Carter racking up the milestones on NBA farewell tour

The milestones are piling up, and running out, for Atlanta's Vince Carter.

The Hawks' 143-120 defeat at the New York Knicks on Tuesday was the 1,504th game of his career, tying John Stockton for fourthmost in NBA history.

Barring injury, Carter will pass Dirk Nowitzki later this season for No 3 on the career list.

Third place is the ceiling for Carter; assuming he doesn't change his mind about retirement and play again next season, he can't catch No 2 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1,560) or No 1 Robert Parish (1,611). Nowitzki retired after 1,522 games.

It has not been the ideal start to the farewell season. Tuesday's loss to fellow strugglers the Knicks was the Hawks' fifth straight defeat and left them bottom of the Eastern Conference with a 6-22 record.

But Carter's last lap around the league has undoubtedly been worth celebrating.

"Many different teams, many different highlights, many different moments of his career, too many to count," Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce said. "But we're going to cherish and appreciate what we have this year."

There are more milestones to reach: Carter is also 60 points away from passing Alex English for 19th on the league's career-scoring list. He has an outside chance of climbing a couple more rungs on that ladder as well.

The league hasn't said yet if Carter will get the All-Star Game curtain call that Nowitzki and Dwyane Wade got last season in their farewells.

But savvy fans know that when Atlanta comes to their town for the last time this season, it'll almost certainly be the last time they can applaud Carter.

In Miami last week, fans paid tribute to him twice with long ovations. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told the story of how back in his scouting days for Miami, one of his assignments was Toronto－when Carter played for the Raptors.

How long ago was that? "I don't remember those two years of my life," Spoelstra said.

Opposing players are taking notice of the moment as well, knowing they soon won't be able to face off with Carter again.

"I love that guy," Miami's Jimmy Butler said. "I'm so glad that the fans showed him love as well. What he's done for the game of basketball, his career, legendary, Hall of Famer, all that stuff. He's a great human being."

His place in history is secure. All that's left to decide are the final numbers.

New markets

The G League is where the NBA tinkers with various ideas to see what works.

It bears wondering if the Mexico City move is a test balloon as well.

On the surface, the decision to have a G League team there－the Mexico City-based Capitanes join the league next season－seems logical for a lot of reasons. Growing the game around the world, including Latin America, is a very real priority for the NBA. Mexico City's population is roughly the same as New York, and the city is a major player in the global economic markets.

But this isn't about the G League. This is about seeing if the NBA will work there.

There are no active plans to expand the NBA past its current 30 teams. But if this experiment works－and the league does acknowledge that Mexico City has been a discussion point in previous expansion conversations－expect growth to become a very hot topic.

The NBA has long had at least some level of interest in expanding past the US and Canada, and tapping into a new marketplace will show if revenue streams in Mexico City exist to support putting an NBA team there one day.

It might be of popular sentiment to bring a team back to Seattle or put one in Las Vegas, but that won't do much for the bottom line when it comes to the national TV deals that have helped salaries soar in recent years.

The easiest way for the league to find new money may be to take the game to a totally new locale.

There are countless challenges in Mexico City－the altitude (NBA teams have brought hyperbaric chambers with them, something G League teams likely don't have the budget for) and the water among them.

But if this works, it makes sense to believe that the NBA will be there for real one day.

"I have no doubt, the league, at whatever time the tables turn to look at expansion, Mexico City will be on our list," NBA commissioner Adam Silver said.

LeBron v Giannis

Shoutout to the NBA schedulemakers. They knew what they were doing this week.

And the annual Christmas schedule hype for the league is getting an early start.

The Los Angeles Lakers visit the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday, a showdown of the league's best two teams so far, a matchup between reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and reinvigorated past MVP LeBron James.

The Bucks are 24-4 after their 18-game winning streak was snapped on Monday by Dallas. The Lakers will be no worse than 24-4, depending on what happens Tuesday in Indiana. It'll be the first time in NBA history that two teams with fewer than five losses apiece will play this deep into a season.

This is the fifth time that two teams have had records this good through 28 games. The last time it happened was 2008-09, when Boston started 26-2 and Cleveland－with James leading the way－opened 24-4.

The other instances came in 1993-94 (Seattle 25-3, Houston 24-4), 1972-73(Celtics 25-3, Lakers 24-4) and 1971-72 (Lakers 25-3, Bucks 24-4).

AP