Where's the passion, Vince?

This is what Nets fans have been dreading since the team traded for the league's most exciting player nearly a year ago. Monday night, in a 100-97 loss at Golden State, Vince Carter left with a strained back muscle late in the third quarter.

In his brief time with the Nets, Vince had killed his reputation as a soft, injury-prone player. Now that he's once again facing adversity, it'll be interesting to see what the future has in store for him.

Will he shake this off quickly and get back on the court? Will this hamper him for the better part of the first half of the season? Or, with the Nets off to a disappointing 5-5 start, will he be traded?

I was down on Half-Man/Half-Amazing at this time last season, when he seemed to be tanking it in Toronto. But when he got to New Jersey, I got to see him play on a regular basis for the first time ever.

I was amazed. He was flat-out tremendous. I knew he was a great slasher and a good shooter, but his passing ability stunned me. I began thinking Vince's name should be mentioned alongside Kobe's, LeBron's, D-Wade's and T-Mac's as the top swingmen in the league.

Here's why it's not: In my opinion, Vince Carter is about 70 percent of the player he should be.

From what I see, Vince plays almost completely off of natural ability. Has he added anything since he took the league by storm as a rookie?

I look at Vince's body and I see no additional muscle development. That tells me he's not getting after it in the weight room. Look at Kobe -- you can see he pumps the iron. Think of how MJ's body changed over the course of his career. That weight work is almost certainly one reason why Kobe's career isn't hampered by strains, sprains and pulls (and why MJ's wasn't).

This is purely speculation, because only Vince truly knows the answer to this, but I see him as a guy who likes the game but doesn't love the game. There are two types of players in the NBA: those who love ball and those who like it.

Those who merely like it break down into two categories: those who like hoop, but love the NBA lifestyle -- the fame, the fortune, the females; and those who like hoop and see this more as their job than their passion.
I see Vince as the latter. That is not necessarily meant to be a knock. There are people like that in all walks of life.


In journalism, for instance, there are folks who live and breathe their job, who are legitimately passionate about it and who are constantly looking to be the absolute best. Then there are those who are good, even great, at what they do, even as they see it simply as a way to feed their family and have a nice lifestyle. To me, that's Vince.

This is incredible considering he's such a great player. If he had the determination and drive of Kobe, Vince would be off the charts.

He'd probably be the best player in the league. And he probably wouldn't be on the sidelines in street clothes so much.

I take it broussard considers himself one of the "absolute best" journalists?


[Edited by - notfrye on 11-23-2005 12:39 PM]

I firmly believe that guys who get those kinds of muscular injuries often, have themselves to blame for not taking great care of their bodies.

Knees are one thing, but muscles can be worked so that they don't cause you problems.

Posted by Allanfan20:

It's actually a very good article and very true. Vince is a very good passer if anyone has watched him, and he truely can be the best player in the league. It sure looked like that after his second year in the league. However, I don't know if the weight lifting stuff he's talking about is true, but it makes some sense. However, Vince isn't exactly some skinny guy either. He's got an NBA body.

But he's right about everything else. If Vince showed more love and heart for the game, he wouldn't:

A) Have been tanking it in Toronto like he did. Inexcusable. I don't want a guy like that.

B) He's be freaking awesome and very well could be up there with LeBron. He's got the skills, strength and athleticism.

It's a shame so far.

Yeah but if he is hurt, then he is hurt. I mean for Broussard to just call the guy out for no reason takes no guts. Vince has been playing his heart out since he has been a Net. He has been running hard and taking hard fouls. There are other guys on that team that he should go after before he starts in on VC.