Vince Carter intends to enter Hall of Fame as a Toronto Raptor

A photo of a Toronto Raptor will finally hang, forever enshrined, in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Franchise legend, ground-breaker and high-flyer Vince Carter has made it clear that when he is officially inducted in August, he will be representing his time spent north of the border with the Toronto Raptors.

"There's no greater honour than to go into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a Raptor," Carter told Sportsnet's Arash Madani on Saturday when his enshrinement was officially announced.

Former Raptors have entered the hall, with stars such as Chris Bosh, Tracy McGrady and even Hakeem Olajuwon (if you want to count his one season) already inducted. However, those stars' time in the NBA is more commonly associated with other teams.

The story of Vince Carter, meanwhile, cannot be told without telling the story of the Toronto Raptors, and vice-versa.

"Thank you. Thank you for sticking with it, thank you for understanding, thank you for listening," Carter said about his at-times tumultuous time in Toronto. "It's been an up-and-down ride and journey and we had to feed out the BS. It was an honour and pleasure to go through it, it helped me grow up even faster, mould me, taught me life lessons, what life is about."

His entrance was spectacular, his exit was devastating. But the time spent in Toronto changed who Carter was and changed how basketball was perceived in the country as a whole.

When asked about his thoughts on the growth of basketball in Canada, he spoke about how his perspective has changed over the years and how he's come to reconcile the fact that he had an impact as great as he did.

"I'm more one with it today than I was maybe five years ago," Carter said. "I remember Tristan Thompson coming up to me and showing his appreciation.

"That was kind of the start of a weird acceptance moment. I had never really thought of it until that day. He was just like 'You were my Michael Jordan.'"

With 27 Canadian players now in the NBA, there's a high chance that more than a handful of them grew up watching Carter become a human highlight reel.

As the eight-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA guard is set to be immortalized in the Hall of Fame, his impact on Toronto and Canadian basketball will feel that same effect.

After 22 years in the NBA, including seven in Toronto, Carter has made it clear. He's forever a Raptor.

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