a season, with 2,070 points in the 2006-2007 season. Carter is in the top ten for multiple categories in the organization, and the timing seemed right.  The Brooklyn Nets flew into Orlando to Vince’s house to congratulate him on making the Nasmith Hall of Fame’s class for later this year and to deliver this special announcement.  

Carter became the team’s seventh player to get his jersey retired, joining greats like Julius Erving, Drazen Petrovic, and Jason Kidd. The video starts with an iconic shot from Carter against his old team in his third year with the Nets. It then shows the commentator talking about Carter’s greatness and how he was an all-time player for the organization. 

He started to catch on when they showed Carter’s jersey beside Kidd’s.

During this busy Playoff period, Kid still found time to commemorate and congratulate his friend and former teammate on this incredible accomplishment. 

“Congratulations on having your number retired next to mine,” Kidd said in the video as Carter smiled. “We got five and 15, you made the game so easy. Maybe too easy. But again congratulations you had an incredible career. I think you played 40 years somewhere around there. Well deserved, Understand you were one of my best teammates you know in New Jersey. Again, made the game easy.”

Vince was touched by the video, and they asked him what emotions he felt after watching both videos. 

“So I think about you know coming into the league, trying to be, you know the best player you can be,” Carter told the producer. “And you know you go through a trade and you get new life. Especially playing with someone like J Kidd who was a Hall of Famer. Legend. Up in the stands as well and I heard a story from Gary Susman talking about J Kidd after I hit that shot in Toronto, he felt like I was a guy that he could trust.”

These are powerful words and an amazing way to roll out this announcement. Take a look at the video below. 

It’s official: We’re raising @mrvincecarter15’s jersey to the rafters next season.

And we invited a pair of Nets legends to assist with the announcement.

🔗 https://t.co/IkjyKxMU3n pic.twitter.com/qi1khzBK39

— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) May 15, 2024