New York (AFP)
NBA flying man Vince Carter, eight-time All-Star, formalized his retirement sport at the age of 43 on Thursday after 22 seasons with the elite and an Olympic title at the Sydney Games in 2000 .
"I'm officially finished with professional basketball," announced on his Carter podcast, deprived of an outing worthy of its dunks dunks by a season stopped clean by the pandemic of Coronavirus.
He played his last game with the Atlanta Hawks on March 11, the same night the NBA broke off, after the announcement of the first positive case in its ranks, that of the French Rudy Gobert (Utah).
The Hawks, with a record of 20 wins for 47 losses at the time of the interruption, were not among the 22 teams qualified to resume competition at a site in July in Orlando (Florida).
Fifth choice of the 1998 draf by Golden State and traded with the Toronto Raptors, where he conquered the title of best rookie in the NBA, Vince Carter had earned the nickname of Air Canada, in view of his aerobatics during the competition Dunk in 2000.
In Sydney, he guided the American team and illuminated the whole world with his famous "dunk of death" crushed on the French Frédéric Weiss, yet measuring twenty centimeters more, in group match of the JO-2000. On the way to the Olympic coronation.
Passed by New Jersey Nets, Orlando, Phoenix, Dallas, Memphis, the Sacramento Kings and finally Atlanta, he never won the ring. But in 1,541 regular season games, he averaged 17.2 points, 4.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1 interception per game.
© 2020 AFP