The NBA Released A Never Before Seen TMac vs Vince Carter Dunk Contest That Fired Up Some Nostalgia Boners

I know Vince Carter is still in the NBA and firing off some pretty nice dunks, but this is all about nostalgia boners, folks. That’s what this video did. This was a never seen before video that the NBA released for Vince Carter’s 42nd birthday.

It almost reminded me of how fun that old Raptors team was and how fire those jerseys were. You had 2nd year TMac and rookie Vince Carter in the preseason going back and forth in a dunk contest with Dee Brown watching. That hits just about every 90s basketball nostalgia north of the border.

I know this isn’t the 2000 dunk contest, but you can see Carter just lining up dunks left and right. You can see his mind working that eventually led to this:

Smart on Dee Brown here though. Sure, Carter entered the league with the reputation of being uber-athletic, but TMac was no slouch himself obviously. Brown saying he’d put his money on Carter just makes sense. I mean who else could do this?

Or all of this?

This also just brings up a nostalgic what if. The Raptors had two young stars (and distant cousins) in McGrady and Carter. The Raptors started their careers off by surrounding them with veterans like Oakley and Bogues and Dell Curry. Just five years into the franchise history they won 45 games led by Carter and McGrady. They had the makings of a team that would compete for titles with these two.

Then McGrady turned down the max extension. Then McGrady decided he wanted to return home to Florida and play with Grant Hill and the Magic. It led to a fall out between him and Carter and robbed us of seeing the two of them continue to build in Toronto. Remember the East during that time was fairly open with the Knicks winning in 99, the Nets, Sixers, Pacers and Pistons all advancing to the Finals through 2005. The Raptors would have been a favorite one of those years.

Either way, this little dunk show contest is a nice way to get through a Monday and remember the good ole days of Vince flying through the air and the dino uniforms.