The Raptors Should Bring Back This Blue Throwback Jersey Sooner Rather Than Later

On the 80th anniversary of the 1946-47 Basketball Association of America (BAA) season, the Toronto Raptors get a rare opportunity to mark the occasion of the city’s first professional basketball team. But, unfortunately, they probably won’t take it.

The National Basketball Association as we know it has its roots in the BAA, which later went on to merge with the National Basketball League (NBL) in 1949, to create an early version of the NBA. The Association of America had its first game on November 1st, 1946, where the New York Knicks faced off against the Toronto Huskies in the Maple Leaf Gardens.

Right there at Church and Carlton, the Huskies lost their first game by two points, ending in a 68-66 loss for Toronto: the team would only play one season in the BAA, collapsing by 1947. But! En-route to making history (and failing soon after), the Huskies established the first brand identity for Torontonian professional basketball.

The blue jerseys are striking, bold, and a massive departure from anything the Raptors have done aesthetically in a long time. While taking on the Huskies’ colours is not reinventing the wheel, doing so would be a great callback not only to 80 years since the beginning of the BAA, but to the Raptors’ 2016-17 tribute to the Huskies, and those great years with Lowry and DeRozan.

Who would say no to the idea of a cute, giant dog on the hardwood, at least for a few nights a year?

The Raptors have had a somewhat stale brand identity over the years. It seems that the franchise has become allergic to divergence from the red-black-white colour scheme it’s maintained on-and-off for the past 20 years.

While there have been reports that the team will, next season, finally rebrand and bring back purple as a part of the team’s visual identity, my heart goes out to the Husky that could have been. It feels like every year, each time has a million jerseys. And the Raptors have maybe two good ones. And that’s being generous.

The Huskies have come back before, with the 2009-10 Raptors sporting it, but with Chris Bosh’s departure, so to went the sense of fun from the Raptors’ design choices.

Now, are either of the previous jerseys total works of art? I wouldn’t go that far. But, beyond being charming, these jerseys reflect Canada’s role in the history of basketball, something that can be easily ignored. In a league of 30 teams, with 29 of them being American, the Raptors should fight tooth and nail to set themselves apart, and remind their opponents that the basketball league they know and love started right here in the 6ix.

The Raptors have not yet announced their City Edition jerseys for this year, and the Husky look would be a perfect fit. But, it is entirely likely that they will choose to take this year to honour the retirement of Kyle Lowry by turning him into a Raptor, and putting that illustration on a city edition jersey.

Cool. Fine. And if it came down to it, nine out of ten times, I’m probably making that call as well.

But, every time I think about those jerseys, I remember DeRozan dropping 41 points and whipping the Celtics in them, on a bright blue and white court. And I wish that the Raptors would do a better job commemorating their roots.