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Wednesday, August 30, 2000
Raptors’ Carter LAHAINA -- Vince Carter is spending his mornings at practice, his afternoons and evenings in his room playing video games. Staying at a hotel just a few hundred yards from a gorgeous Pacific Ocean lagoon, Carter refuses to take a dip.
a catch for U.S.
Olympic team
The up-and-coming star almost
didn't make as a member of the
basketball team going to SydneyBy Chris Sheridan
Associated Press"They spotted a 15-foot shark, and that knocked out my jet skiing plans," Carter said, adding that the sight of dolphins near the beach was nerve-racking enough. "I want to be the only mammal in the water."
In a lot of ways, Carter is the biggest fish in the pond for the U.S. Olympic men's basketball team. An up-and-coming star who made the biggest splash in the league last season with his high-flying dunks and knack for scoring, Carter almost didn't make it this far.
Back in December, he was passed over in favor of Ray Allen when the final three spots on the team were filled. Only after Tom Gugliotta pulled out with an injury did Carter finally get added to the team.
He and Allen now find themselves teammates just a few months after kindling one of the league's budding rivalries between the Toronto Raptors and Milwaukee Bucks.
Tickets for this week's U.S. men's Olympic basketball games at the Stan Sheriff Center are still available. Basketball tickets available:
The U.S. men's team takes on Canada at 4 p.m. tomorrow. The team will also face a college all-star team on Saturday at 1 p.m. as part of a doubleheader with the U.S. women's team and Brazil.
Tickets are $18-$35 for tomorrow's game and Saturday's doubleheader and available at the Sheriff Center Box Office, the Ward Centre RainBowTique, the UH Campus Center, and by calling 944-BOWS.
"All that enemy stuff, somebody started that. We're friends," Carter said.
"Our teams play hard against each other, we battle each other four games out of the year, that's all it is. After that, it's back to normal life. Nothing out of the ordinary. No hatred, no nothing."
It certainly didn't look that way last season. Back in January, just before the "Vinsanity" craze and shortly after the spot went to Allen, Carter and Allen engaged in two of the most heated games of the NBA regular season.
Playing back-to-back games on consecutive nights, first in Toronto and then in Milwaukee, the Raptors and Bucks went at each other hard.
Carter bloodied Allen's nose the first night while scoring 47 points, and Allen came back and went straight at Carter the next night in a game that featured a fight, three ejections and numerous knockdowns and insults.
Fueling it all was the debate over whether which player was more deserving of a spot on the national team.
"I don't think Vince and I have ever been enemies," Allen said. "I'm enemies with everybody when we're on the court, but we went through some extreme circumstances over the course of the last season.
"The media in Canada made it seem worse than it really was. They were trying to make it seem like I was the bad guy, but it's not like either of us were on the selection committee."
Allen remembers going to Toronto before the first of those back-to-back games and sitting down for a TV interview in which the reporter "badgered" him with questions about who was more deserving of the Olympic roster spot.
When the teams tipped off that night, Carter played like he had something to prove as he torched Allen early and often -- at one point drawing blood with an elbow to Allen's nose -- in front of a fired-up crowd.
"They were somewhat on the sour side. They said they hated me," Allen recalled.
Like the fierce competitor he is, Allen returned the favor the next night by taking the ball right at Carter, scoring 16 points in the first quarter and finishing 11-for-15 from the field.
The Bucks and Raptors ended up splitting their season series, and the harsh feelings between the teams lingered.
But there has been no carryover into the Olympic team training camp.
About the only competition remaining between the two -- for now -- is to see who will get more playing time.
Carter would seem to have an edge since he is one of only two small forwards on the U.S. team. Allen is one of three shooting guards.
"Everybody has gone at each other with extremely high intensity," U.S. Olympic coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. "Those younger guys have handled themselves very well. They've made their mark here."
