ESPN DATE: 02/10/2021

The audacity of Trae Young

By: Jackie MacMullan

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/30847551/the-audacity-trae-young

HE WAS SO slight, at first they didn't even notice him sliding through to the front of the line.

Trae Young, all of 120 pounds, just weeks removed from eighth-grade graduation, firmly planted himself in front of 6-foot-3, 270-pound Norman North High School captain Payton Prince as if he had assumed his rightful position in the basketball hemisphere.

"It was pretty shocking," Prince says now. "I'm thinking, 'Who the hell does this kid think he is?'"

Bryan Merritt was new to town in the summer of 2013. Set to coach the Norman North basketball team in the fall, he thought it wise to gather some players for an informal workout, asking around who he should invite. Merritt was told there was a boy brimming with potential and ambition, who could sink shots from 30 feet and exhibited a knack for deftly hitting players in stride with no-look passes that startled both the defense and the recipient. The kid was small, precocious and immature, but everyone said Trae Young was definitely worth a look.

Now here he was, 14 years old, at his first team gathering, challenging its unwritten hierarchy with a stunning swath of bravado. Prince, who had signed with Tulsa and would go on to play defensive tackle there, vacillated between amused and annoyed. He shoved Young out of the way. "Back of the line," he barked. The kid grudgingly obliged, but it was not the last time he would stride to the front to stake his claim.

To the surprise and consternation of the players, Young was at it again the very next day, jockeying to the front. Young insists this is how his journey needed to unfold.

"When you're my size, it's how you have to roll to be respected," Young says. "Whenever I played with older guys, I wanted to fit in. And, once I did that, I wanted to stand out.

"To do that, sometimes you need to do things that are uncomfortable."

Young has demonstrated adeptness in such moments. The 22-year-old supernova for the unabashedly orchestrates the game he loves with his own flair, be it a lefty, 20-foot no-look bounce pass in transition, or one of those 38-foot bombs he unleashes just after he crosses half court. These flashes of brilliance -- and presumption -- are rooted in his insatiable thirst to prove he belongs, delighting some and infuriating others.

"That chip," says Atlanta Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce. "Trae carries it everywhere. You have to take the good with the bad. I was with Joel Embiid when he was the same way. For both of those guys, everything is some form of competition."

Young looked like a child alongside the burly high-school upperclassmen, many of them football stars moonlighting as basketball players. He struggled in the first two months, but Merritt could see the wheels turning. He learned of Young's 5:30 a.m. conditioning regimen that included running the stadium steps before school, of the film sessions with his father to absorb the nuances of and Steve Nash, the post-practice shooting tutorials at the YMCA. "No one," Merritt says, "can ever question whether Trae has worked for it."

But after each triumph, the lament was always the same: "What a shame he's so small." Young grew to loathe the words "plucky" and "tenacious." He was more than that, and he would show everyone.

From Norman North to the University of to the Atlanta Hawks, Young's peers have come to understand that he's an acquired taste. And as he continues his NBA ascent, a question persists: Does his brashness need to be tempered for the greater good?

"My son is no angel," says his father, Rayford Young. "He does rub a lot of people the wrong way, including guys he plays with."

"I promise you, when Trae was 16 years old, even if walked in the gym, he'd swear he could beat him," Merritt says. "That's how he's gotten this far.

"But sometimes all that confidence hits people wrong. So, how are you going to be that way without putting people off? He's going to have to work on that forever."

"ICE TRAE" MATERIALIZES when Young is really feeling it. When he banked a late-game 3 over Markelle Fultz last season, there was the signature "shiver." Then there was the time he drained a long trey over then-Lakers guard , pointing to the spot in case Ball didn't fully comprehend his range.

Trae Young drains a deep 3-pointer over Lonzo Ball and points to the floor.

In 2019, Denver Nuggets wing Will Barton fell victim to a nutmeg when Young poked his dribble between Barton's legs, retrieved it, launched a soft fallaway, then turned and stared down the Nuggets bench.

Trae Young nutmegs Will Barton for the baseline jumper and then proceeds to stare down the Nuggets bench.

Young's father was the one who told him never to back down from anybody, but sometimes his son's boldness emits an involuntary wince.

"I talk to him about it," Rayford Young says. "I want him to stay healthy. I don't want anyone to cheap- shot him. He tells me, 'Dad, I'm fine. This is part of my game.'"

In his third season playing with Young, John Collins has observed Young slither under opponents' skin in myriad ways, including cleverly initiating contact and drawing fouls (Young averages 10.5 free throws a game). "He has a Harden-esque ability to do that," Collins notes.

Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce makes the salient that if a star doesn't have a tinge of arrogance, he'll be swallowed whole in the league. This is especially true when one stands barely over 6 feet tall. Young discussed this with , and the Black Mamba told him there were two types of players: lions and sheep.

"Be a lion," Bryant advised Young. Last spring, the Hawks were engaged in post-bubble workouts when Young and back-up Brandon Goodwin began trading barbs. It started with aggressive defense, some choice words, then a flurry of physical fouls, and then, suddenly, the two shoved each other and appeared prepared to trade blows. They were quickly separated before full-blown fisticuffs ensued.

"We were in it," Young says. "That's the intensity our team needs."

"He was being super aggressive," Goodwin recalls. "I gained a lot of respect for Trae after that. He wasn't rattled at all. When we started playing again, he immediately hit the next shot and just stared me down. I was like, 'OK.'

"After practice, we dapped and forgot all about it," Young says. "You won't find a bigger fan of BG than me."

"Trae had that macho attitude, 'I can get the next shot.' I tried to calm him down, tell him this was a good time to use the other four guys on the floor. He'd nod, then come down and take a 30- footer."Former Oklahoma assistant Chris Crutchfield

Veteran Rajon Rondo chuckles when told of the encounter. He signed with Atlanta to serve, in part, as a mentor to Young. He, too, was once an undersized guard in a hurry to be great, unapologetically challenging everyone in his path.

"Trae is able to get anywhere on the floor he wants," Rondo says, "but what we've been talking about is getting the ball to the right spot when the game is on the line. I admire the growth I've seen. He's getting more comfortable with not having to make every play himself."

Young acknowledges his tunnel vision, and the intensity that accompanies it. With each passing NBA season, he says, he's considering how to appease the needs and wants of his teammates.

"Not everyone thinks the way I do," Young says. "I'm learning how to adjust and adapt to different people. But there's one thing I hope my teammates all understand. There's two different people in me: the basketball version and the personal version.

"The basketball version is willing to do whatever it takes to win. Sometimes, that will come along with controversy. I want to bring out the best in everybody and I hope they will bring out the best in me. The teammates who understand that are the ones I'm closest with."

Collins is on that list. His exchange with Young during a recent film session regarding delivering the ball to the proper spots was leaked to the media, even though each insists it was an honest, collaborative conversation. Pierce dismisses the tension that day as a common NBA occurrence that ignites productive dialogue. "I embrace confrontation," Pierce says. "It promotes growth."

Rayford says the closeness between his son and Collins enabled them to be direct in giving on-court feedback. "But that's not going to work with everyone," he says. "When vets like Taurean Prince played with Trae, they were like, 'Hey, what's your deal?'"

THE DEAL IS that as an 8-year-old, Young hugged his father and informed him that he was going to Texas Tech to break all his records. Rayford was also a smallish guard who scored 1,525 career points. He met his wife, Candice, at Texas Tech, and by his senior year, 2-year-old Trae Young sat happily in his mom's lap, decked out in Red Raiders gear, clapping for daddy.

His parents point to the temporary relocation of the New Orleans Hornets to Oklahoma City for two seasons after Hurricane Katrina as a turning point for their son. Rayford's basketball connections spurred interactions with , and, later, when the Thunder moved to OKC, with Durant, Harden and Russell Westbrook. A wide-eyed Young sat courtside, munching on chicken strips as his NBA dreams unfolded in front of him.

"Now, suddenly, it was tangible," says Candice Young. "It's not just on TV. I remember sitting at a game with Trae and he said, 'This is where I want to be.'"

Rayford told him he would need to develop a handle, or he'd be relegated to being a 3-point specialist. Crafty passing, he stressed, would separate him. By the time Young was a high school senior, he routinely dazzled with a barrage of spectacular plays.

"Watching him play high school ball was like watching Dame [Lillard] or Steph [Curry] in the pros," former teammate Shemar Smith says. "The way he passed, the range ... It was ridiculous the stuff he was doing."

Former teammate Charlie Kolar, an All-America tight end at Iowa State, recalls a specific Young improvisation against Yukon High. Vernon Turner, the state champion in the high jump, was dribbling the ball up the floor and Young picked his pocket.

"So, Trae is headed for the rim, but this guy was chasing him down, and I was pretty sure he was going to it," Kolar recalls.

Instead, Young stopped, pinned the ball between his legs, then initiated an up fake with a phantom ball. Turner leaped into the air, Young retrieved the ball from between his legs and calmly laid it in.

"None of us had ever seen anything like it, including the ref," Kolar says. "He called Trae for a travel."

Trae Young goes into his bag of tricks to send a defender flying before hitting the layup.

Young's innovation enabled him to keep climbing the basketball ladder. Coach John Calipari came calling from Kentucky and so did Coach Mike Krzyzewski from Duke, but neither could match what Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger had to offer: a basketball landing spot 15 minutes from home where he could still tool around in his Mustang, grab some crinkle fries from Raising Cane's, and sneak home for a nap in his own bed. Kruger, whose team had been 10-20 the season before, told Trae that if he came to OU, he would run the show.

"I always wondered what people were looking at when they said, 'He's not athletic enough,'" Kruger says. "Trae was faster than anyone with the ball in his hands."

Young's new teammates knew all about him, yet they were unprepared for how he would challenge them. When upperclassmen fumbled and dropped his no-look passes, he informed them, "I'm not throwing it to you anymore."

OU started out 12-1 and Young was heralded as the next Steph Curry. He became the first ever to lead the nation in points and assists, and ESPN began running a daily ticker dedicated to his progress. "It was unlike any player I've ever had," Kruger says. "But then all of a sudden expectations changed, and the burden changed with it."

Suddenly, Young was routinely doubled and tripled on every possession. Road fans cruelly ridiculed him when he turned the ball over. The losses began to pile up, but Trae kept on shooting. In a loss to Oklahoma State, in which he scored 48 points, he took 39 shots -- and missed 25 of them, including all nine of his 3s. The scorn mounted, along with the discontent within his own locker room.

"Fans notice the makes but teammates notice the misses, especially early in the shot clock," Kruger says.

After the Oklahoma State loss, a disconsolate Young left his dorm and retreated home, where he vowed to his father, "I'm done shooting." Two days later, in a win over Kansas, Young took only nine shots. That, too, drew the ire of the critics.

The low point of the season came at Texas Tech, his father's alma mater, which had recruited Trae heavily. Rayford, surrounded by old friends, teammates and school donors, was beaming in the stands pregame. There was a crackle of excitement among the Young family until fans started rhythmically chanting, "F--- you Trae Young!"

Then-OU assistant coach Chris Crutchfield, whose boys Josh and Jalen grew up with Trae, could plainly see the vitriol had shaken the usually unflappable 19-year-old.

"There were about 3,000 or 4,000 of them in the student section," Crutchfield says. "They were the loudest boos I've ever heard."

"There was a game last week where he ran a set and chewed up the clock, even though he was dying to pull up and take a 3. It's the 'bigger picture' mentality. Not all superstars are able to handle it. Trae can. I'm watching him do it."Hawks guard Rajon Rondo

Young bowed his head and went to work. He tried to silence the catcalls with his long-range magic, but he was pressing. "He tried to do too much," Rayford says. "They got to him."

"Trae had that macho attitude, 'I can get the next shot,'" Crutchfield says. "I tried to calm him down, tell him this was a good time to use the other four guys on the floor. He'd nod, then come down and take a 30-footer."

OU fell to Texas Tech 88-78. Candice, who hadn't been back to Texas Tech since Trae was a toddler, left in tears. "I just couldn't understand how these people who had revered my husband so much could flip and hate our son so much because he chose a different school," she says. During the somber 5½-hour ride back to Norman, Texas Tech coach Chris Beard called to apologize for the fans' antics.

The Sooners lost nine of their final 11, including a first-round loss to Rhode Island in the NCAA tournament. The mental toll, Young concedes, was considerable, and he relied on counseling to contend with the extreme highs and lows of his experience.

"Obviously there were a lot of juniors and seniors on that team who had already been there," Young says. "Some wanted things to go on their terms. I was learning on the fly, and at my age, and my position, it was challenging at times. I wish we had done better."

Kruger laments that he wasn't able to alleviate some of the tremendous pressure on Young, and wishes he took Young off the ball more. "But he's so used to having it in his hands, and he's not particularly productive without it," Kruger says. "I would have had him get the ball out, then get it right back to him. But he probably would have fought me on it."

"Probably would have," Young says.

CRUTCHFIELD UNDERSTANDS WHY Young wanted to move on to the NBA so quickly. He says the space in the pro game is ideal for the young point guard. "And when you give Trae space, he's an impossible cover," Crutchfield says.

Hawks GM Travis Schlenk traded the rights to Luka Doncic for Young in part because of his incredible aptitude at reading the pick and roll. He anticipates the correct pass like a quarterback who throws the ball to a space instead of the receiver. Only Young, Lillard and Doncic appear in the top 10 in scoring and assists per game. If Trae is to lead Atlanta to the playoffs, he must commit to the defensive end with the same enthusiasm.

"Trae carries the weight of the world on every [offensive] possession," Pierce says. "I told him, 'Defensively, I need that same intensity.'"

Pierce says Young has improved greatly as an off-the-ball defender, but needs to be peskier and grimier on the ball. He needs to fight through screens harder, to hustle back and engage after a missed 3. Pierce told Young he expected he would be in the top 10 in turnovers because he has the ball in his hands so much, but he'd like him to consider simplifying the game at times. "Trae is a great player who's not interested in singles," Pierce says. "He's a home-run hitter."

The coach points to the drop in Young's shot attempts and the rise in his offensive efficiency as evidence of progress. Rondo claims Young is making huge strides toward incorporating the new talent around him, including veteran , who has become a trusted pick-and-roll partner.

"He understands that's a necessary sacrifice," Rondo says. "There was a game last week where he ran a set and chewed up the clock, even though he was dying to pull up and take a 3.

"It's the 'bigger picture' mentality. Not all superstars are able to handle it. Trae can. I'm watching him do it."

The Crutchfield boys, who have known Trae all his life, say winning is all that has ever mattered to their friend. They fervently believe his brashness is what makes him special. Jalen Crutchfield recalls one of the final games of Trae Young's high school career, when he dribbled the ball between his defender's legs, pulled it back, drained a 3, then blew a kiss to the opposing student section.

"That's Trae," Crutchfield says. "He's not changing now."

Prince preaches patience when it comes to his old high-school teammate. The two became spirited competitors in practice, challenging each other with physical play and brutal banter. He recalls the time Young corralled a loose ball but Prince ripped it out of his hands, and Young took a swipe at him. The next time down, Young buried a 28-footer, stared down his senior captain and declared, "Hey, you can take your ass to Tulsa now. This is my team." The altercation still makes Prince smile. "He was right," says Prince, who still pings Young from time to time. Trae Young has taken the wisdom provided by Rondo, Pierce and his father to heart. He says he knows he still has much to learn, but plans on sliding to the front of the line anyway, whether everyone believes he belongs there or not.

"I've always carried this chip on my shoulder," Young says. "It's going to stay there until I'm done playing. People might as well get used to it."

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