Yao Ming was also the top all star vote getter twice. George Gervin led the league in all star voting when Magic, Bird, and Dr. J (and obviously Kareem and Moses) were in the league. Grant Hill led the league the year the Bulls won 72 games. I'm not sure how that much that means, I mean Lebron led the league last season before Giannis finally overtook him this year.
To be the face of the league you actually have to be among the people discussed as the best player and that certainly was never Carter. I mean 0 1st Team All NBA. The year he finished on the 3rd team (his 2nd year), the guards and forwards ahead of him were Payton, Kidd, Garnett, Duncan and Kobe, Hill, Iverson, and Mailman. The next year he was 2nd Team (i.e. his 3rd year in league) and the 1st team was Iverson, Kidd, Webber, Duncan joining him on 2nd team were Kobe, McGrady, and Garnett. McGrady basically got away from Vince and almost immediately eclipsed him as a player.