Watched the Net game yesterday, as I often do, to get my b-ball fix. As I said over on the freedarko comments, Vince is one of those players whose failure to self-motivate always makes me sad. Quite a few of the guys over at freedarko think Shaq is a disappointment because he failed to live up to his full (physical) potential.
He never lead the league in rebounding, or blocks, or scoring enough.
Absolutely true... but why would he want to? The problem lies in the perception of a big man like Shaq, or his evolutionary predecessor, Wilt Chamberlain. Despite owning every record at one time, a player like Wilt never got enough love as a truly amazing athlete. See, despite all his abilities, despite all the records, all the women, Wilt is still viewed by many as just a big man who dominate in an era of smaller sized players. If Shaq had dominated the league like he probably could, the perception of most people wouldn't have been that he's a great player driven to dominate (like Jordan), but that he's a freak of nature. To this day, there are enough people out there who would give Shaq no credit for all he's accomplish, chalking it up to simple genetics. The big man was smart enough to realize that his size made all the expectations around his career either unattainable or unappreciable. So he didn't worry about that, and instead focused on other goals - to have a rapping career, a movie career, or, most recently, be a cop.
Vince Carter could have it all. He has the range of a Gilbert Arenas, he can drive to the basket like Kobe, he can rise above the double team for a jumper like Jordan. The end of the third quarter yesterday against the Jazz was a harbinger; he was driving to the basket harder than he has in years. It was clear that we were witnessing the rare motivated game by Vince. As soon as the fourth hit SML was awaiting the arrival of the potential beast. He did not disappoint. Every play down the stretch ended in a made Carter basket or free throws, save for the one where he was triple-teamed by a Jazz team that could not contain him. AK47, the premier defensive SF in the game, was unable to even slow him down. We still don't know what motivated Carter to give a f*ck for once, but the result was never in doubt - we knew he was going to win this game. With the ball in his hands and time about to expire, he drilled a 35 footer and waved bye-bye to the Jazz's bench.
Whatever or whoever pissed him off cost the Jazz a game yesterday. I only hope this is the start of the annual Carter tradition of one month of otherworldly play - he does it every year, and I suspect this will be that month. Could it have something to do with losing his All-Star starting gig to Arenas? In any case, enjoy it because it doesn't last long and you can't know when it's coming around again....
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