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
You have to be good. You have to be irritating. And you have to know how to stomp on the hearts of Knicks fans.
It takes a special sort of player to achieve villain status at Madison Square 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.
Wednesday night, Trae Young, one of the most reviled players in recent Knicks history, returned to the Garden to play in his first elimination game here since he led the Hawks to a first-round victory in just five games in 2021. The winner of Wednesday night’s game was slated to advance to the semifinals of the NBA Cup in Las Vegas on Saturday.
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. It isn’t the players 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. 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.
After Hawks practice on Monday, Young indicated that he was somewhat bewildered by the whole phenomena when asked by Jameelah Johnson of atlantahawksfans.com if it was fun leaning into the role of villain at the Garden.
"I don't like being a villain,” Young said. “I don't like being that way or that target, but if that's what it needs to be, that's what it's gotta be. That's not like who I want to be or who I am in any way. I don't think I turn myself into a villain; I feel like people turn me into a villain."
That may be how he sees it, but Knicks fans may remember something a little different which is why it is worth a review of how this whole thing started.
In coach Tom Thibodeau’s first season with the Knicks, the COVID 19-shortened 1920-21 season, the No. 4 Knicks drew the No. 5 Hawks in the playoffs. Atlanta immediately stole homecourt advantage after Young hit a game-winning floater to win Game 1. After hitting the shot with .9 seconds left, Young immediately turned to the crowd and raised his finger to his lips to shush the crowd, which had been chanting the obscene chant earlier.
Then, to add insult to injury, Young noted in his postgame interview with an impish grin how “it got real quiet at the end.”
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.”
Young has continued to be jeered in every game against the Knicks since that playoff series. It even happened earlier this year in Atlanta where quite a few Knicks fans were in attendance. After the game, which Atlanta won, 121-116, Young certainly seemed to lean into his role as a villain.
“I hope these New York fans find their way to the exit real, real quick,” Young said during his on court interview after that November game.
It doesn’t matter that the Hawks team that faced the Knicks Wednesday has only two top scorers — Young and Bogdan Bogdanovic — left over from that 2021 playoff team. It doesn’t matter that the game was for a manufactured trophy and really doesn’t mean much in the scheme of the season.
The animosity between Knicks fans and Young lives on.
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.
