Back in session: Vince Carter's youth basketball camp returns

The former NBA star conducted the camp for the first time since he retired in 2020 after playing a record 22 seasons.

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Vince Carter sat at a table in the lobby of the Vince Carter Athletic Center at Mainland High School and signed autographs for one of the age groups at the Vince Carter Youth Basketball Academy.

After everyone in the group received an autograph — some on their camp T-shirts — he accompanied them outside where a camp photographer was waiting to take a picture of the former NBA All-Star with the group of kids.

When they were done, another group filed out of the gym for autographs and a photo with the man who acquired the nicknames, “Vansanity,” and “Air Canada” early in his 22-year pro basketball career.

Carter has hosted the camp since he entered the NBA in 1998. Because of COVID restrictions, it was canceled the past two years. This year, being the first year back, the camp, which had always been a full week, was abbreviated to three days.

“Since we missed two years, we knew we wouldn’t get as many campers,” said Carter’s mother, Michelle Carter, who is the executive director of Vince Carter’s Embassy of Hope Foundation. “I was thinking 60 or 70.”

Instead, 124 kids between the ages of 7 and 17 participated in the camp held July 15-17. There were 24 campers from Ormond Beach, eight from Palm Coast and two from Bunnell.

Campers also traveled from Chile, Nova Scotia; Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and towns and cities throughout Florida.

“It’s easy to say you want to be a professional person. I want the kids to understand that they have to give that effort to make it.”

VINCE CARTER

Many campers return year after year. Triston Smelt, 16, of New Smyrna Beach participated for the fifth time. Abby Steele, 28, of Huntington, West Virginia, was a camper from age 7 to 17, and then began coaching at the camp at 18.

“I’ve been coaching here ever since,” said Steele, who is an athletic trainer.

After the campers got their autograph and their photo taken with Carter, Mainland’s most famous alumnus addressed the entire group. Every dream, he told them, takes hard work to fulfill.

“It’s easy to say you want to be a professional person. I want the kids to understand that they have to give that effort to make it,” Carter said.

Carter was an immense talent when he entered the NBA — one of the best dunkers and high flyers in league history — but it was hard work that kept him in the league longer than anybody else. He was 43 when he retired in 2020.

“It’s just about willingness and drive. I was still motivated to play regardless of my age. It was what I wanted to do, what I loved to do,” he said. “That’s why I told these kids, ‘Giving your all will take you a long way,’ because I’m living proof of that.”

If he was step slower than he was in his prime, he made up for it by being a good influence on his teammates, he said.

Busier than ever

When he was a rookie, he never thought he’d play for so long.

“For some reason I wanted to play 15 years,” he said. “I said that because some of the greatest players who played at that time played 12 to 14 years. So, I thought if I can get up to 15 years, that’s saying something. And once I got to 15 years, I want to play two more, play two more, play two more. I finally got to year 22 and it felt right.”

Though he’s been retired for two years, he’s busier than ever.

“People think he retired from everything,” Michelle Carter said. “He only retired from the NBA, not life.”

He’s currently a basketball analyst with ESPN. He also broadcasts the Atlanta Hawks games. The Hawks were the eighth and final team he played for, and he still makes his home in Atlanta.

He also recently finished a season of “Vince’s Places,” a streaming series on ESPN+, produced by Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions. During the series, Carter told stories from basketball’s history and visited with some of the game’s greatest players. He also has a podcast, “The VC Show.” 

His competition these days is golf. He competed in the American Century Celebrity Golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, July 6-10, finishing tied for 70th with actor Miles Teller.

“I’ve been working hard at it, trying to be a decent golfer, a single-digit golfer,” he said. “That’s my activity. That’s what keeps me sane.”

“Kids still ask me to dunk. That would hurt me now. It’s still there, it’s just now I’m on the other side. I stay grounded. No more flights.”

VINCE CARTER

Once in a while, he’ll pick up a basketball and shoot a bit, but the former NBA dunk champ doesn't play anymore.

“I don’t miss the game as far as playing. Kids still ask me to dunk. That would hurt me now,” he laughed. “It’s still there, it’s just now I’m on the other side. I stay grounded. No more flights.”

Carter’s camp is like a family affair. Most of the coaches — including Joe Giddens, Carter’s high school teammate and now Mainland’s head boys basketball coach — have been with the camp from the start.

Alison Pate, is a relative newcomer. She’s only coached at this camp since 2012. But she’s began coaching for Carter at his New Jersey camp in 2007 when he played for the New Jersey Nets.

Carter’s wife, Sondi, is the camp’s fitness coach. His 5-year-old son, Vincent, is the youngest camper.

 

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