Two all-time legends, Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant, decided to hang it up after the 2015-16 NBA season. Kobe went out with a bang and Duncan went out almost unnoticed. While Vince Carter doesn't have quite the career those two Hall of Famers have, he's still one of the most impressive basketball figures of his era. But he's not quite ready to call it a career after 18 seasons in the NBA.
We know Carter is coming back for his 19th season in the NBA. He's under contract for one more year with the Memphis Grizzlies and will turn 40 years old in the middle of the season. After that, he's hoping to add another season and end up retiring in the summer of 2018 after a full two decades in the NBA. Carter was interviewed on the sidelines of the Bethune Cookman-Alcorn State football game this weekend and revealed his plans, saying he still loves putting in the work. Via The Score:
"I just love to play. It's not out of me yet. When I don't want to play and don't want to put the work in, that's when I step away from the game, but right now I still love it."
"Not right now," Carter said. "We know No. 19 is definitely going to go down. I'm shooting for 20, and we'll go from there after that."
Carter currently sits 24th on the NBA's all-time scoring list. He's 1,031 points away from being the 21st player in NBA history to crack 25,000 points in a career, but would need a bit more production than we've seen the last two seasons in order to reach that mark, even if he plays two more seasons. He's scored 384 and 395 points, respectively, over the last two seasons. If he's only able to contribute about 390 points a season for his last two seasons while reaching 20 years in the NBA, he'd fall short of 25,000 points.
However, he'd pass Allen Iverson and Ray Allen on the all-time scoring list and end his career 22nd behind Patrick Ewing. Carter is also currently tied for 26th on the all-time games played list with Terry Porter. He's played 126 games over the last two seasons. He needs 120 games to move to seventh all-time in games played and finish two games ahead of Duncan.