Obviously, Vince Carter’s original departure from the Toronto Raptors was a bitter one for many fans, even to this day.
But do you ever wonder what could’ve been? In a wide-ranging interview with Sports Illustrated, VC drops a little nugget, saying that he once tried to recruit Shaquille O’Neal to Toronto.
Presumably, this occurred around the time of Shaq’s trade demand in 2004, which resulted in his trade to the Heat — there was no other time during Carter’s Raptors tenure that Shaq was on the market, really.
Both players were in their primes as All-Star calibre players, so this is quite the what-if. Since we never ended up hearing much about a Shaq-to-Toronto rumor at all, it seems safe to guess that Carter’s recruitment efforts never really gained much traction — and like he says himself, it was hard to get guys to Toronto back then.
Well, the Raptors are champions now, so there’s no point in getting caught up on what could’ve been back then. With that said, though, the Raps may be throwing it back to the Carter-era Raps for their 25th anniversary next season — a Reddit leak suggests that they’ll bust this retro court out at some point.
