Vince Carter details how he had to entice Michael Jordan to start the 2003 All-Star Game
Vince Carter made sure Michael Jordan started his last all star game in 2003 by giving his starting spot to him.
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Michael Jordan
The 2003 All-star game was most memorable for it being Michael Jordan‘s last ever season. However, he was not even supposed to start the game in the first place. Former Toronto Raptor, Vince Carter was selected to start the game in Atlanta. However, since it was Michael Jordan’s last ever appearance in an All-star game the league pushed for him to give his spot up to Jordan, however, Jordan would not take it.
“MJ wouldn’t take the spot… I’m like this MJ last year bruh, and you not starting?”, said Vince Carter on the All The Smoke podcast. Jordan was adamant that Vince Carter deserved the spot as he had earned it. Michael Jordan did not want to take something this big away from a young star like Vince. However, Vince Carter looked up to MJ like most of the league had done at that point and could not let him be on the bench. “I got a chance to do this again, this is your time MJ“, said Vince as he tried to convince him to take his spot.
Vince Carter had to go to extreme measures to persuade Jordan to start the game. “If you don’t take the spot I’m gonna stay in the back and I ain’t gonna come out“, said Vince on how he gave MJ an ultimatum. “I am not getting blackballed by the league because of this… You start“, said Vince as he had pressure from the NBA higher officials to give his spot to MJ as it was a historic moment in NBA history. “In the last minute he took his shirt off and got out there“, said Vince.
Michael Jordan had some memorable nights as a Washington Wizard
Michael Jordan will always be remembered for his time with the Chicago Bulls but his Wizards career is not that bad. Jordan retired from the league in 1998 but came back in 2001 for a stint in Washington. Jordan averaged 21 points in his two years which was impressive for a 38-year-old back then. Michael also managed to play all 82 games in the 2002/03 season becoming the second oldest player to achieve this feat.
His Airness had eight 40-point games in these 2 years. This included a 51-point performance against the Hornets followed by 45 two days later. Jordan was the oldest ever player to score 50 points at the time. Even though Jordan was not at his best, he had his iconic moments as a Wizard. However, Jordan never made the playoffs with Washington as they were a mediocre team, to say the least.
The best story out of MJ’s career in Washington was when he got into the head of a young Kobe. Jordan’s teammate Gilbert Arenas recalled an incident where Jordan told Kobe “you can put the shoes on but you ain’t ever gonna fill them” after the Wizards beat the Lakers. This was about Kobe mirroring Michael’s playstyle down to wearing Air Jordans. Kobe reportedly went silent for 2 weeks and the next time he played Jordan he scored 55 points in a Lakers win. Jordan will be cherished forever not only for his game but for inspiring a generation.
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Anuj Shrikanth Iyer
(290 Articles Published)