In today's society, athletes are inevitably compared to one another,
especially basketball players. It seems that every time a young player
enters the NBA and demonstrates above average talent or has one spectacular
game he is dubbed the next Michael Jordan. Vince Carter is one of those
players, however his comparison to Michael has very few resemblance. There
are numerous similarities between Carter and Jordan, however Carter has yet
to prove himself the next Michael Jordan.Michael Jordan stands six feet six inches tall and weighs around 200
pounds.

He sports a clean-shaven head and a marked grin on his face. Jordan
is from North Carolina and attended the University of North Carolina. While
a freshman at UNC, Jordan led the tarheels to a national championship,
hitting the last second shot to win the game. Jordan left the University of
North Carolina after his junior year and was selected third in the NBA
draft, by the Chicago Bulls. While with the bulls Jordan set many seasonal
and career records.

He was also the leader of the Bulls, which twice won
three NBA titles in a row. Michael Jordan matured in the NBA and reached
his maximum playing ability, that is why he is considered the greatest
player of all time.Like Jordan, Vince stands six feet six inches tall and weighs about
200 pounds. He also has a clean-shaven head and a marked smile.

Vince
Carter is from Daytona Beach, Florida, but like Jordan, he attended the
University of North Carolina. Unlike Jordan, Carter did not win a national
championship, however he did lead them to two final four appearances in the
NCAA tournament. Carter left the University of North Carolina after his
junior year, as did Jordan. He was drafted fifth in the NBA draft by the
Golden State Warriors and then traded to the Toronto Raptors for his UNC
teammate Antawn Jamison. This is his third season in the league and while
he has yet to win a championship, he turned the Toronto Raptors into an
immediate playoff team. Dissimilar to Jordan, Carter has yet to mature in
the NBA, but give time he will become one of the greatest players ever to
play the game.

Michael Jordan always had a calm demeanor on the basketball court as
well as in his personal life. Even though he was always calm on the court,
he was tremendously competitive. He knew what it took to win and he showed
it throughout every game. Jordan knew that to be great you had to sacrifice
your body for the team, and he demonstrated that during the playoffs in
1997. Jordan came down with the flu before the game, and although extremely
ill, he played anyway. During that game, he scored forty-five points and
led the Bulls to the finals.

As great as Jordan was he never acted as if he
knew it, it was as if he did not have a sense of how good he really was.Basketball was just a game to him, a rather competitive game.Most of the time Vince Carter has a calm demeanor on the basketball
court, although there have been a couple of times his immaturity as a
player have been evident. For example, during one game last season he said
something smart to one of the officials, two weeks later the same official
was officiating one of Toronto's games and he kept calling fouls on Carter.This got Carter frustrated causing him to criticize the official after the
game.

Jordan would never do this; it just shows the difference in maturity
levels between the two. Like Jordan, Carter knows what it takes to win and
is willing to put forth the effort to do so. He knows when and how to take
over a game in order for his team to prevail. One of Carter's superior
assets, one he shares with Jordan, is something he does not have, a sense
of how good he really is.

Michael Jordan can defy gravity. The moves he exhibited on the court
were astonishing. He was the master of the fade away jump shot, not even a
seven foot tall center could defend it. During a playoff game against the
Lakers in 1991, Jordan came down the lane and went up with the ball in his
right hand as if to dunk, a defender hinted that he would try to block the
shot so Jordan suddenly switched the ball to his left hand and laid it in
uncontested.

The defender just stood there frozen. In 1987, Jordan won the
slam-dunk contest by dunking from the free throw line, thus showing him
defying gravity.Vince Carter also defies gravity. He is known as a dunker, unlike
Jordan, who was known as a shooter. However Carter has a magnificent jump
shot, it just has not developed fully.

Carter's career high in scoring is
fifty-one points, which came in his national television debut against the
Knicks. The most superb play that shows Carter's athleticism was during
last year's slam-dunk contest, which he easily won. Teammate and cousin
Tracy McGrady bounced the basketball off the court, and then Carter jumped
up and caught the ball in mid air, then took the ball between his legs, and
then dunked it. Vince Carter shows moments of possibly being better than
Michael Jordan was at this stage in his career.However in order to be considered the next greatest player of all time
you have to exhibit more than just moments, you have to dominate.

Given
time Vince Carter will develop into one of the greatest ever to play, but
for now Michael Jordan is still the greatest.