There are a couple of reasons I find Vince Carter discussions interesting. In no particular order:
-Ignoring circumstances: Vince hasn't had much deep playoff success. Question is, when should he have? Swap him and Kobe...VC is easily the swing man banana on Shaq's Laker teams. Teammates matter.
-Perception over results: Carter has been very productive in his career, including in his playoff opportunities. But we keep on thinking he should be doing more, and penalize him for that. If someone else did the exact same thing as vince on the court but looked a little differently doing it, he'd have a completely different reputation.
-We think we KNOW what vince could have been: Vince is penalized because we strongly believe that we KNOW how good he COULD have been. But what if WE are wrong? What if this is how good he is? Not living up to OUR expectations doesn't change what he has produced on the court. If we had expected less...say he was drafted 25th...then put up the exact same career, would we think about his HOF eligibility differently? If so, I think that he should be in, because I fail to see how our expectations or lack thereof actually change what was accomplished on the court.