We Can't Keep Letting Trae Young Get Away With This

Two seasons ago, the Knicks made the playoffs for the first time in 8 years thanks to the Most Improved Player, Julius Randle, and Coach of the Year, Tom Thibodeau. And they were immediately sent on vacation thanks to Trae Young.

It was Trae’s first career playoff series but it didn’t matter. He averaged 29 points and beat the Knicks in 5 games while also taunting Madison Square Garden and becoming one of the biggest villains in basketball. It was an important coming-out party for a guy who fully understands the way he is perceived by fans.

Trae Young knows he’s the smallest player on the court. He knows his hair looks like the shit you dump out of your vacuum when you realize it’s not sucking anything up anymore. He knows his voice never dropped and he sounds like a 7th grader reading aloud in front of the class.

And he uses all of that hostility to his advantage. He’s a gladiator defeating lions with his bare hands as the audience boos and throws tomatoes at him shouting ‘ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED??’. It’s as if his superpowers are drawn from the anguish of the home fans.

Yet, every time he rises to the occasion, we act shocked.

Trae Young was just voted as the most overrated player by his peers. He no-called, no-showed a game this year and was directly responsible for his head coach being fired. He seems difficult to work with and every single player he’s ever played with has been on the trade block because they don’t mesh well with Young’s playing style.

He is one of the worst defenders in the league mainly because he’s so small that it’s impossible for him to get through most screens causing everyone else to rotate and be out of position. Young is often compared to Steph Curry but he’s a faaaaaar worse shooter. Trae just shot 33% from 3. He’s a worse 3-point shooter than Marcus Smart and Julius Randle.

Trae Young finished top 10 in usage percentage this season so you can understand why his teammates might feel a certain way about him. He does the least defensively, but gets rewarded with the green light to dribble the air out of the ball and chuck up those deep logo 3’s that he misses almost 70% of the time.

There were rumors that Trae Young was going to be traded prior to the Hawks winning their play-in games and securing the 7th seed. Even his own organization was ready to move on from him.

But all it took was another postseason road game to remind everyone who he is.

TRAE YOUNG FROM THE LOGO. HAWKS TAKE LEAD 😱😱😱 pic.twitter.com/04t1qhiImy

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 26, 2023

Everyone and their mothers thought the Boston Celtics would roll through the Atlanta Hawks in the first round and honestly, they should have. Boston went up 2-0 before losing Game 3 in Atlanta. Boston would take the next game to go up 3-1 in the series and Game 5 should’ve been a statement win to show the rest of the Conference that they’re the real deal.

Instead, Boston lost Game 5 117-119 at home thanks to Trae Young. Here’s what Trae did to the Celtics in game 5:

44 minutes
38 points
14-for-33 from the field
5-for-13 from 3
4 rebounds
13 assists
2 steals

The man played nearly all 48 minutes of this game because he had to in order to beat the Celtics. You can question his decision-making or his shot selection but this is one of the toughest players in the league. When the crowd chants ‘fuck you’ at him—which happens to him way more than any other player that I can recall—he channels that hate into legendary moments.

I also have to quickly point and laugh at the Celtics, if I may.

There are players like Trae who step up when the pressure is at its peak and there are players like Jayson Tatum who shot 1-for-10 from 3 or Jaylen Brown who, in the final minute, threw a terrible pass that Onyeka Okongwu easily stole and then immediately took a contested layup that was swatted back in his face.

So here we are.

I have no idea if Trae Young is overrated or not. Every time I doubt he great he is, he publicly executes a basketball team on live television and drinks their blood at halfcourt—usually standing on their team’s logo when he does it.

If the Atlanta Hawks can complete the comeback and beat the Celtics then we really have to come together and figure out what we’re going to do about him because Trae Young cannot keep getting away with this.

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