No. 15 was a legend in Jersey, and will now forever officially be out of circulation in Brooklyn.
The Brooklyn Nets announced Thursday that they will retire Vince Carter’s No. 15 on Saturday, Jan. 25 during their game with the Miami Heat at Barclays Center, in an event that will also include “special programming and an honoring of the career and Nets legacy of the NBA legend.”
“We are thrilled to honor former Nets player Vince Carter, who contributed so much to this organization both on and off the court,” said Nets Governor Joe Tsai in a team statement. “He is an important part of the Nets franchise history and we look forward to welcoming him to Barclays Center this season to celebrate his legacy.”
Carter will become the seventh retired jersey in franchise history, a list that includes teammate Jason Kidd, thanks to five seasons with the then-New Jersey Nets that was the best stretch of his career per statistical average.
“Vinsanity” joined the team in a Dec. 2004 trade from Toronto and averaged 23.6 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.2 steals over 37.9 minutes per game in 374 games as a Net from 2004-09. He was a three-time All-Star as a Net, and joined with Kidd to lead the Nets to the final three of six straight playoff appearances in the 2000s.
Carter is third in franchise history with 8,834 points – including the only 2,000-point season in franchise history, when he scored 2,070 in 2006-07 – and is also sixth in assists, and his 701 playoff points are fourth-most in Nets lore.
The jersey retirement will come just a couple months after Carter is enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame this October, an honor he earned after finishing his 22-year career in 2020 with the third-most games (1,541) in NBA history across eight stops and being one of just 10 players in NBA history with at least 25,000 points, 5,000 rebounds, and 1,500 steals in his career.