Throughout his career, Drake has often made it a point to pay homage to his hometown of Toronto, and over the past year, the city, mainly their NBA team, The Toronto Raptors, have returned the favor. Last September the franchise deemed the rapper their “global ambassador” as part of an extensive rebranding campaign, and more recently the upcoming January 11 game against the Brooklyn Nets has officially been declared “Drake Night.”
Though these moves in themselves may seem like quite a gesture, it would seem that they were only tip of the iceberg. Earlier today, the Toronto Star reported that team officials are considering changing the Toronto Raptors jersey and logo colors from red, black, and white to black and gold, in honor of Drake and his OVO label.
A reporter close to the franchise had this to say:
“You know how they are working on the ‘re-branding’ of everything to do with the [Raptors], right? Maybe new colours, maybe a new logo, maybe all kinds of things different for the 2015-16 season. Well, how about this: Black and gold. Now, I’m not suggesting it’s a done deal and a lot of different people and companies are coming up with a lot of different looks and styles but I was told on the weekend that black and gold is definitely something being considered. … This is by no means a done deal and there is still time for them to tinker and change and do whatever they have in this grandiose [plan] to re-invent the organization.”
If the team decides to move forward with this new color scheme, the swap would occur just in time for the 2016 NBA All-Star festivities, which will take place in, you guessed it, Toronto.
Earlier this year, Drake released his third full-length studio album Nothing Was the Same, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 charts, and sold 658,00 copies in its first week.
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