Gilbert Arenas doubles down on Vince Carter not reaching his full potential: "He should've been the next one"

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Vince Carter is one of the greatest shooting guards of the modern era. He was an absurd athlete who could jump over defenders but still punish you from the outside. ‘Vinsanity’ was a complete shooting guard, but he could not win an MVP award or a championship during his career.

Former All-Star Gilbert Arenas has been on the record saying that Carter should have been a part of the GOAT debate. For Agent Zero, Vince did not play with the right mentality to stand out and become a superstar. In a recent DJ Vlad interview, Arenas spoke about VC wasting his potential to become the best player ever.

“He should’ve been the next one. He had everything, he had the one-of-one Bugatti. You looking at him and ‘Oh my god, this is what’s coming?’ Jumping ability, hands, arms, hang-time, charisma, style,” Arenas said. “You’ve never seen anything like it, but he was a nice guy. So I call him lazy, which is my way of saying he’s too nice. He cared.”

Vince was still a stellar player

Despite what Arenas is saying, VC had an illustrious 22-year career. Carter set the record for most seasons played in NBA history, starting his career in 1998 and ending it in 2020. That cemented him as the only player ever who played in four different decades.

Across those 22 seasons, Vince averaged 16.7 points per game. However, from his rookie year until the 2009/10 season, Vince scored 22.9 points per game as the superstar for the Toronto Raptors and the New Jersey Nets.

He was one of the best players in the Eastern Conference for an entire decade. ‘Vinsanity’ was a two-time All-NBA player and an eight-time All-Star in the same era as elite shooting guards like Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, and Carter’s cousin Tracy McGrady.

Vince’s teams were a constant threat in terms of his playoff success. This includes his run to the Eastern Conference Semifinals with the Raptors in 2001 when he dueled MVP Allen Iverson and suffered a narrow loss in a seven-game series. Carter would then play in the semifinals twice with the Nets but could not beat eventual champions Miami Heat and finalists Cleveland Cavaliers.

Carter constantly played against the best of the best, but Arenas thinks he did not work hard enough to become the best possible version of himself.

Was Vince too friendly?

Gilbert’s main criticism of Carter was that he was “too nice.” That is interesting because VC is a mild-mannered guy and is not as assertive as fellow shooting guard superstars like Kobe and Michael.

Since Arenas felt that Carter was on the same level as those two, he wanted to see Vince display a killer mentality. For Gil, it was not evident that ‘Vinsanity’ had a killer instinct, but other players might have a different outlook.

It is up for debate whether Carter met his limitless potential because even Grant Hill believes he and Vince were on an MVP trajectory. That was essentially the same point Gilbert made without the accusations of being too nice. Arenas makes a valid point, but his approach might be too much.