The Paper's reporter Ma Zuoyu intern Yu Kaicheng
Trae Young hit a long-range three-pointer and bowed to the Knicks home to celebrate.
Trae Young didn't get to the bottom of the day, but he and the Atlanta Hawks have already exceeded their goal at the beginning of the season — "The only thing they want to do this season is to prove that we can win." ”
Averaging 25.3 points, 3.9 rebounds and 9.4 assists per game in the regular season, the Hawks rushed to fifth place in the East; the playoffs went further, averaging 28.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 9.5 assists per game to reach the Eastern Conference Finals... The transcript that Trae Young handed over in "third grade" is amazing enough.
However, this is the "villain leader" in the eyes of fans - cheating, defensive loopholes, indiscriminate shooting, and a well-behaved personality. Throughout the season, Trae Young has been insulted, looked down upon and questioned by the outside world, but he seems to enjoy the atmosphere.
'He [Trae Young] is definitely our engine, the leader of the team." Collins' comment is also the common voice of the Eagles up and down. And the 22-year-old "villain leader" has bigger ambitions, "We made the playoffs and the Eastern Conference Finals, which is good, but we want more, we want to be in the Finals and win the championship." ”
Trae Young silenced New York fans.
"Villain" persona
The NBA is a sports league that likes to tell stories, and if you think of each season as a chapter, then there are heroes and villains that belong to him. For Trae Young, this season defines his personality — the "villain."
At the NBA's landmark Madison Garden Square Arena, 15,000 fans hysterically clamored for "fxxk trea young" as the most iconic footnote in his personal setting.
New York fans' hatred of Trae Young is also justified — the 22-year-old Hawks core knows too much about "cheating fouls" — or brake cheats, or long jump fouls, or stretching out his feet to let defenders "force" him, almost every action of Trae Young can attract new York home fans to the stadium.
Objectively speaking, Trae Young is not the only player in the league who likes to cheat fouls, the Lone Ranger's Doncic, the Suns' "old cannon" Chris Paul and the Trail Blazers' Lillard, all often offer similar killing moves, but Trae Young has become the one that fans hate the most.
Even the mayor of New York was so angry that he jumped out of the air to fight a "war of words" with Trey Young: "This Eagles team can't fly over New York, play the right way." ”
Trae Young became the "villain" of the NBA.
The reason for the "villain" of Trae Young is not complicated - in the words of the American media "Sports Illustrated", that is, "he is very adaptable to this atmosphere, and he can use victory to give the opponent fans the deadliest counterattack" .
On the night of the Knicks elimination, Trae Young made a bending and bowing gesture and left the rather "Versailles" caption on social networks - "Good night, New York".
In fact, the "copyright" of this celebratory action belongs to Reggie Miller, who made a mocking bow to the Bulls fans during the 1994 regular season when the Pacers completed the quasi-kill in the last 0.8 seconds.
"I was born for this stage... They taunted me and scolded me, but they couldn't beat me on the pitch. This is Trae Young, a "big-scene player" who dares to go against the world.
Of course, he also paid some price for it – in the best facelift of the season announced in mid-June, Trae Young fell off the list. According to ESPN statistics, there have been three times in the NBA's history that players who have averaged 25 points and 9 assists per game have not been selected, and Trae Young accounted for two of them.
"He's a guy who uses all the negative energy as fuel." In Collins's eyes, Trey Young is the typical representative of the kind of "can't kill him will make him stronger", "those who want to continue to humiliate him, please continue, he will not be bothered by this." 」 ”
In the Eastern Conference Finals, Trae Young stepped on the referee's foot and sprained.
"This year I just want to prove that I can lead the team"
If the defeat of the Fourth-placed New York Knicks in the East defines Trae Young's "villain" personality; then the elimination of the 76ers ranked first in the East proves that this "villain" has super strength.
It must be admitted that the team's decision to change coaches this season has taught the eagle, which was originally flying low, to spread its wings and soar.
After Nate McMillan replaced Lloyd Pierce, the Eagles' record from 14 wins and 20 losses in the first half to 35 wins and 15 losses later. Amid these changes, Trae Young's rapid growth has also been a key factor in the Hawks' huge success this season.
Perhaps because Doncic was too eye-catching at the same time, or Trae Young's style of play was too annoying, most people actively "ignored" the achievements of the 22-year-old player:
Averaged at least 20 points and five assists in the first 11 playoff games of his career, becoming the first person in history;
18 assists per game ranks fourth in active player playoff assist records and is the first player in Hawks history to have 15+ assists since 1994;
Fourth all-time player to score 30 points and 10 assists in his playoff debut;
The first player since Jordan, the "god of basketball", to play three consecutive playoff 30+ games in Madison Square Garden...
Trey Young and Embiid "greeting".
Such a set of results and stats has been able to show Trae Young's personal ability, but his value goes far beyond these amazing data.
In game four of the playoffs against the 76ers, it was Trae Young who approached Collins with a final-minute "pull-pass" to help him hit a three-pointer that changed his life, making him the first Hawks player since 1994 to deliver more than 15 assists in a single playoff game.
It seemed like just one of all the assists, but it changed the course of the entire series.
And when it came to the "Seven Fight", Trae Young shot 2 of 16 in the first three quarters, feeling cold, but facing Simmons, who was 2 meters 11 tall and weighed 108 kilograms, he dared to throw the logo "logo shot" in the last two minutes, at that moment, he stepped on the corner of the 76ers' logo, pulled the point difference to 6 points with a super far three-pointer, and firmly dragged the victory into his hands.
This is exactly what a leader should look like – he can help his teammates score points when he is limited, and when the game is at its most critical, he can stand up and take away the victory.
'This season, I just want to prove that I can lead the team to win. Trae Young's goal is simple, and he also hopes to be able to break one question after another, "I remember someone asking me this question before the season started. My answer at the time was that I didn't care about personal honor or anything else, I only cared about winning, and I hoped that people would see me differently. ”
Trae Young confronts the skepticism in his own way.
"Yang no regrets"
In fact, according to THE US media reports, the Eagles positioned themselves this season as "the next step in a good rebuild."
CEO Steve Kunin set a specific goal for the team at the beginning of the season: to make the team's playoffs, then try to catch the playoffs and break the wrist with the first or second in the East in the first round.
As a result, Trey Young thus exceeded his mandate.
The encouragement of Atlanta fans on social networks to the team's coaching staff, players, and especially Trae Young is enough to prove that their efforts have been recognized by the city of Atlanta.
You know, in the eyes of NBA fans, Atlanta is a "desert of NBA stars", and only by going back 28 years can fans find the last player in atlanta to be in the top ten in the regular season MVP voting - Dominique Wilkins in 1993.
"It's strange that Atlanta has never had a shortage of sports stars, but the Hawks have been missing superstars for a long time." This is how Wilkins really felt.
According to Espn, it was the league's longest "superstar window," a full 10 years longer than the Second-Place Nets.
Of course, looking back at the Eagles' history of the past 20 years, Joe Johnson can be regarded as an excellent "Eagle King", but as a seven-time All-Star player, his influence and topicality are too low, in the eyes of the American media, his "quietness" is not worthy of his ability, he also lacks the smile and personality that impresses fans, and there is no way to keep fans in the atlanta stadium.
According to Sports Illustrated, in the early years, more Atlanta fans bought tickets to watch the ball in order to be able to see superstars such as Durant and James up close, "they don't have much special feelings for the home team."
Under Trae Young's leadership, the Hawks team was very united.
It wasn't until Trae Young joined that everything took a turn.
Eagles CEO Kooning said Trae Young's arrival has increased Hawks youth jersey sales 12-fold, and he is using his influence to build close relationships with fans, and he also borrowed Curry's example to express his expectations for the future:
"Whenever the Golden State Warriors challenge on the road, we open the venue early so fans can watch Curry's eye-pleasing pre-game warm-up. We hope that Yang will also stimulate the interest of more young fans in the future. ”
Interestingly, the media has also begun to compare Trae Young with Curry – of the six players who have dared to try 9 metres away (more than 25 shots) this season, only Stephen Curry (37.4%) has a better shooting percentage than Young (36.4%).
And all this affirmation and praise was won back by Trae Young himself.
On the night of the 2018 draft, when the team exchanged "European mvp" Luka Doncic for Trae Young, who was "thinning hair and skinny" in the mouth of fans, many Eagles fans also expressed strong dissatisfaction and doubts about the team management on social networks.
But now, most of those skeptics have become Ferre Young's ardent fans, proudly shouting on social networks, "We have our own stars."
Chinese fans directly gave Trey Yang a name, summarizing the feelings of Atlanta fans - "Yang does not regret".
Editor-in-Charge: Ascendas