Half Man, Half Bionic?
Eight-time All-Star Vince Carter may pushing 39 years of age, but apparently that’s not stopping him from giving this whole basketball thing at least one more go-around.
After the Grizzlies’ season-ending Game 4 defeat to the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday, Carter quickly shut down speculation that this might be his last game in the NBA.
“I plan on coming back,” Carter said in his postgame press conference per NBA TV. “I feel good. Body feels good.
“I’ll go through the summer. When I don’t feel like training or lose the passion and love for playing, then it’s time to walk away. I still have it. It still bothers me to lose games and not play well, so on and so forth. I’m looking forward to a good summer and getting this whole body in shape to try it again.”
While the high-flying, 20+ point per game-scoring Carter of yesteryear is all but ancient history these days, he has still proven to be a decent rotational wing. Carter averaged 6.6 points per game, 1.9 rebounds per game, and 2.4 assists per game in just 16.8 minutes per game for Memphis this season, establishing himself as one of their more consistent bench contributors.
Carter still has one year and $4.26 million remaining on his current deal with the Grizzlies, and it will be interesting to see how much he has left in the tank for what will be his 19th season in the Association.
