Vince Carter is among the most extraordinary University of North Carolina basketball players. However, when people think about Tar Heel greatness, Carter, James Worthy, and Michael Jordan are the names that come up when you think of their dominant time playing at Chapel Hill and in the NBA. Recently, former Eleven-time NBA Champion head coach Phil Jackson gave a strong take on Carter’s career and why he never won a title during his playing days. Jackson was on legendary music producer Rick Rubin’s podcast and asked Rubin: Did you ever see a player that you thought could be Michael, could be Kobe, but for whatever reason, it just never came together? Like you saw the promise, but it didn’t happen? Jackson answered: Yeah, there’s a couple. There are a couple of players that were actual contemporaries of theirs. Carter, Vince Carter is one of them. And he was outstanding. And he won the dunk contest. And you know, he had a long career and played until forty, but he didn’t have that x-factor.”
If there’s anything that looks like a shocking opinion but isn’t, it’s Jackson’s opinion of Carter. Carter carried mediocre Toronto Raptor teams for a long time and needed better help to win a title in Toronto. Jackson says Carter doesn’t have the “X-factor,” which every former NBA head coach who has had considerable success says about a legendary player. Specifically, a player that was on poorly constructed rosters. Why? Because the point Jackson is making in a roundabout way is that he’ll never reveal his personal opinion of Carter. From a professional perspective, he’s saying Carter didn’t have what it takes to win a title because of the incompetence of the Toronto Raptors organization.
