As they celebrate their 30th season in the NBA, the Toronto Raptors are embracing their roots.
Upon officially announcing that they would be retiring Vince Carter’s No. 15 on Friday, the Raptors also took the chance to reintroduce a familiar uniform design.
Vince Carter was brought to tears when the #Raptors organization officially announced they were retiring his No. 15 jersey. pic.twitter.com/gbuur7osiI
— Adam Laskaris (@adam_la2karis) September 27, 2024
In the spirit of looking back, Toronto dropped new line of vintage-inspired jerseys bearing the names of current and former players
The “Classic Edition” jerseys, which feature purple, black, and red accents, are already for sale on realsports.ca, retailing for upwards of $145 each.
shop.realsports.ca
Before the event, the team had dropped not-so-subtle hints of the news across the city, leaving purple Carter jerseys in peculiar locations.
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) September 27, 2024
Toronto used purple as one of its primary colours from 1995 to 2006, but the colour hasn’t regularly featured for the franchise in nearly two decades. The last time the Raptors wore the colour on the court was in the 2020 NBA bubble during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While there’s no telling if and when they’ll wear the throwback threads in a game, a new uniform design featuring a crest with a nod to Carter recently surfaced online. Many are already speculating that it will be worn on November 2 — the night the 47-year-old’s digits are raised to the rafters at Scotiabank Arena.
This was what I had heard a few weeks back as well and seems to confirm some of the celebratory stuff the Raptors will be doing.
The Raptor doing Vince Carters dunk on a black and purple pinstripe jersey. https://t.co/6Q539HCmSG pic.twitter.com/xAlfwNlFpL
— Esfandiar Baraheni (@JustEsBaraheni) September 17, 2024
Carter spent the first seven seasons of his NBA career playing in Toronto, amassing 9,420 points, 1,553 assists, and 2,091 rebounds.
With five preseason games on the horizon, the Raptors will officially open their 2024-25 campaign on October 23 with a home game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.