Hawks’ Trae Young Once Trash-Talked ‘Big Belly’ Grant Williams After a Foul Call

Tonoy Sengupta | 18/08/2024
Trae Young and Grant Williams

Trae Young is one of the most skilled guards in the NBA but his penchant for foul-baiting is frowned upon, especially by those tasked with guarding him. It often leads to players calling him out on the court, usually with a rude remark. However, when Grant Williams tried that tactic, the guard fired back with a shocking personal remark.

During a game between the Hawks and the Celtics in November 2022, Young was up to his usual antics and drew a soft foul call on Williams. The then-Celtics took exception to the tactics and mocked the star.

He hysterically jerked his body and threw his head back, hilariously imitating Young’s go-to move to bait referees into believing that the contact on him was worthy of being whistled for a foul. The Hawks guard star wasn’t too amused with Williams’ reenactment. He retaliated by pointing at the Celtics star’s belly, before using some choice words to describe it.

Young: “Fat a*s n***a… big belly”

Grant: “I’d do the same thing [for a call]”

Young: “Big belly a*s n***a”

The clip posted by X user LegendZ, who has built notoriety with his lipreading videos of on-court conversations between NBA stars, instantly went viral. Young’s stunning rebuttal to Williams’ accusation left fans amused and astonished.

The play in question was flagged as a common foul, and the Hawks guard made both free throws. However, the forward had the last laugh, as the Celtics dominated proceedings and won the game 126-101.

Despite Young’s shocking jibe, Grant did not retort with anything as sinister as body shaming. He continued to mock the Hawks star’s foul-baiting antics. The then-Celtics forward realized that Young was frustrated about his team’s massive deficit and did not want to indulge in a war of words with him.

Williams had an excellent outing, shooting 6-of-10 from the floor, including 4-of-7 from beyond the arc for 18 points. His “big a*s belly” didn’t prove to be a hindrance to his ability to play well and lead his team to victory.

Post Edited By: Jay Mahesh Lokegaonkar
grant williams NBA Trae Young

About the author

Tonoy Sengupta

Tonoy Sengupta

Tonoy Sengupta is a Senior Editor at The SportsRush. Coming from an athletically inclined family, he has been surrounded by sports ever since he was 4 years old. But, while initially pouring all his time into Football (soccer), at 14, Tonoy discovered basketball through the countless highlights of Stephen Curry humiliating players from Curry Land. And just like that, a fiery passion for the game was ignited within Tonoy. And soon after, he decided to become a student of journalism, graduating in 2022, and choosing sports as his area of interest. Today, you can find him spending 99% of his time browsing through every type of content on every team in the NBA, before uncorking everything he has found to the world. In the 1% he isn't doing this, you can find him playing Basketball, Football, Volleyball, or practically any other sport he has had the opportunity to learn.

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