15 Hot Takes That Will Help Vince Carter Make an Immediate Impact at ESPN

Vince Carter is joining ESPN full-time as an NBA analyst according to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post. This is officially Carter's first job since he retired from the NBA earlier this year after more than two legendary decades as a player. While he has hosted a podcast for The Ringer, being a regular voice on ESPN is a whole other thing. He's competing for airtime in a very crowded media space and will need to stand out early and often if he wants his media career to be as successful as his playing career. And that means one thing - he needs takes.

Vince Carter needs hot takes and he needs lots of them, otherwise he could get lost in the shuffle. He needs to say some stuff that the blog boys will take out of context. He needs to generate headlines and tweets that feature fire or eye emojis or even a cup of tea.

He should keep in mind that sticking primarily to basketball will only limit his exposure so he needs to be well-versed in all sports so producers know how versatile he is. To help him get off to a fast start, here are some things he could say that would get people talking about him on social media and blogs.

"I like the current playoff format."

"I wish I had gone to Duke."

"Boban [Marjanovic] isn't even that tall."

"I'm younger than Luka Doncic."

"Mike Greenberg's hair only looks OK."

"No 40 year old should ever play in the NBA. It is impossible and I can't imagine a scenario where that would happen."

"Anyone who ever attended North Carolina knows it's really a football school."

"I saw some kids playing in a yard as I drove here today so please explain to me why we can't have Big Ten football in full stadiums this fall."

"Major League Eating needs a celery cap."

"I got lost in the outback for a full week during the 2000 Olympics. The Australian government worked with Rudy Tomjanovich to get a body double to avoid panic in America and a possible international incident. The body double's name was Mitch and he's actually the one who dunked over Frédéric Weis."

"The hardest thing to do in sports is hit a baseball... card with a dart while blindfolded."

"When I retired for the first time in 2010, David Stern convinced Mitch to step in and play for me because he was worried there wouldn't be enough players for every team."

"My top five NBA players of all-time are all Paul Pierce."

"I don't know the words to the National Anthem."

"I agree with what Kendrick Perkins just said."