Trae Young hadn’t worn a jersey for Saturday’s game against the Nuggets. Worse, “Ice Trae” wasn’t even in the room. While we thought it was just a rest game for the leader, Shams of The Athletic revealed that the arsonist’s absence from the ATL was the result of a nasty falling out with his coach Nate McNillan.
Not so good in Atlanta right now. As evidence of this, Shams Charania and Sam Amick revealed this weekend that a fight had broken out between Young and the coach in the Hawks locker room. According to them, the point guard would have refused to participate in a shooting session to heal a slight sore in his shoulder, which would not have pleased McNillan. From then on, the latter would give his all-star an ultimatum: get off the bench against the Nuggets or simply not come to the game at all. As you can imagine, Young chose option number 2. Despite his absence, the Hawks won their duel against the Nuggets by winning 117-109.
Nothing to worry about (normally)
We doubt this mess will end up like Deron Williams’ with his coach Jerry Sloan in 2011 who had the latter resigned from Jazz controls and sent the leader to Brooklyn. After the Falcons’ win, McNillan tried to put out the fire, saying it was a simple misunderstanding. Trae Young is expected to return tonight against OKC. This slight increase in tension should therefore lead to nothing, however, the point guard and his friend Dejounte Murray are pissing off a lot of people right now. There are a lot of people who do the old rookie counterattacks and celebrate shooting every three points, but when it comes to closing easy games to grab the east podium there is no one left. More basketball, less obnoxious skills please.
