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Toronto Raptors fans should not boo Vince Carter.

But, they will.

On Friday night Vince Carter will take the floor for the New Jersey Nets and the Raptor fans will boo him every time he touches the ball. Extra security has been ordered; the Toronto media has not sounded so excited since, well, since Tracy McGrady came to town.

It says everything about the Raptors season, indeed their franchise, that this is the most anticipated event of the year. Spurned by Carter, many fans apparently relish the opportunity to express themselves. Express their anger, their sense of betrayal, their hope that the former golden boy and his new team will fail.

What they will not do is admit that Carter got it right. He got it right before anyone else did. Carter had his chance to meet the new general manager Rob Babcock, and new coach Sam Mitchell, and seemed to decide, “Hey, can I just get out of here?” But Babcock and Mitchell pleaded with Carter to give them a chance to show him their new philosophy and what they were trying to do.

So Carter had no choice but to wait and watch Rafael Araujo become the number eight pick in the 2004 draft and Rafer Alston become their highly paid point guard and see an unproven first year coach chosen and again Carter seemed to say, “Can I just get out of here’? I mean, this draft choice from BYU can’t really play basketball that well and isn’t Rafer the guy we were okay losing a couple of years ago?”

But he had to wait, and watch as Sam Mitchell showed no confidence in Carter, and plenty of confidence in himself, by deciding it would inspire the team to bench Carter and Jalen Rose on nights they got off to bad starts. This of course endeared Mitchell to the Toronto media because they had never really seen a coach do this before.

Well, maybe there is a reason it isn’t done much. Maybe it’s not that smart a thing to do. Maybe that’s why way better coaches usually try not to isolate their best players and play mediocre talent ahead of them. Maybe smart coaches don’t get into power struggles their first week on the job.

As everyone knows now, Babcock shrewdly bided his time until Carter’s stats plummeted and then became injured before waiting to complete one of the most lop-sided trades in NBA history.

Carter played soft, and well away from the basket his last two years in Toronto. He over-dramatized minor injuries and didn't hide when he felt pain, both uncommon sights to hockey oriented Toronto fans. He deservedly lost some respect from both fans and other players. He is not an off-court leader, and if you believe appearances, seemed to defer a lot of the tough decisions to his mom.

All that is true, but it also true that he started his career brilliantly and he has taken large steps this season to regain credibility.

What Toronto fans should do is applaud and remember his athleticism and charisma and his on-court creativity. He did things we hadn’t seen, and did them often and easily. Toronto fans should be gracious enough to be glad that he and the NBA has again found these gifts, even if they are expressed elsewhere. They should realize that Carter’s appraisal of the Raptor’s new regime was essentially right; they are way over their heads and are unlikely to be successful any time soon. It is just a matter of time before the new regime gets disassembled, yet again.

Toronto fans can boo Carter as they booed Tracy McGrady and Damon Stoudemire before him, and perhaps Chris Bosh two years from now. They can boo him, but they shouldn’t. He was right.