Has the NBA seen the last of Vince Carter?

Carter's legacy more grey than black or white

PETER POWER/TORONTO STAR

If the NBA season is indeed over, the basketball world will have said good bye to one of the most exciting players to ever step on a basketball court.

For years, Vince Carter was "Vinsanity," the young man who could jump over seemingly anything and anyone. In Toronto he put on a show almost every night. Remember the 360s, the alley-oops and the tomahawk slams?

Outside of Toronto, that's how Carter will be remembered. He was a thrilling dunker who put Toronto on the basketball map both in the dunk contest and in the NBA playoffs. When his stardom days were over, he seemed to transition perfectly into a new role out of the spotlight first in Dallas, then Memphis, Sacramento and Atlanta.

Inside Toronto, the Carter story is far more complicated. There's little doubt that he changed Canadian basketball, bringing droves of children to the sport, leading to the boom in NBA players Canada has seen over the past few years. But there was also a dark side to Carter's legacy that seems to have faded over time.

He quite openly didn't always try in Toronto.

In November 2004, he allegedly told Seattle Sonics players the play the Raptors were going to run in the dying seconds of a 101-94 loss.

Later that same month he told reporters he didn't want to dunk anymore.

And after being traded to New Jersey in 2005, he told John Thompson that he didn't always push himself as hard as he should have.

As the years have passed those memories seem to have faded south of the border. In Toronto, however, that legacy remains complicated, more grey than black or white.