Fansided

The Whiteboard: Playing Six Degrees of Vince Carter

By Ian Levy

22 Apr 2001: 15-Vince Carter of the Toronto Raptors during game 1 of round one in the NBA Playoffs at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York. The Knicks defeated the Raptors 92-85. DIGITAL IMAGE. Mandatory Credit: Ezra O. Shaw/Allsport
22 Apr 2001: 15-Vince Carter of the Toronto Raptors during game 1 of round one in the NBA Playoffs at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York. The Knicks defeated the Raptors 92-85. DIGITAL IMAGE. Mandatory Credit: Ezra O. Shaw/Allsport /
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If you’re looking to find some aspect of NBA minutiae to blow your mind, there is literally no better source than NBA Reddit. And in these days of quarantine and social distancing, there more bottomless rabbit holes in their posts than ever before. For example, did you know that Vince Carter, in his 21-year career, has played with or against 1,672 different players? If you think that’s shocking, what’ll you get a load of this — that’s 37 percent of all the players who have ever played in the NBA.

In the entire history of the NBA, nearly 40 percent of the players can be linked directly to Carter. It makes for weird tidbits like this — Carter has played with or against every NBA MVP going back to Michael Jordan in 1991. Carter was 14 when Jordan won that MVP.

It also makes Carter the perfect fulcrum for the NBA version of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. If you’ve never played this weird party game, you link obscure actors to Kevin Bacon through a spiderweb overlapping roles in six movies or less. For example, you can get from Vince Carter to Wilt Chamberlain in five moves, using only teammates:

  1. Carter played his rookie season (1998-99) with the 36-year-old Kevin Willis.
  2. Willis played his third season (1986-87) with the 33-year-old Gus Williams.
  3. Williams played his rookie season (1975-76) with a 31-year-old Rick Barry.
  4. Barry played his rookie season (1965-66) with a 29-year-old Al Attles.
  5. Al Attles played his second season (1961-62) with Wilt Chamberlain.

And just to be clear, that’s not some old, broke-down Chamberlain. That’s five moves to the year Chamberlain scored 100 in a single game and averaged over 50 points per game for the season. Heck, add that sixth degree and using just teammates, you can get to freaking GEORGE MIKAN:

  1. Carter played his rookie season (1998-99) with the 36-year-old Kevin Willis.
  2. Willis played his third season (1986-87) with the 33-year-old Gus Williams.
  3. Williams played three seasons (1977-80) with a Paul Silas.
  4. Silas played his rookie season (1964-65) with a 32-year-old Bob Petit.
  5. Bob Petit played three seasons (1957-60) with Slater Martin.
  6. Slater Martin was on the 1955-56 Minneapolis Lakers with George Mikan in his final season.

The best thing about putting Carter into this game is that it will work for decades. One could safely assume Trae Young is headed for a career of at least 10 more seasons. As Carter’s teammate this past season, he’ll be the link to connect Carter to essentially every NBA player who enters the league for the next decade. The game has changed. And the game will never end.

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