Trae Young has ticked off the City of New York so much that now even the mayor is getting involved.
At a news conference Tuesday, NYC mayor Bill de Blasio called out the Atlanta Hawks star for his questionable method of drawing fouls.
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio tells Trae Young to "stop hunting for fouls"
(via @sportingnews)pic.twitter.com/bBGAyePMrW
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 25, 2021
“Trae Young, on behalf of people in New York City and anyone who cares about actually playing basketball the right way, stop hunting for fouls, Trae,” said de Blasio. “I wanna quote Steve Nash, one of the great players, great coaches. He says, ‘That’s not basketball.’
“Trae, Trae, that Hawk’s not gonna fly in New York City,” added de Blasio. “Come on. Play the game the right way. See if you can win. I think the Knicks are gonna teach you a lesson.”
Young played the role of the villain in Game 1 of Atlanta’s first-round playoff series against the Knicks. The All-Star guard heard vulgar chants from the Madison Square Garden crowd. But he responded by hitting a game-winning floater with 0.9 seconds left to silence the arena.
As for his foul-drawing mannerisms, Young is indeed regularly criticized for jumping backwards into defenders to get cheap whistles. Young had a great comeback to Nash’s comments on the subject, and maybe he will have something similar to say in response to de Blasio.
