Nearly every conversation surrounding Vince Carter’s tenure with the Atlanta Hawks centers on his leadership of the young roster. Veterans hang around the NBA long after their on-court usefulness has left them because teams value their immense experience and essentially treat them as a player-coach, a liaison between the coaching staff and the rest of the roster, someone who can connect with the players and teach them what the organization wants from them.
The most famous current example of this is Udonis Haslem, who has been in Miami since before Dwyane Wade first suited up for the Heat, but there are players like Haslem littered throughout recent NBA history.