Vince Carter remembers Kobe Bryant | NBA Sound

you know I've known Kobe since he was 15 and I was 16 mmm playing AAU basketball and we spent 18 years competing and talking trash and about to fight and congratulate each other and hate each other enjoying each other in 18 years and it's hard to pick one and you know that I don't want to disappoint you and yeah, we won't come up with one, but I mean one of them is, I think, playing against him for the last time. I mean in Memphis our last battle I only remember talking to him during and after because we didn't have much conversation during the game often and if it was it wasn't friendly even though we were playing against each other and that's what I enjoyed and that's what it was, but I think I just talked to him and, you know, I remember asking him if he was ready to retire.

He's like he's ready, you know, and I asked him how are you going to handle it, you know, after 20 years. to do something, you know how you handle it, he said, I'll be fine, he's ready and he said he'll figure out moving forward until I move forward to when we had a conversation in New Jersey after the game, we kind of went backwards. To that conversation and I thought, how come he said that he was the happiest he had ever been and you know, having the opportunity to see his sons, his daughters grow up? I mean, help his daughter discover the game and understand it. how he understood it and you can see that in his game and I was at a young age and the next question we talked to, the next thing we talked about was he asked me if he was ready and if he was ready to handle it. and you know I was, you know, I'm back and forth with it all the time and he says you enjoy it, it's uh, it's peaceful and he said that's when he said he was at his happiest and he said we'll connect singing and We'll talk about it and the steps he took to be happier and more comfortable with retirement, obviously, and the last thing we talked about he said we would continue to do whatever we had to. the best we can to take care of our daughters and whatever they want to do and support them because of the stage and the icon that she is, he is able to put all that aside to give her all his attention. daughters, but television in particular, the attention she needed to become the basketball player she wanted to be, so you know, it was overwhelming for me, you know, I know Trail came out and he has his stories and everyone has their stories, but 26 years of knowing that guy and finding out and in our team meeting and it just slipped away.

I thought you know our meetings are over. I thought like that. I'm reading when I'm reading and you know you pass by people you know? You look back at Kobe's 20-year career and you think about how many people in the world hated Kobe because of how great he was and you get to that last game when he scored 60 or 60 points and everyone was like, "I look good just because I mean, It's amazing what he did in his final game on Friday and I think the world came to love him even more after his retirement because of the love he started showing to different people I tell my kids in college, obviously his last tutor. of tweets.

LeBron just his interactions and you can see a man who was such a fierce competitor at peace when he was sitting there, when now he sits on the court because he is not the Mamba competing against whoever his father is teaching his daughter the ins and outs of the game, in how he sees it and how she can learn to break down the game, that's what I saw and I think that's what a lot of people can see and I think that's where it takes the basketball world by surprise more than anything. nothing because we all saw it.

And for those of us who played against him and who knew him, I think that's what gets to my stomach, more than anything because of his happiness at that conversation I had with him telling me that he is like he is. In peace, I am happy to have met you. my happiest moment in all these championships, he won MVP 81, he was at his happiest in retirement, so it made me feel good to look forward to retirement just hearing that and that's why that's where that conversation took place and already You know, and they asked me to put that up.

Question: I contacted two guys who were retired as you know and I hadn't done that? There are some people that I had planned with, you know, how to cope and that was the last conversation, you know? before giving him a hug and loving your brother see you soon Oh Vince, it's kind of a two-part question, you already touched a lot on the humanitarian side, looking at that evolution over the last 26 years, what was that like for you? It's like seeing that up close, going from just a basketball player to an NBA ambassador to a humanitarian, so that's my richness to see, like I said, that's who he is and 15 is not much different from him to the 25 and 35, you know, to be honest, like him.

He had the mentality that he was the best or he was going to be the best and you know our AAU team was unfair, but it's fun and he still had the mentality. I mean, we played with Tim Thomas, Rip Hamilton, Kobe and I, and you know it was like that. I want to be the best even though our team is great and we'll see him go to the NBA and develop that mentality to a tenth or twelfth power and become the guy that he is, which puts them in a well-deserved debate and we. I haven't really seen in this generation someone who goes, not you know, beyond the US, but a global presence, so to speak, so I don't know if you had a chance to talk to the guys much, but can you share something with us? with what you were able to tell your team about losing someone that, like I said, transcends just the game of basketball, yes honestly, this is maybe something of a conversation that maybe I can have later.

I couldn't before the game, but I think it's well documented what he's done for the All-Stars today. I mean, it's well documented listening to LeBron's interview after his historic moment, what he's done for players of all sizes and all levels. I mean, you can see, you know the lives he's touched by current college players, so I think it's a peaceful issue and it speaks volumes for who he is and where he was as a person in his retirement phase. I think his heart was just pouring out. he was willing to help anyone and you just see him as a competitor when in reality he didn't talk to many people and then you see him as if he was more than approachable and more than willing to help.

You, the player, maybe don't become the mamba that he is, but the best player you can be and I just give you the foundation for that, so that was my thing for him. I mean, he's here, he's a guy who, you know, has been what he. four years and five, I guess five years, it's his five years now out of the game in retirement and it's new territory for me, so who better than the asagai who's done it for 20 years, you know, and that was the plan. So it's mind-blowing that he's here in the front row left, like you said you have a pretty unique relationship with both of them, an incredibly fierce but also very strong mutual respect.

I mean, how unique is that among relationships. you had both players and even going back to when he was 15, what caught your attention about him when you first, I was his drive to be the best, was just that you could see him there for me, I mean, remember that we had? At the start of one of our tournaments, he walks into Layton and he's playing and it's like he's already his, he's demanding the attention he wants to be the best, so you know, I think overseas you know the funny thing about this, maybe get out of your question. but you know, I know for the players that have played against him underneath, you know, you know in a special way, but it was interesting to see and I mean, I guess you got it, but it was interesting to see the effect that he had on some of the guys. that they were just born when he was in the NBA and obviously he's a hero to a lot of them and if you weren't, you had a high level of respect for him, so just seeing, you know the blank stares. on their faces, which caused a gloomy mood in the locker room, you know little, very little was said about the game plan in basketball because it was bigger than basketball and you know it was interesting for me, was there time or you were? from I hate this guy - I love this guy - I hate this guy again what it was, tell me it was our entire career, I mean you know I played in a salty all-star game, so I think we let our hair down . there you say, hey, you know, hahaha, you can see that means there are some that you meet from time to time.

I come across a couple of pictures where you see us talking, smiling at each other and then there's a couple of pictures where you see like we're like right here, pointing fingers and whatever so you know that's it and you know how the game is played and the love for the game and at that time that's how the game was played, it was a fun time, I mean you had to bring it, yeah. You know one thing you knew: he wanted the challenge of the best player and he wanted to duel you and if he wasn't ready for it he would be embarrassed, you know, since we were intending to get older near the end of our career the last two years our conversations They tended to get a little more friendly, especially his last year, extremely friendly, funny and still like laughing and joking, but I'm still trying to bust your ass, his last words to me, Vince, how hard it was to leave.

I went out and played the game for me personally, it wasn't, it wasn't easy, Lucas, it's just that you know, I really understand our jobs, you know, and what needs to be done, but like I said, this is a friend of over 20 years and talking to him and listening and seeing, but hearing his happiness, uh yeah, which made it difficult because I know he was happy, he was in a great place, like I said, he's going to take his daughter and his teammates and everything that you know, just to experience the game at different levels he didn't miss different atmospheres, how the guys handle different situations just knowing him and I can see when he points out to him what he's telling him, so that was a difficult part, you know, he wants just sit down if I had to leave, maybe our two more came out like you already knew we should continue, but it was difficult.