[Gnote]

FINALLY!

Not that I care about Basketball or anything, but this guy is the biggest band-aid in the history of Canadian sports.

Good riddance and take your mom with you, you goddamn whiny baby.

Raptors trade Carter to Nets

12/17/2004

Vince Carter's days as a Toronto Raptor have come to an end.

ESPN reports that the New Jersey Nets and Toronto Raptors have completed a trade that sends Carter to the Nets, pending NBA approval.

In exchange for Carter, the Raptors receive center Alonzo Mourning, guard Eric Williams, forward Aaron Williams and two first round draft picks.

The two first-round picks the Raptors are to receive in the trade were obtained by the Nets from Denver in the Kenyon Martin trade.



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One of the picks - Denver's first-rounder in 2005 - is protected if it is pick one through three in the 2005 lottery. The other - obtained by Denver from Philadelphia before trading it to the Nets - is protected if it is pick one through eight in the 2005 lottery and one through five in the 2006 lottery.

Carter endured a love-hate relationship with fans in Toronto, electrifying crowds with big dunks and disappointing them with a myriad of injuries. Reports surfaced in July that Carter was not happy with the hiring of GM Rob Babcock nor with the selection of Rafael Arajuo in the NBA draft and asked for a trade.

The former North Carolina player had been rumored to be headed to the New York Knicks or Portland Trail Blazers for a variety of players. The deal has to delight Nets All-Star point guard Jason Kidd, who expressed displeasure with the direction his team was taking after dealing Martin and Kerry Kittles.

Carter has almost three years plus an option for a fourth left on his contract, which pays him approximately $12.6 million US this season.

Mourning, 34, has two years left on a contract that pays him $5.4 million this season and $6.4 million for 2005-2006. Aaron Williams, 33, makes $3.1 million this season with an option for $3.3 million next year, while Eric Williams, 32, signed a three-year, $12 million contract in August.

Carter, who is averaging 15.9 points a game this season, was placed on the injured list with a strained left Achilles' tendon last Friday. He has missed Toronto's last three games and must miss two more, meaning he will not be able to play Sunday when the Nets visit Toronto (TSN, 3pm et/Noon pt)

More to follow.

[briansmith]

Good move. Carter is a walking injury. It's not that Mourning is necessarily any better, but he's older and is being paid less.

[Gnote]

Seriously. How can you get hurt so much in a sport with only a moderate amount of physical contact? He's hurt way more often than anyone else I know of in any sport. Not to mention that, but he's taken to whining a lot lately, an activity that basketball players seem to have a monopoly on these days.

Bah.

Oh well, on to more important things.

[| I, CWAS |]

I'm shocked the raptors have lasted this long. I am a huge supporter of expanding our sports leagues, but I want the national leagues to be abosrbed into international ones, we saw what happened to the grizzles, and I feel the international element should start with europe since they ahve strong, fundamentalist basekball players. Man a euro-american NBA would be amazing.

[Pope Perseus Peptabysmal]

I read a while back that, at least among younger players, basketball had the highest number of injuries...

[briansmith]

Lord Stewart, are you sure that's not because young basketball players are trying to prove themselves and advance their rap career at the same time? They might be off getting into fights and letting minor disagreements escalate into a shoot-out with 9mm pistols. That's a good way to get injured, I'd reckon.

[Pope Perseus Peptabysmal]

No, I'm speaking of just on the court rough play. I mean tonight, one of the guys on my school's team went for a layup but got his legs torn out from under him midflight and was sent crashing to the floor knee first. The knee that was injured which ended his soccer season last year and kept him from B-ball too. He wasn't even completely healed by March, and he had been injured in the middle of October.