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Vince Carter is no longer the NBAs highest flyer, though hes certainly not ready to be grounded.Once one of basketballs most ferocious dunkers who put opponents on posters long before there were internet Vines, he can no longer rely just on his athleticism. Nearing 40 years old, the guy who famously put his arm through the rim while winning a dunk contest now often plays below it.Like everyone who wants to keep playing toward middle age, its about the mind now as much as the legs.Thats how I was able to stay around this long, is just, I learned the game, Carter said. Not being able to play. Everybody can play basketball, but learning the ins and outs of the game is what has kept me around.Same with Manu Ginobili in San Antonio, Jason Terry in Milwaukee, Paul Pierce in Los Angeles and Dirk Nowitzki in Dallas, who follow Carter as the oldest players in the NBA this season.Basketball is a game a lot of people dont understand, Terry said. When you are not as athletically gifted, you still have your brain. I learned from none other than Jason Kidd.Terry plays for Kidd now, but they were teammates in Dallas when the Mavericks won the 2011 NBA title. Kidd by then was well past his dynamic days as a nightly triple-double threat, a guy who burst into the league with everything but a reliable jumper and left it at 40 ranked third in career 3-pointers.As I got older, the speed limit started coming into effect. Instead of going 55, I could only go 45, Kidd said. But, you know, when things started to go a little bit slower, you got to see things a lot better. For me, things were a lot clearer. As you get older, thats the best time to get better at the game. You can always learn, you can always do something different. For me it was shooting the ball. If I wanted to play for a while I needed to make an outside shot.Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant made similar transitions, outworking and outsmarting opponents when they could no longer just outplay them. Now Carter, who will turn 40 on Jan. 26 and ranks in the top 25 in career points and games played, does the same in Memphis -- where he surpassed Jordan this season as the oldest player to score 20 points off the bench.Like Jordan, he played at North Carolina for the mastermind, Dean Smith, as Carter called him, where even as a teenager he was being prepared for how he would need to play 20 years later.So he taught us how to learn the game, how to take your abilities and dominate to the best of your ability, Carter said. And with that being said, as Ive gotten older, just the little things that we tend to not want to do as a young guy stuck with me, as far as just the little things that we say a lot of guys make mistakes on.Carter acknowledges tiring of the endless play the right way mantra preached at Chapel Hill, but now he lives it. He cant just jump over players like he did to Frederic Weis in the 2000 Olympics , though he quickly earned the trust of first-time coach David Fizdale, who had Carter on the floor defending 21-year-old Andrew Wiggins to spark the Grizzlies comeback victory over Minnesota in their season opener.Again, Ive said this before, I dont put limitations on anyone because of age, whether its youth or because theyre one of the elder statesman, Fizdale said. Vince Carter, hes a veteran, hes a professional, he stays in shape. I always remind people he was the best athlete in the NBA, so his falloff athletically isnt the same as an average athletes falloff.Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said the key for players who are effective into their mid-to-late 30s is their work ethic, and he marvels at what the 38-year-old Nowitzki puts himself through to keep playing on legs that support his 7-foot frame, particularly in this season when hes battled an injured Achilles tendon.Medical enhancements have helped, with teams providing such improvements for their players that Mavericks owner Mark Cuban believes young players entering the league now should be able to play into their 40s if they have the talent.When I first got to the NBA, taking care of your health meant not eating Twinkies before a game, Cuban said. Guys would smoke cigarettes, theyd drink, there would be beer -- people sometimes would have a beer at halftime. There literally were bars in locker rooms. Things have changed.The things that we let players do 15 years ago that created inflammation and created orthopedic issues in their bodies, we know not to do as much anymore.Carter has prolonged his career by becoming a reserve for the last five seasons, and by resisting the urge to create the spectacular highlights that made him the leading vote-getter to the All-Star Game four times. The Grizzlies say hes questionable to play Wednesday in Toronto, his first NBA home, after hurting his hip Monday.He still gets the internet buzzing -- and occasionally surprises himself -- with some vintage Vinsanity, but mostly skips the unnecessary risks to preserve his body to get through the long NBA season.And how many more after this?I dont know yet, he said. Im still flying. Its not time yet.---AP freelance writers Joe DiGiovanni and Andrew Gruman in Milwaukee contributed to this report.Nike Air Presto 2019 . The 20-year-old Pelicans big man glanced up and smiled widely at the well-wishers -- a fitting end to a day he wont soon forget. Davis responded to his selection earlier in the day as a Western Conference All-Star with 26 points and 10 rebounds, and the New Orleans Pelicans overcame a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves 98-91 on Friday night. Air Force 1 Just Do It Prix . -- There were a lot of firsts for the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night. http://www.airforce1justdoit.fr/ . The Dutchmans tenure got off to a poor start when referee Guido Winkmann awarded a penalty within two minutes for Niklas Starks clumsy challenge on Alexandru Maxim. Fausse Nike Air Force 1 . "Were just throwing s--- at the wall hoping something sticks," said Tortorella about the possible line combinations for Fridays game against Columbus. The Canucks have lost five straight games and six of their last seven, leaving them in a logjam in the Pacific Division, currently sitting fifth - good for ninth in the Western Conference. Air Force 1 Femme En Solde . Most important, perhaps, it went off without a hitch. Organizers poked a little fun at the now-infamous opening ceremony gaffe that saw only four out of five snowflakes open up into rings, leaving the Olympics logo one ring short.The Cleveland Indians are in the World Series. If someone had told you that in the days of Willie Mays Hayes, you wouldnt have believed it. But believe this: The Major League movies were mostly duds.Jim Caple looks back and reviews Major League, Major League II and Major League: Back to the Minors.Major LeagueThis movie came out in 1989 when baseball was at its Hollywood peak -- The Natural, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams and A League of Their Own also came out within an eight-year span -- and it tells the tale of a team and a city that has endured decades of miserable, heart-crushing losing seasons. And no, its not about the Chicago Cubs. Instead, its about Cleveland, which at the time had gone 34 years since its previous postseason and 40 years since its last world championship. If only the team had the sense to hire Lou Brown as its manager rather than Doc Edwards. Or Pat Corrales. Or John McNamara. Or...The plot is about owner Rachel Phelps (Margaret Whitton) intentionally fielding a team that is terrible, even by Cleveland standards, in the hopes of dropping attendance enough that she can move the club to Miami. Instead, manager and offseason tire salesman Lou Brown (James Gammon) is able to inspire catcher Jake Taylor (Tom Berenger), third baseman Roger Dorn (Corbin Bernsen), outfielders Willie Mays Hayes (Wesley Snipes) and Pedro Cerrano (Dennis Haysbert) and others to be a winning team. He even gives Rick Wild Thing Vaughn (Charlie Sheen) a pair of glasses that turns him into a great closer. Cleveland ties for the AL East division title and beats the Yankees in a one-game playoff. We do not see how the team does after that, but there was no need to because, of course, it is Cleveland and we know how they would have lost. (At least back then.)Major League has funny moments -- particularly when Harry Doyle (Bob Uecker) is announcing or when Taylor drives a bullpen cart through the streets of Cleveland to go see his girlfriend -- but this is nowhere in the same league as those other baseball movie classics from that era. In other words, Kevin Costner should have been the Cleveland catcher, not Berenger.Best performancesUecker was splendid as the club broadcaster, delivering lines that were the movies funniest quotes by far. Sheens acting was all right, and his actual pitching ability is perhaps the best ever displayed by an actor -- and far more credible than, say, Tim Robbins in Bull Durham. Sheen pitched in high school and was able to throw 85 mph during the film. He later said he used steroids to prepare for the movie, which means he might have gotten some coaching from a bunch of players from that era.Worst performancePete Vuckovich appears as a Yankees slugger. He was an actual big leaguer, albeit a pitcher with the Brewers, not a hitter. Madison Bumgarner would have been much more credible at the plate. If, that is, Bumgarner had been alive at the time.Best quoteHarry Doyle: Juuust a bit outside. (By the way, according to reports, Uecker improvised this line, which is probably why he is such a good broadcaster in real life.)Worst quoteRachel Phelps: I hate this f---ing song.Did You Know?The movie is filmed at Milwaukees County Stadium, then the home of the Brewers, rather than Cleveland. At the time, it had been six years since County Stadium had hosted a playoff game -- but it never would again. Maybe Major League IV could be about the Brewers.RatingManny Ramirez -- Like Manny, it has some classic moments that people will remember forever. And like Manny, it also has some lesser moments that people would like to be able to forget.Major League IISome movie sequels can be like when a team makes the World Series one year and then wins it the next. Like The Godfather II or any of the Toy Story sequels. Others (such as the Star Wars prequels) can be like winning 111 games in the regular season and then getting swept in the World Series. Like Cleveland in 1954. Put Major League II in the latter category.This sequel came out five years after the original Major League and tells the story of Cleveland in the season immediately after that first movie. The team has somehow been purchased by third baseman Roger Dorn, who quickly runs out of money and is forced to sell it back to Rachel Phelps. And despite its success in the previous season, Cleveland soon collapses -- literally so, when manager Lou Brown has a heart attack and is replaced by former catcher Jake Taylor. Rick Wild Thing Vaughn gives up enough home runs and Cleveland loses so many times that broadcaster Harry Doyle passes out drunk in the booth.The team -- shock! -- rebounds in the end to reach the postseason, win the ALCS and go to the World Series, but the film does not show us what happens in that series. Which is good because that just wwould have made a bad movie even longer -- and worse.dddddddddddd This is a movie with so little original thought or character interest that it should have ended in spring training.Best performanceDavid Keith as catcher Jack Parkman, who gets signed by Cleveland before the season and then is sent to the White Sox. He actually looks like a real ballplayer -- good enough that I wouldnt be surprised if Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein signed him.Worst performanceRandy Quaid as Johnny, one of the fans who became so passionate about Cleveland thanks to the season in Major League. He heckles Vaughn so often that he becomes almost as obnoxious and annoying as Red Sox fans did after they won the 2004 World Series. (Fingers crossed that Cleveland fans do not duplicate that if their team finally wins.)Best quoteRoger Dorn: Oh God! (Sure, that isnt an impressive quote at all. But how Bernsen says it in the movie after he gets hit by a pitch is very funny.)Worst quoteHarry Doyle: Cerrano doing some interesting limbering-up exercises in right. What a pansy. (Even todays anti-PC crowd would have been critical.)Did You Know?The home stadium is actually Camden Yards, which was just a year old when this movie was being filmed in 1993, which is also when Clevelands current ballpark was being built.RatingRocky Colavito -- The curse of the foolish trade of Colavito for Harvey Kuenn was about the same as the curse of foolishly making a completely unnecessary sequel. If only we had gone as many years without yet another sequel as Cleveland went between World Series appearances. Instead, we got Major League: Back to the Minors just four short years later.Major League: Back to the MinorsI watched Major League: Back to the Minors and laughed about the same number of times as Cleveland fans did during the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 1997 World Series. Which is to say, zero times. A player would rather be called into Terry Franconas office and sent back to the minors than be forced to sit down and watch Back to the Minors.While Major League writer and producer David S. Ward has said he has plans to make a Major League III with Sheen and Berenger, he had nothing to do with this movie. And clearly so. Despite its name, the movie bears no real link to the Cleveland team of the first two movies. Instead, it is about the minor league Triple-A Buzz, managed by Gus Cantrell (Scott Bakula), and the Minnesota Twins, who are somehow owned by Roger Dorn (still Corbin Bernsen), Clevelands former third baseman in Major League and the temporary owner in Major League II. It is essentially about Cantrells Buzz trying to beat the Twins managed by Leonard Huff (Ted McGinley) in two exhibition games. Lets just say that rivalry is nowhere near as interesting or funny as the fun between the Bad News Bears and the Yankees.There are minor appearances by Pedro Cerrano from Major League I and II, and Isuru Tanaka (Takaaki Ishibashi) from Major League II. Oh, and Harry Doyle is the Buzz radio broadcaster, after he was perhaps fired by Cleveland for passing out drunk too many times in Major League II, or maybe simply demoted to the minors because his lines are so unfunny compared to Major League.But thats it for the Cleveland connections. Well, actually, there is a notable Cleveland link. There is very little plot, virtually no character development and absolutely terrible baseball play by the actors. In other words, it is essentially the story of Cleveland baseball from 1960-93. Or from all but a few of their 15 seasons previous to this one.Best performanceKenny Johnson as Lance The Dance Pere, a former ballet dancer turned ballplayer. He dances in a few mildly amusing moments. Still, hes nowhere near as good or interesting as Max Kepler, the actual Minnesota Twins outfielder who is the German son of ballet dancers.Worst performanceMcGinley as Huff. An even worse choice than Buck Showalter using Ubaldo Jimenez in the final inning of the wild-card game against Toronto instead of dominant closer Zach Britton.Best quotePops Morgan: This is the clubhouse.Gus Cantrell: In some places of the world, this is called a basement.Worst quotePops Morgan (on the closest he ever got to the majors): It was October. A player got sick. So I got the call. I was on the plane and a freak snowstorm hit. We couldnt land. Two days later: The weather is fine, so is the player. Twenty years in the minors, I circled The Show, couldnt land.(Ummm, no one gets called up in October.)RatingUbaldo Jimenez -- The starter lost a league-worst 17 games with a 5.40 ERA for Cleveland in 2012. Still, that was a better performance than this movie. ' ' '