It safely can be argued that both Vince Carter and Mel Lastman have had better years.

But that didn't prevent a festive atmosphere yesterday at a news conference to promote Carter's second annual Summer Jam to benefit his Embassy of Hope charitable foundation.

The highest-profile guests at the Air Canada Centre obviously were Raptors guard Carter and Toronto mayor Lastman. In fact, Carter cracked up when the predictably less-than-shy Lastman demonstrated his allegedly formidable jumping ability.

"His jumping ability's not that good," Carter said of Lastman. "He's a little short guy. I would bet a lot of money that he couldn't touch the bottom of the net. But he's in my corner."