Trae Young knows he will forever be compared to fellow second-year stud Luka Doncic, but that doesn’t mean he has to enjoy it.
“It bothers me,” Young admits, emphasizing that he’s a completely different basketball player from the guy he was traded for on Draft Night in 2018.
The 21-year-old is putting up nightly averages of 28.2 points and 8.3 assists for the 5-16 Atlanta Hawks.
Per ESPN:
“We’re going to be compared throughout our whole careers,” Young says on Doncic. “That’s fine, that’s what it’s going to be — it happened on draft night, and I don’t think it’ll stop until we’re both retired.”
‘Trae Young vs. Luka Doncic’ has become so much of the conversation around your early career. Does it bother you that people can’t seem to separate you two guys because of what happened on draft night?
Trae Young: “Yeah. For me, it bothers me — I just love playing basketball, I know he does. So it bothers me because it’s annoying just getting asked about it all the time. But I know it comes with it. I didn’t ask for it to happen, but it happened. … It’s two totally different situations, two totally different players. He’s playing well, I’m playing well. Just let it be.”
Luka is an MVP candidate right now. Is there a part of you that wants to show that the Hawks made the right decision?
TY: “Obviously there’s a little bit of motivation there — I have a lot of different thoughts and motivations, so that’s a little bit of it. I think both teams did what’s best for them. I think what we have going on: the rebuilding process, getting a lot of young guys and trying to build that way, build this city up, build the culture we have. It’s great, it’s growing. We have a lot of fans here that are supporting us. Obviously in Dallas, they’re more in a win-now situation: going and getting all those free agents, getting Kristaps [Porzingis], Tim [Hardaway Jr.], Seth [Curry], They got a lot of guys that are veterans in this league. Two totally different situations.”
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