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DAYTONA BEACH — Naismith Hall of Famer, Daytona Beach native and Mainland High School graduate Vince Carter played professional basketball for a long time. Like, a really long time.
Carter’s 22-year career from 1998-2020 is the second-longest in the history of the NBA, having just been exceeded by LeBron James during the 2025-26 season.
The eight-time All-Star and dunk extraordinaire called it quits after the COVID-shortened 2020 season and transferred to another career he’d been building for years — sports broadcasting.
In 2025, Carter became a studio analyst for NBC alongside fellow All-Stars Carmelo Anthony and Tracy McGrady.
Broadcasting has been a natural second act for retired professional athletes because they tend to know a lot about the sport they dedicated their lives to. It was an avenue Carter had already been eyeing for his post-NBA life, only for it to get postponed with each season he returned.
Carter’s first bullet point on his resume took place 15 years ago when he attended Syracuse’s Sportscaster U, a program held in conjunction with the NBA Players’ Association to prepare players for broadcasting careers.
“It helped me prepare myself for (broadcasting) and learn how to do it, learn how to be able to give an answer within those sometimes 10 to 30 seconds,” Carter told the News-Journal during his annual basketball camp at Mainland. “You got to learn how to get in and get out.”
For the last nine years of his playing career, Carter served as a guest analyst for ESPN once his team's season ended and called NBA Summer League games. Post-NBA, Carter worked for ESPN and TNT as a color commentator for NBA and ACC basketball games and was a guest on a variety of talk shows. He was also a part-time color commentator for the Toronto Raptors, Orlando Magic and Brooklyn Nets.
After TNT’s contract with the NBA ended in 2025, Carter signed with NBC with 14 years of experience.
“I did radio, I did sideline, I was doing all this stuff leading up to it because I didn’t know what direction I’d end up with broadcasting, but I knew I wanted to do it,” Carter said.
Before he started though, Carter was sent to a three-day NBC boot camp to prepare him and the rest of the crew for the upcoming show. Carter and the team went through every possible scenario during the consecutive eight-hour days.
And it was a good decision by NBC as it drew Carter closer with his cohort and readied them for the debacle on the first night of the show.
The microphones held by McGrady and host Maria Taylor both went down while the show was live on air, leaving Carter’s as the only one functioning. The fix was simple and one they practiced during training — they just passed Carter’s mic to each other until the segment was over — but it turned into an experience that set them up for a successful season in Carter’s eyes.
“It was cool to go through that. I mean, it was on live TV, but nevertheless, it was cool to go through that, and I think it made for a great year,” Carter said. “Because we knew from the beginning, like any team that you’re on, that you had each other’s back. … And I think we just got better and better and better, so when playoffs got around, we were kind of in our bag and knew what everybody brought to the table.”
Carter’s schedule was split between Tuesday studio shows in Connecticut and a Sunday in-arena broadcast of the network’s top game of the day. His broadcasting season followed the NBA's through the Western Conference Finals.
“TV works for me. Shoot, I travel just as much,” Carter joked.
Carter will return to NBC again for the second season of the network’s 11-year deal with the NBA. Carter himself doesn’t have a deal like that with NBC yet, but he plans to stay as long as it’ll have him.
“I’m trying to go back as many (years) as possible,” Carter said. “They have an 11-year deal, NBC does with the NBA, so I’m just hoping. This is my passion. I enjoy talking basketball, and I enjoy watching it and being around it.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: How Vince Carter built broadcasting career while still playing in NBA
Continue reading...
Carter’s 22-year career from 1998-2020 is the second-longest in the history of the NBA, having just been exceeded by LeBron James during the 2025-26 season.
The eight-time All-Star and dunk extraordinaire called it quits after the COVID-shortened 2020 season and transferred to another career he’d been building for years — sports broadcasting.
In 2025, Carter became a studio analyst for NBC alongside fellow All-Stars Carmelo Anthony and Tracy McGrady.
Broadcasting has been a natural second act for retired professional athletes because they tend to know a lot about the sport they dedicated their lives to. It was an avenue Carter had already been eyeing for his post-NBA life, only for it to get postponed with each season he returned.
Carter’s first bullet point on his resume took place 15 years ago when he attended Syracuse’s Sportscaster U, a program held in conjunction with the NBA Players’ Association to prepare players for broadcasting careers.
“It helped me prepare myself for (broadcasting) and learn how to do it, learn how to be able to give an answer within those sometimes 10 to 30 seconds,” Carter told the News-Journal during his annual basketball camp at Mainland. “You got to learn how to get in and get out.”
For the last nine years of his playing career, Carter served as a guest analyst for ESPN once his team's season ended and called NBA Summer League games. Post-NBA, Carter worked for ESPN and TNT as a color commentator for NBA and ACC basketball games and was a guest on a variety of talk shows. He was also a part-time color commentator for the Toronto Raptors, Orlando Magic and Brooklyn Nets.
After TNT’s contract with the NBA ended in 2025, Carter signed with NBC with 14 years of experience.
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“I did radio, I did sideline, I was doing all this stuff leading up to it because I didn’t know what direction I’d end up with broadcasting, but I knew I wanted to do it,” Carter said.
Before he started though, Carter was sent to a three-day NBC boot camp to prepare him and the rest of the crew for the upcoming show. Carter and the team went through every possible scenario during the consecutive eight-hour days.
And it was a good decision by NBC as it drew Carter closer with his cohort and readied them for the debacle on the first night of the show.
The microphones held by McGrady and host Maria Taylor both went down while the show was live on air, leaving Carter’s as the only one functioning. The fix was simple and one they practiced during training — they just passed Carter’s mic to each other until the segment was over — but it turned into an experience that set them up for a successful season in Carter’s eyes.
“It was cool to go through that. I mean, it was on live TV, but nevertheless, it was cool to go through that, and I think it made for a great year,” Carter said. “Because we knew from the beginning, like any team that you’re on, that you had each other’s back. … And I think we just got better and better and better, so when playoffs got around, we were kind of in our bag and knew what everybody brought to the table.”
Carter’s schedule was split between Tuesday studio shows in Connecticut and a Sunday in-arena broadcast of the network’s top game of the day. His broadcasting season followed the NBA's through the Western Conference Finals.
“TV works for me. Shoot, I travel just as much,” Carter joked.
Carter will return to NBC again for the second season of the network’s 11-year deal with the NBA. Carter himself doesn’t have a deal like that with NBC yet, but he plans to stay as long as it’ll have him.
“I’m trying to go back as many (years) as possible,” Carter said. “They have an 11-year deal, NBC does with the NBA, so I’m just hoping. This is my passion. I enjoy talking basketball, and I enjoy watching it and being around it.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: How Vince Carter built broadcasting career while still playing in NBA
Continue reading...
