LOS ANGELES — Watch someone long enough, as Vince Carter is allowing us to watch him, and you see the same stuff, except from new perspectives.
It was without trepidation that Carter ferociously rammed both ball and arm deep into that net in the 2000 NBA Slam Dunk Contest. Same sort of thing when he soared up and over 7'2" Frederic Weis in the Olympics mere months later.
Sixteen years later, that fearlessness has evolved into something so serene it barely registers as the daredevil act it is.
Carter turns 40 in two months.