[From ESPN]

Editor's note: This story was originally published on Feb. 12, 2014.

Late on the night of Feb. 11, 2000, Vince Carter lies awake in his Bay Area hotel. He is restless because his mind won't stop. The next evening, in Oakland, he is to compete in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest at All-Star Weekend, an event both celebrated and reviled and one Carter does not yet know he has been tabbed by the league to save.

His thoughts turn to the half-dozen or so slams he has planned for the competition, a stacked affair that will feature four All-Stars, either present or future, including Carter's cousin and teammate. Not that Carter's planning will matter much. Just minutes before the contest begins the next night, he will scrap all but one dunk he had prepared, almost totally improvising one of the greatest athletic exhibitions the NBA will ever see.

Carter seemed destined for this stage, ever since his first slam dunk in the sixth grade, a desperate attempt on the outdoor hardtop at Ormond Beach Middle School in Florida. Later, he had become such a feared dunker that at one national high school competition, which featured other future NBA All-Stars, the field simply forfeited midcontest after one particularly explosive Carter slam.

Read more of ESPN's story HERE