NBA: At 40, Vince Carter aims to keep playing

Vince Carter #15 of the Memphis Grizzlies collides with Manu Ginobili #20 of the San Antonio Spurs during the first half of Game 6 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals during the 2017 NBA Playoffs at FedExForum on April 27, 2017, in Memphis, Tennessee. AFP

LOS ANGELES, United States — At 40 years old and with 19 NBA seasons under his belt, Vince Carter hasn’t lost his appetite for basketball.

Carter, who will be a free agent in the off-season after helping the Memphis Grizzlies reach the playoffs, told specialist internet site RealGM.com that he feels better now than he did when he was 25.

“I said to myself, ‘I want to play 15 years,’ I don’t know where I got that from,” Carter said. “And then I got to 15 years and I kept going.

“I never capped it, but at the same time I’ve had a lot of players remind me of things I’ve said,” Carter added of his repeated refrain that he would retire “after two more years.”

“I’m still saying ‘two more years and I’m done,'” he said.

Carter’s physical skills — including his spectacular dunking ability — were on display in the Grizzlies’ first-round series loss to the San Antonio Spurs, when he became the oldest player to start a playoff game since Dikembe Mutombo for Houston in 2008.

Carter averaged 8.0 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 73 games last season, claiming his body feels better than it did 15 years ago.

“I could play three more rounds of basketball right now,” he said.

Carter, the 1999 NBA Rookie of the Year, is one of seven active players to score more than 20,000 career points, reaching 24,555 this season.

He played for the Toronto Raptors, New Jersey (now Brooklyn) Nets, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks before arriving in Memphis in 2014 and indicated he would be happy to stay with the Grizzlies.

“We’re building something exciting and great and I enjoy going to work with these guys every day,” he said. CBB