We all have no choice but to accept and acknowledge the passage of time. But what if, even if only for one night, Vince Carter could somehow recapture that magic and break out one more dominating dunk contest performance?

It’s a terrifically tantalizing thought. And considering that we only ever saw Vince in one NBA Slam Dunk contest, it was perhaps understandable when fans got excited a couple of weeks back, after a video began circulating in which Carter seemed to say if he appeared in the dunk contest in February, it would be “interesting, to say the least.” The video was posted to YouTube on October 17. Within 48 hours, the internet was flooded with news stories and think pieces excited about the possibility of Carter returning to the dunk contest.

“I heard about that video way after the fact,” Carter says, sitting courtside at Madison Square Garden recently. “All of a sudden people were like, ‘You’re in the dunk contest?’ I was like, ‘Where is this coming from?’ Whatever clown that reported it, it’s like, just call the source first. Just ask me! Come to any training camp and ask me.”

“In the video, I never said I was going to be in the 2017 Dunk Contest. That interview was from last year, and the guy had asked me about P3 Training Camp, where they had the vertical leap photo of me and [Andrew] Wiggins."

"Also, look at that video: I had on a sweater in the summer? Everybody analyzes everything about a video, picture, whatever. Why don’t they do the same with this? I had a sweater on at training camp?”

Can Vince even still perform any of the dunks he threw down in the 2000 Dunk Contest?

“I could probably do one, and I’d probably need a day before I’d do another. I could do some stuff, but not enough to win a dunk contest. With what these guys are doing now? Yeah, right.”

The thing is, this whole thing makes a certain sense: Fans were willing to believe Vince may be back because, after all, this is still Vince Carter that we’re talking about. Following that incredible 2000 Dunk Contest, Vince walked away from dunk contests leaving the crowd wanting more, a thirst that apparently remains unquenched.

“I get all of that,” Carter allows. “I’m just like, this is frustrating. I’ve never even talked about it. I didn’t even say that I would win it. I didn’t even say that I would compete in it. And why would I want to mess with the memory of that magical night back in 2000?”

So that’s that.