Raptors join Nets in retiring Vince Carter’s No. 15 jersey

Vince Carter’s shirt will be seen in two stadiums this season.

Carter, who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame next month, will retire his number with the Toronto Raptors on Nov. 2 when the Raptors play the Atlanta Hawks, sources confirmed to ESPN. He will be the first player in franchise history to retire his number.

The Brooklyn Nets will also give him the same honor this season, after officially announcing last week that they will retire Carter’s number 15 on January 25 against the Miami Heat.

Carter was an eight-time All-Star, a two-time All-NBA selection, the 1999 Rookie of the Year and the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest champion. Carter’s long career was as impressive as his accolades. He played in 1,541 games over his 22-year NBA career, the third-most in league history behind Hall of Famers Robert Parish and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Carter is also the only player to have appeared in four different decades of his NBA career.

He spent the first five and a half seasons of his career with the Raptors, where he earned the nickname “Air Canada” and led all NBA players in All-Star voting in four of them. He also led the Raptors to their first postseason appearance in 2000 and their first playoff series win in 2001 before losing in seven games in the Eastern Conference semifinals to Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers.

But his time in Toronto came to an abrupt end in December 2004, when Carter was traded to the then-New Jersey Nets for a package that also included Alonzo Mourning, a future Hall of Famer.

That made Carter the target of the ire of fans in Toronto for years, with him regularly being heckled with boos when he returned to play there. Eventually, though, that started to turn the other way, most notably when he was honored with a huge ovation during Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals, in which the Raptors claimed their first NBA championship by defeating the Golden State Warriors in six games.

Now, the circle has come full circle, with Carter being permanently honored by the Raptors. The LA Clippers are now the only NBA team that has not retired a single jersey.

Carter will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on October 13, along with Chauncey Billups, Michael Cooper and Walter Davis, among others.

TSN was first to report that Toronto was retiring Carter’s jersey.