The relationship between Trae Young and New York has never cooled down. Five years after turning himself into the ultimate villain at Madison Square Garden, the hostility has taken on a life of its own. This week, it escalated to the point where the New York Police Department had to step in.

A video from New York Sports on Instagram quickly spread across social media, showing an NYPD officer stepping in to stop a Knicks fan from vandalizing a Trae Young jersey on the streets of New York ahead of the Knicks-Hawks first-round series. The clip picked up traction across platforms, pulling in hundreds of thousands of views and reactions. It perfectly summarized how New York fans still feel about the Washington Wizards guard, intense enough to require intervention even though he has not played for the Hawks since January.

The Hawks traded Young to Washington mid-season, which makes him a spectator for this series. The Knicks are facing his former team, but Young himself is not involved and is nowhere near the building. The jersey a Knicks fan tried to vandalize belonged to someone simply watching the playoffs from outside Madison Square Garden.

The history that produced this moment stretched back to Game 1 of the 2021 Eastern Conference first-round playoff series. During that contest, the former Oklahoma star iced a Hawks win at MSG with a late floater, and then turned to the hostile crowd and bowed. 

New York responded with the kind of sustained, personalized hostility the Garden reserves for its most effective villains. In Game 2, a fan spat on him during the fourth quarter, and the Knicks banned that person indefinitely. Young averaged 29.2 points and 9.8 assists in the series, eliminating New York in five games with the clincher at MSG. The chants that started in that building have followed him ever since.

It resurfaced again at MSG on April 19 during the Knicks’ Game 1 113-102 win over the Hawks. Late in the game, with Young not even in the series, some Knicks fans broke into “F*** Trae Young” chants directed at no one in particular. 

The same week, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani opened a press conference about soaring playoff ticket prices by joking, “First, I would like to say I blame Trae Young, and I think it’s always important to blame Trae Young.” Young fired back on social media, referencing his 2021 run. Before Game 1, Underdog leaned into the moment with a stunt outside MSG, placing a comedian in a plexiglass case wearing Hawks gear and letting fans throw eggs at him, openly acknowledging that Knicks fans no longer had Young to target.

The Rivalry Has Outlived the Actual Rivalry

The NYPD video is funny, but it is also an accurate snapshot of where this stands. In roughly 30 career games against the Knicks, Young has averaged around 25 points and nearly 10 assists while building a reputation as MSG’s most reliable antagonist. He bowed to the crowd, chirped at fans, and called them out after wins, turning himself into the focal point of every Knicks-Hawks matchup.

Young has now been a Wizard for three months and has nothing to do with this series. He did not impact the Hawks’ seeding, their roster, or their Game 1 preparation. Still, New York’s reaction tells the real story. The mayor blamed him for ticket prices, fans chanted his name during a game he was not part of, and one fan even tried to destroy his jersey on a public street before a police officer stepped in.

This is no longer just a rivalry. It has turned into something closer to a long-term relationship, the kind Madison Square Garden has seen before with villains like Reggie Miller. New York and Trae Young created something in 2021 that has outlived the actual matchup, and based on everything from this week, neither side seems interested in letting it go.