Just weeks ago there was talk that Vince Carter's career might be over due to injuries in his knees, talk that the Toronto Raptors dismissed, and last night showed that the Raptor's judgement may have been correct after all.

After practicing with the team for more than a week Carter was finally able to take his place in the starting lineup against the Sacramento Kings, playing in what was his eleventh game of the season.  Despite being sidelined for the majority of the year to date fans still showed their support for the high flying superstar by making him the votes leader for the 2003 NBA All-Star game, Carter joining Allen Iverson, Tracy McGrady, Jermaine O'Neal and Ben Wallace as the Eastern Conference starters.

Carter was tentative in the game's opening moments, having his first shot blocked by Vlade Divac, but he was able to recover on the way to 22 points in 23 minutes and more importantly a Raptors win.

"I had to dust that old stuff off and let you guys know my knee's OK," said Carter with a wide grin.

"Actually it was for the doctors to know the knee's OK. It was for everybody, how about that?"

The timing of his comeback was perfect in Carter's eyes, with the game falling on his 26th birthday.

"It was a very nice birthday present, one of the best ever I think in my 26 years," said Carter. "Even when you're young you get the gifts you want, but this year has had a lot of meaning, coming back playing basketball and all the stuff that's gone on."

"There was a lot of electricity out there," said Raptors head coach Lenny Wilkens. "Because you have a great team coming in and then people knew that Vince was going to play tonight. . . That got us going as well and that was a big lift for the team."

While his Raptors teammates were all happy to have their leader back in the mix, the Kings Chris Webber had other thoughts.  "I don't really care about Vince," he said. "We lost today. Who cares? There are a lot of good players in the NBA."

Carter didn't let Webber's negativity get to him, stating he was just happy to be back and playing hard.

"I've been thrown a lot of challenges this year, the last two years, and this is the first day I can actually accept those challenges and do something about it," concluded Carter.