It's delicious timing for scribes and not so tasty for poor Vince, because funk is a pretty apt description for what has happened to his Toronto Raptors. There is the good kind of funk, that which fills up highlight reels and sells sneakers, and then the kind that equates to 13 consecutive losses.

By now, mind you, he knows the difference. There have been many gloomy spells in Carter's career, be it a playoff manhandling from the Knicks, or a fallout with cousin Tracy McGrady or a furor sparked by that North Carolina graduation stroll on the morning of Game 7 in Philadelphia.

This one, though, might be the most painful. So often rapped for lacking leadership and toughness, Carter is playing hurt and still getting ripped. The Raptors were seven losses into their skid when Carter came back early, and anyone could see that he's moving gingerly on a vulnerable left leg. Yet those were really boos he heard at home, after electing not to dunk the ball on a recent breakaway.