The Phenom (an NBA article)

The reality is that we all expected this. And by this I mean the Vince Carter experience.

Think back to when Vince was in his second and third year. There was that 50 point game on a Sunday on national TV. The playoff series against the 76ers when he couldn't be stopped.

And then, of course, it all flew apart.

I blame, more than anyone else, Charles Oakley.

Oak, as you may recall, was the one who first said that Vince wasn't a late-game player. He accused Vince of being soft, of not being a vocal leader, and of wilting at the end of games. Keep in mind that Oak was a teammate at the time. So the media started buying it.

This in-team subversion would ultimately undermine Vince for years. His own teammates turned against him, either obviously or covertly. When the injuries started piling up, the team responded by playing better, and Vince became the unlikeable version of Grant Hill.

If you go back to before Oak destroyed the Raptors, then Vince was the second coming. He had MJ's atheleticism, charisma, and scoring ability. He made the game look easy. The Raptors would be playing, and all of a sudden Vince would just explode out of nowhere for a dunk. Vince was such an astounding shooter for his size. Remember that Kobe, at the time, wasn't a particularly great outside scorer. Vince was. Vince could score from anywhere, and there wasn't anyone who could stop him.

Well, injuries made him afraid or unable to get in the air and around guys. His atheleticism wasn't saving him on defense anymore. He lost touch with his teammates. Plus the Raptors brought in or overpaid a series of players who just plain sucked (Hakeem, Antonio Davis, etc). Vince got accustomed to losing.

The trade changed everything. In New Jersey Vince isn't the man (that's Jason Kidd) and he isn't the young gun (that's Richard Jefferson). Instead of worrying about what people and his teammates are going to say about his leadership style, committment, softness, defense, etc., Vince can just play. Everyone questions how hard he played at the end in Toronto, but Vince isn't the only guy to have played with Sam Mitchell who's had enormous problems (see Eric Williams, Alvin Williams, Rafer Alston, Jalen Rose). Those guys aren't soft, and they do work hard, and most of them got better after they left.

Right now Vince is a barely contained force. He's just playing ball. The amazing thing is, he doesn't even look like he's working that hard to play at this level. I can't even imagine what a guy like Jason Kidd could do for a overcompetitive guy like Kobe (is 40 ppg out of reach?), because what he's done for Vince is astounding. Vince is doing things only 1-2 other guys in the league can do, and he's just playing.

And I think that's the key.

How good can Vince be? Can he keep it up in the playoffs? Can anyone stop him?

My guess is this is the year Vince silences his critics.

But we'll see.