UNCASVILLE, Conn. -- Vince Carter remembers the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest like it just happened, when he went from an up-and-comer to a full-fledged phenom.
He had been the NBA Rookie of the Year the season before with Toronto and now he was a first-time All-Star. But when he slammed the ball down in Oakland, leaping so high with such force that he put his arm through the rim, he had created perhaps the biggest highlight of a Hall of Fame career that would last another 20 years.
"What the dunk contest did for me, overnight it changed my life," Carter said Saturday during a press conference at Mohegan Sun Casino to discuss his induction.
Some players have careers like that, where they seem to hit the ground running from the moment they are drafted and never stop -- in Carter's case until he had played an NBA-record 22 seasons.
People are also reading... Neighbors to fight Twin Falls Taco Bell location at Monday appeal Twin Falls City Council reverses Taco Bell decision Another manslaughter charge in Jerome Co. crash, but when is it warranted? Death Notices Twin Falls County Most Wanted Madilyn Rose Cox Man sentenced for lewd conduct with Twin Falls teen Police: Jerome woman dies in crash with semi that ran stop sign Police: Victim stabbed multiple times in Gooding County Car-theft spree reported in Mini-Cassia; suspect sought Jerome man gets seven years for meth trafficking 2 days set for lengthy court hearings involving massage parlor suspects Kimberly's Gunner Stringham, after successfully battling cancer, is raising awareness Two legislators form coalition to challenge political division in America Mart Frozen Foods opens $65 million facility introducing frozen baked potatoes
And then there are guys like Chauncey Billups.
The No. 3 pick in the 1997 draft was traded by Boston in his first season and had already played for four teams in his first four seasons.
There's more than one way to reach the Hall of Fame.
Billups eventually found his footing and on Sunday will join Carter as the headline names in the 13-member class that will be enshrined in Springfield, Massachusetts, not far from where his first NBA stop went so poorly that some labeled him a bust.
Billups, now the coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, wouldn't have changed a thing.
"It's just my journey," Billups said. "Everybody's is totally different, and I say this all the time. From the time that I was drafted to today being on this stage and being this weekend, like, it was a tough road for me. There was not a lot of traffic on that road."
Lakers defensive ace Michael Cooper, high-scoring Phoenix star Walter Davis and former Knicks champion Dick Barnett are the other NBA players in the class, with Seimone Augustus and Michele Timms making it from the WNBA. Jerry West is going in as a contributor -- his third induction after being enshrined as a player and with the 1960 U.S. Olympic team -- along with Doug Collins and Pacers owner Herb Simon, and coaches Bo Ryan and Harley Redin from college and Charles Smith from high school.
Augustus will have one eye elsewhere as she readies for the ceremony. The Minnesota Lynx, the team she helped win four WNBA championships, will be playing Game 2 of the WNBA Finals in New York on Sunday.
"I've gotten so many text messages like, 'We wanted to be there,'" said Augustus, who added that her response is: "Like, go out there and get Game 2 and hopefully bring home a championship."
Billups eventually got one, the NBA Finals MVP when the Detroit Pistons won the 2004 championship. He would make five All-Star teams with the Pistons and Denver Nuggets, but that was after the rocky start to his career.
There were the 51 games in Boston before a trade to Toronto, with short stays in Denver and Minnesota preceding his arrival in Detroit.
"It just didn't translate fast enough, but I never believed what they said about me," Billups said. "I just kept fighting, kept scrapping, and it turned around."
Carter never got a ring like Billups or Cooper -- who won five of them with the Lakers -- but it wasn't his primary motivation as he kept playing late in his career, noting some of the teams he had joined weren't serious contenders.
"I played the game because I love it, and it wasn't about chasing money, and honestly it wasn't about chasing rings," Carter said.
0 Comments Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
Be the first to know
Get local news delivered to your inbox!
Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.