Trae Young plays role of Garden villain any time he plays Knicks
Trae Young #11 of the Atlanta Hawks controls the ball in the first half against Jalen Brunson #11 of the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Of course, Trae Young planned it all out.
Of course, after finding out he would be playing the Knicks Wednesday night in the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup, the Atlanta Hawks guard sat down with his brother and brainstormed exactly how he planned to celebrate at Madison Square Garden if his team won the game and the right to advance to the tournament semifinals in Las Vegas.
And so, as he dribbled out the final seconds of what would be a 108-100 Atlanta victory, Young got down one knee, blew into his hand and then threw imaginary dice onto the Garden floor. He repeated the gesture before swiping the floor with his hand like he was snatching up some money.
“I planned that one out with my little brother a few days ago,” Young said with a laugh after the game. “I knew what I was going to do. We’re going to Vegas.”
Just when you thought Young couldn’t get more irritating, he comes up with a new way to stick it to the Knicks fans.
It takes a special sort of player to achieve villain status at the Garden, a player with that unique skill set that makes every fan in the arena want to chant your name preceded by a single-syllable obscene verb. You have to be good. You have to be irritating. And you have to know how to stomp on the hearts of Knicks fans.
Once again, Young found a way to stomp on the hearts of Knicks fans.
Young became one of the most reviled players in Knicks history when he helped Atlanta eliminate the Knicks from the first round of the 2021 NBA playoffs in five games.
After hitting a game-winning floater to steal homecourt advantage in the first game of that series, Young turned to the crowd and raised his finger to his lips as if to drive home the fact his shot had made the despondently silent. Then, after closing out the series in Game 5, he turned toward the fans and bowed.
It didn’t matter that not a single active player on Wednesday’s Knicks roster was on the team that lost that first-round series to the Hawks. He was still pumped up to play them. It isn’t the players, afterall, who elevated Young to the same kind of bad-guy status accorded to Michael Jordan, Reggie Miller and Joel Embiid.
Rather this one is all about the fans, for Young. New Yorkers so came to revile Young during that series that his obscene chant has transcended its roots, breaking out at games that have nothing to do with Young, including a playoff game against the Philadelphia 76ers last year and even a Yankees game in 2022.
He said he looks forward to playing every game at the Garden because of them.
“The mindset I have is I try to embrace the moment as much as I can. I know the work I’ve put in in the offseason. I know what I’ve done, so I know I’m ready for any moment. At the end of the day, the crowd can only do so much. they can’t guard me. They can’t block my shot. they can’t do anything.”
Knicks coach Thibodeau said it’s only natural in today’s sporting world that a player like Young, who has hurt the Knicks in big games, would be cast as a villain.
“It’s sort of like I think where our league is, sports in general right now, whether it’s the profile with social media and all the different things that go on,” Thibodeau said. “If you have a great fan base, which we do, it lends itself — there’s always been that element. It’s Madison Square Garden. If you look back through the years, there’s a number of players that fit into that. It’s usually a player that’s really good. If the teams are good and there’s history and there’s playoff battles, it lends itself to that.”
And so does a creative player who can’t help but prepare for what he wants to do when he wins on the big stage.
“The elimination part makes it more exciting and more intense not only for me but everybody,” Young said. “Obviously this is one of the grandest arenas in all of sports so it gives you a little more motivation.”
Of course, he had it all planned out.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.