CHICAGO — Growing up in Atlanta, Wendell Carter Jr. played wide receiver on the gridiron before fully focusing on basketball.
That experience, paired with wearing goggles to protect his eyes on the court in the past, makes wearing a mask for the broken nose he suffered Monday against the Pistons less of a foreign concept for the Magic center.
“It’s kind of like the vibe I’m getting from it,” Carter said with a grin, referring to his youth football days. Inside the United Center after the shootaround ahead of Friday’s game against the Bulls, he added: “It’s cool though. I’m getting used to it. It’s just another roadblock to my success.”
His success this season includes playing in at least 70 regular season games for the first time in his eight-year NBA career.
Having already played a career-high 76 games entering Friday, Carter’s averaged 11.9 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2 assists in 29.4 minutes per night for Orlando. He’s proud of the accomplishment but understands there’s still room for improvement.
“It was something that’s been a goal of mine for the past two or three years,” he said. “So for it to actually come to life and me to able to be available for these games, it means a lot.
“But now it’s about being a little bit more consistent,” he added. “I’ve had stretches throughout this year where I haven’t been playing my best basketball whether that’s from tiredness, injury or whatever. It’s just about being better while I’m out there.”
As he returned to Chicago for the second-to-last game of the regular season, Carter was asked about his relationship with the franchise that drafted him seventh overall in the 2018 draft. Last month marked five years since the Magic acquired him from the Bulls in a blockbuster trade that included former Orlando big Nikola Vucevic and marked the start of a new era for both franchises.
Time has passed and a lot has changed since then. Vucevic was shipped off to Boston ahead of this year’s trade deadline and earlier this week, Chicago fired the front office personnel that conducted the 2021 trade.
“At the end of the day, it’s still the city that took a chance on me coming out of college,” Carter said. “So, I’ll always have love for this city, this organization.
“A lot of the guys that I played with that were here before I got traded aren’t really here,” he added. “Probably like one or two guys, some of the training staff, but other than that, I don’t really know anybody else that’s here.”
Entering Friday’s game against the Bulls, the Magic sat seventh in the East, one game behind No. 6 Atlanta and a game in front of No. 8 Philadelphia. Seeds 7-10 in each conference compete in the Play-In for the Nos. 7 and 8 seeds in the playoffs.
Orlando survived the Play-In to reach the playoffs a year ago before it fell in the first round to the Celtics. Carter and the rest of the group don’t want to suffer the same fate.
“You can be as good or as bad throughout the whole season, then when the postseason comes, that’s when you want to be at your best,” Carter said. “So that’s something that since I’ve been in the league I’ve always understood that. Now, a lot can happen throughout a year, but all that matters is you being at your best both mentally and physically when it comes to the postseason.
“It’s like a second season,” he added.
Orlando wraps up it’s “first” season Sunday at Boston in the regular season finale when the Magic continue to make a postseason push in a crowded East.
Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com
Up next …
Magic at Celtics
When: 6 p.m., Sunday, TD Garden
TV: FanDuel Sports Network Florida/ESPN