[10] A high school McDonald's All-American, Carter played college basketball for three years with the North Carolina Tar Heels and twice advanced to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament.

He also played for the Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings, and Atlanta Hawks.

Off the court, Carter established the Embassy of Hope Foundation, helping children and their families in Florida, New Jersey and Ontario.

[20] He played three seasons of college basketball for the North Carolina Tar Heels under Dean Smith and later Bill Guthridge.

During the 1997–98 season, he was a member of new coach Guthridge's "Six Starters" system that also featured Antawn Jamison, Shammond Williams, Ed Cota, Ademola Okulaja, and Makhtar N'Diaye.

[21] During his sophomore and junior seasons, Carter helped North Carolina to consecutive ACC men's basketball tournament titles and Final Four appearances.

He finished the 1997–98 season with a 15.6 points per game average and was named second-team All-American, First-Team All-ACC, and to the fan's guide third-annual Coaches ACC All-Defensive Team.

[24] Carter ascended to full-fledged stardom in his second season—he averaged 25.7 points per game (fourth-highest in the league) and lifted Toronto to its first playoff appearance in franchise history.

However, McGrady left in free agency to the Orlando Magic in August 2000, leaving Carter as the Raptors' franchise player.

[24] On January 8, 2006, after a missed free throw by the Raptors, Carter hit a long three pointer at the other end with 0.1 seconds left to seal a 105–104 win to shock the Toronto crowd.

"[36] In November 2011, Carter, along with Tracy McGrady and Charles Oakley, addressed the Toronto audience in an interview on Off the Record with Michael Landsberg.

Looking back on it, Mitchell feels he should have personally contacted the MLSE chairman, Larry Tanenbaum, but was reluctant because he did not want to break the chain of command.

[45] On November 19, 2014, nearly a decade after the trade, as a part of the Raptors' 20th anniversary celebration, the team paid tribute to Carter with a video montage during the first quarter of the Raptors–Grizzlies game.

[46] As the sellout crowd watched the video tribute featuring highlights of Carter's high-flying Raptors days, what began as the usual booing turned into an overwhelmingly positive standing ovation.

[47][48][49] An emotional Carter used his warm-up shirt to wipe tears running down his face as he pointed to his heart and waved to the fans in appreciation.

Carter helped lead the Nets to the second round of the playoffs before losing to the eventual NBA champions Miami Heat in five games.

[56] In a 120–114 overtime win over the Washington Wizards on April 7, 2007, Carter and Kidd became the first teammates in over 18 years to record triple-doubles in the same game since the Chicago Bulls' Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen achieved this feat against the Los Angeles Clippers in 1989.

[61] On November 21, 2008, Carter scored a season-high 39 points, including a game winning two-handed reverse dunk, as the Nets battled back from an 18-point deficit to defeat the Toronto Raptors 129–127 in overtime at the Air Canada Centre.

[63] On June 25, 2009, Carter was traded, along with Ryan Anderson, to the Orlando Magic in exchange for Rafer Alston, Tony Battie and Courtney Lee.

[64] Orlando hoped Carter would provide center Dwight Howard with a perimeter scorer who can create his own shot—something the Magic had lacked when they were defeated in the 2009 NBA Finals by the Los Angeles Lakers.

[76] He averaged just 10.5 points and shot 37.6% from the field during the first 22 games of the season due to increased responsibilities and pressure to be the team's lone scoring punch off of the bench.

[76] On March 16, 2014, against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Carter raised his career total to 23,010 points, becoming the 27th NBA player to pass the 23,000-point mark with a 3-pointer with 2:17 left in the third quarter.

[92] On November 12, Carter made seven field goals against the Milwaukee Bucks to pass Gary Payton (8,708) for 21st in NBA history.

[99] On February 1, in a game against the Denver Nuggets, Carter hit his 2,000th career three-pointer, making him only the fifth player to ever reach that mark.

[100] On February 6 against San Antonio, Carter joined Karl Malone, Dikembe Mutombo, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Robert Parish as the only 40-year-old players to record at least four blocks in a game.

[114] On March 19, 2018, in a 106–90 loss to the Detroit Pistons, Carter had seven points to move past Patrick Ewing into 22nd place on the NBA's career scoring list.

[139] Carter played for head coach Kelvin Sampson on the United States men's national under-19 team at the 1995 FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup in Athens.

[150] However Carter broke his contract with Puma prematurely, citing the "shoes were hurting his feet" and played out the rest of the 1999–2000 NBA season in various brands.

[159] Carter was part of a coalition that, along with several private equity executives, his former teammate Tracy McGrady, and Jozy Altidore, purchased a minority stake in the National Football League's Buffalo Bills from the Pegula family in December 2024.

[192] Carter visited with the Duquesne University men's basketball team in Pittsburgh as a show of support after five of its players were shot in September 2006.