For a brief time, cousins Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady both played for the Toronto Raptors, pairing two of the league’s most electrifying players in their early career. The 2000 slam dunk contest, generally regarded as one of the best of all-time, featured Carter and McGrady going at it while repping the Raptors.
That wasn’t the only dunk contest between the two, however. Before a 1999 preseason game, back in Carter’s first year in the NBA, the two held an impromptu dunk-off that had never been seen in full other than by those fans present.
For Carter’s 42nd birthday on Saturday, the NBA finally released footage from the dunk contest to commemorate one of the league’s elder statesmen.
These aren’t quite the same as the elbow dunk, or the 360 windmill — hard to match, considering Carter’s dunk from the 2000 slam dunk contest were some of the greatest dunks of all-time — but still, you can tell that these two were exciting even then. Nothing like seeing a young VC and a young T-Mac go at it!
With this being Carter’s record-tying 21st season in the NBA, he has made emotional trips around the league in what is being regarded as the final go-around of his career. This includes a return earlier this month to Toronto, in which he held a highly emotional postgame scrum praising the city.
h/t YouTube/NBA
