The Toronto Huskies are alive, sort of. The 2016-17 season marks the Huskies' (and the NBA's) 70th anniversary, and that means that the Toronto Raptors will honor the fallen franchise by wearing their uniforms as throwbacks.
You might remember Damon Stoudamire and co. wearing Huskies uniforms 20 years ago, and Chris Bosh and co. doing the same in the 2009-10 season. This time, though, the Raptors will not be sporting the white jerseys with "HUSKIES" on the front in blue. They will be sporting these:
First impression: pretty nice! The shorts are a bit too shiny, but it's a solid alternate uniform, right? I do have one problem with these, though -- why have Huskies throwbacks if you're not going to have the word or any reference to the animal on the uniform? In the Raptors' promo video unveiling these uniforms, huskies were all over the place. On the jerseys, they're nowhere to be found.
It's a bit of a shame, especially considering someone went to the trouble of designing this:
Yes, that's a husky head atop a Raptor head, with bones sticking out of each side. I love it. I want a shirt with that on it. Please tell me there will be shirts.
The Raptors also unveiled their Chinese New Year uniforms for next season:
We've all definitely seen worse alternate jerseys than this, but we've also seen much better. The Raptors seem to be doing the same thing as the Washington Wizards and Houston Rockets by simply incorporating Chinese characters into their regular away uniforms. The dragon is a nice touch, though.
