“So, although Trae Young’s home is in Atlanta, he resides in New York in Madison Square Garden…” Time and again, Kendrick Perkins and the world saw Trae Young silence the fans in MSG. In fact, at the ‘Mecca of Basketball’, the Hawks star already has four 40+ point games, and last season nonchalantly dropped 38 in February. That’s why he is a villain in NY, and his dice celebration with the game-winning shots only enhances that image.

Speaking about the game-winning shots and breaking the hearts of the Knicks supporters, it all started during the 2021 playoffs. It was also the first time for the Hawks star in just his third year in the league. Appearing on the Club 520 podcast, Trae Young added, “Oh man, it was crazy feeling.” On the personal front, he received his first signature shoe during that series.

“I mean I debuted my first signature shoe too, like that series, and I was playing in prototypes. They didn’t even they they couldn’t even make enough for me to make play my own and I really wanted to play in my first shoot in the Garden in my first playoff series. And so I was playing in prototypes the first two games, and uh it was it was just an unreal feeling, man.” As Young recalled, playing in his first playoff series, which was his first with his first shoe, was special. At the time, he was signed with Adidas, the shoe was “Peach Tree” Adidas Trae Young 1

That series involved the 4x All-Star hitting a game-winning floater in Game 1 of that series. He shushed the riled-up crowd at MSG after the shot and yelled, “It’s quiet as f— in here.” New York’s nightmare did not end there! Plus, he hit a dagger 3 during a blowout win in Game 5 a few days later. The Knicks were waiting for playoff basketball after missing out on 7 seasons in a row, but Trae Young showed no mercy. He would end the series with a mammoth 29.2 points and 9.8 assists per game. Talk about leading from the front.

Since then, his villainous arc in MSG has been set in stone and has not changed, especially after his antics in last year’s NBA Cup. Young and the Hawks pushed past the Knicks 108-100, and as the final seconds melted away, the 26-year-old kneeled down on the New York Knicks‘ mid-court logo at Madison Square Garden — and pretended to roll dice. So, does he enjoy this love-hate relationship?

Trae Young enjoyed inflicting wounds, especially when the Knicks’ captain did not intervene

“I mean, it’s cool. I mean, I don’t really thing is I didn’t grow up thinking I was going to ever be a villain of, you know what I’m saying, in New York. But I mean, it is what it is. And yeah, I mean, you just embrace it.” In the same podcast, Young addressed that for him, the hatred and boos are just limited to the MSG.

Once he steps out there is no such issue where he has to fear for his safety. That’s why” for the most part. So I don’t really have too hard of feelings towards their fans.”

His favorite part of that game and celebration was when Jalen Brunson did not intervene about the apparent disrespectful celebration. “Yeah. My favorite part is how Jalen came up and dapped me after. Like Jalen, it was a thing when Dejounte (Murray) was on our team. We was he had everybody. We was all playing dice on the tables…And I like how Jalen came up cause Jalen was always playing dice with us too. So, uh, I liked how we got to dab up after I did it, too.” There is a reason why Brunson had no reaction and just congratulated the Hawks star.

“We should win the game if we don’t want him to do that,” Brunson plainly said in the post-game of the Knicks’ 108-100 loss. Rather than point fingers at Trae Young for his celebration, JB made sure to introspect. After all, he had a horrendous 5-of-15 shooting across 36 minutes and dropped just 14 points on the night.