Vince Carter, the Nets’ former high-flying star, has received the sport’s highest honor: nomination for the Naismith Hall of Fame.
And even though Carter is considered a mortal lock to make the Hall, he takes nothing for granted. For Carter, nomination wasn’t something to be taken for granted but something to be relished.
“It’s an honor. Everybody feels one way about, ‘Oh, this has happened or hasn’t happened.’ Me on the other side, I was like, ‘I hear you, but the reality is you never know until you know.’ And to hear your name, it becomes a reality,” Carter told The Post. “It’s an unbelievable honor just to be at this stage of it. You never know what happens. Some people say it’s a shoe-in. I don’t know. But one foot’s in the door.”
Carter is given a 94.5 percent chance to make the Hall of Fame by Basketball Reference.
It’s hard to imagine the argument for that missing 5.5 percent.
“This is my first time sitting having a real conversation about this,” Carter told The Post. “My mom … like, I just push it off. My mom’s like ‘Oh, man, congratulations. I’m so excited.’ I’m like, ‘OK, yeah, cool.’ I’m sure she’s sitting at home like, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ But it’s just a beginning. Now when you tell me I’m in, that’s a different ballgame. Whenever that is, I’ll be ready.”
Carter was the first NBA player to appear in four separate decades. The wing played 1,541 games — third-most all-time — and poured in 25,728 points, 20th-most in league history. He had 8,834 points in 374 games for the Nets over five seasons.
“I’m aware of it. I know it’s a possibility. But I just need to hear it. And I heard it and it was pretty cool. No lie,” Carter told The Post. “It’s surreal, obviously. You think of all the people that are in and all the people who are looking for that opportunity to get in.
“But if it happens or if it does not happen, I made it to the stage where it’s a consideration. I’m being considered for the Hall of Fame. You can’t take that from me.”
Finalists will be announced Feb. 16 in Indianapolis during NBA All-Star weekend. The 2024 class will be unveiled during the NCAA Final Four in Phoenix on April 6, with the enshrinement ceremony slated for Aug. 17.
There is a chance that enshrinement ceremony could be the first time Carter actually sets foot inside the building.
“I’ve never been,” Carter told The Post. “I just said I’ll wait. I almost went. I got offered to go last year for Dirk [Nowitzki]; I didn’t go. [Tracy McGrady] as well; I didn’t go. I said I’ll wait.”
Carter played in the Hall of Fame Game in Springfield, Mass., for North Carolina against Arizona, but couldn’t recall going in the actual Hall of Fame.
Ben Simmons (lower back) and Lonnie Walker IV (hamstring) are both out vs. OKC, while Nic Claxton (illness) is probable.