Nets legend Vince Carter is receiving the highest honor his sport has to offer, having reportedly been elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
For years, Carter combined with Jason Kidd to give New Jersey the most electrifying transition game in the NBA and the most dynamic backcourt in the sport. Now, he’ll join Kidd in the Hall of Fame.
The news, which has long been considered a mortal lock by everybody other than the humble Carter, was first reported by The Athletic.
The official announcement for the 2024 class will be on Saturday at the Final Four in Phoenix, with Chauncey Billups also expected to be elected.
“It’s an honor,” Carter told The Post earlier this season. “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.
“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.”
Now, Carter will have both feet firmly planted in the Hall.
The enshrinement ceremony in Springfield, Mass., is slated for Aug. 17, which will probably be the first time Carter actually sets foot inside the building.
“I’ve never been,” Carter told The Post earlier this season. “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.”
That wait is over, thanks to Carter’s high-flying career.
The first NBA player to appear in four separate decades, Carter played a league-record 22 seasons, and crammed several careers worth of highlight dunks into that impressive span.
He was an eight-time All-Star, made two All-NBA teams and is 21st on the league’s all-time scoring list.
Carter played 1,541 games — third-most all time — and poured in 25,728 points. He had 8,834 points in 374 games for the Nets over five seasons.
Though he shockingly still hasn’t had his No. 15 jersey retired by the franchise — Toronto is retiring his jersey Tuesday — his impact on the Nets was undeniable.
“He just always had the joy for the game. Of course we see all the dunks, but just the way he played, the 3-pointers that he shot, the joy that he brought, the attention he brought to the game,” said Nets interim Kevin Ollie, who played against Carter two dozen times.
“Just the competitive nature that he had, just the innovation that he had, all the different things that he brought to the game. It’s just the uniqueness of his God-given talent and him crafting his game and continuing to build those, and to having a Hall-of-Fame career, which is awesome. Congratulations to him and to his family. A lot of hard work pays off.”
Carter arrived in New Jersey in December 2004 in a deal — no, make that a steal — that The Post proclaimed the most lopsided in 25 years.
It turns out that might not have been hyperbole.
With Carter averaging 15.9 points for Toronto at the time of the swap, the Nets sent Alonzo Mourning, Aaron Williams, Eric Williams and a pair of picks to the Raptors.
Upon landing in New Jersey, Carter rediscovered his high-flying ways, pouring in 27.5 points per game the rest of the season and helping spike season-ticket sales the following summer.
In all, Carter actually averaged more points, assists, rebounds and a higher field-goal percentage for New Jersey than he ever did for the Raptors.
He was something of an iron man for the Nets as well, missing just 11 games in his five seasons in the Meadowlands.
It’s a measure of his greatness and his importance that they actually lost all 11.
“It’s surreal, obviously,” Carter told The Post. “You think of all the people that are in and all the people who are looking for that opportunity to get in.”
