It’s amazing how when you’re younger you make fun of the older guys in any professional sports league. Hell you make fun of anyone older playing any sport. It’s just in our nature as competitors to pick on the old guys and make fun of those who “don’t have it” anymore. But as you age you realize just how difficult it is to be a professional athlete and how tiny a shelf-life these guys actually have playing a sport they love, making tons of money for doing it, and getting revered by fans (not to mention having your choice at virtually any beautiful woman or man that comes your way). Which is why I root for the old guys. I hope they can stick around for as long as is humanly possible.
It’s why Vince Carter is easily my favorite player in the NBA right now. How could you not love this guy? He’s playing a game that he loves and holding up with guys half his age. And he still has hops! Not only that. This weekend he mentioned that he wants to play for “at least” two more years. Here’s a recent quote Carter made.
“I said to myself ‘I want to play 15 years’. I don’t know where I got that from. And the I got to 15 years and I kept going. I never capped it, but at the same time I’ve had a lot of players remind me of things I’ve said,” said Carter about how he kept telling fellow players he would retire after two more years.
“I’m still saying ‘two more years and I’m done,’” Carter said. “I sit here today and I think of when I was younger, at that 25 and the season was over, I felt awful. I could play three more rounds of basketball right now.”
I sincerely hope that Vince plays until he’s 50. I love this guy.
