10 NBA players who were born in the wrong era

9. Vince Carter

Vince Carter is the player that “missed it by that much”. He seems like the type of player that is just too late for those late 90s guards who were dominating the game. He came into the league in 1998 and made an immediate impact on the Toronto Raptors. He was averaging 25 points per game by the time he was in his second year in the league, and he was well on his way to being one of the best players in the league. Carter hit superstar status thanks to his Dunk Contest performance in 2000, and he was off to the races.

When he started his career, he was in the perfect era for success. The issue is the era started to change. Once the Michael Jordan era started to end, the Kobe Bryant era began. The media scrutiny started to be more and more prevalent, day-long talk shows needed things to talk about, and the pressure went on Carter to be better than ever. Instead of people paying attention to Carter when he was in the biggest games only, his game was picked through with a fine-toothed comb, and it seemed like he lost a lot of his greatness by the time he was 30.

People were paying more attention to how he fit with teammates and his comments postgame than they did about his superstardom on the court. If he was in his prime in the late 80s and early 90s, nobody would be paying attention to that. Carter could have just cooked on the court and been in playoff epics with Jordan or the Pistons.