Vince Carter will be entering his 20th NBA season and his first with the Sacramento Kings. The 40-year-old still recalls how he was “thrown into the fire” as a rookie in Toronto, and tells Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee that he is prepared to do the same to the Kings’ many youngsters.
The Kings will have an incredible amount of inexperience on their roster next season. They have 10 players with less than three seasons of NBA experience, including four incoming rookies.
Carter’s mentorship has already begun this offseason, with fellow UNC alum Justin Jackson in particular quick to seek Carter’s guidance.
Carter is impressed with how the young players are already asking a lot of questions. Carter said rookie Justin Jackson, who also played at North Carolina, reached out during the summer as soon as Carter committed to signing with Sacramento. He’s been fielding questions from the young Kings ever since.
Apart from their lack of depth at small forward, one of the main reasons the Kings signed Carter to a one-year, $8 million deal this offseason was for him, and other grizzled veterans in Zach Randolph and George Hill, to help mentor the Kings’ young talent.
It’s a promising sign for the Kings and their potential stars of the future that Carter looks fully prepared to embrace that role on the team this season, which could potentially be his last in the NBA. While Carter might not necessarily help the team get better this season, the franchise could reap the benefits of his lessons years down the line.
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