“They’re chanting ‘F*ck you Trae Young!'”: Hawks star’s childhood friend describes how his Adidas sneaker debut and playoff debut game-winner vs Knicks at Madison Square Garden immortalized the moment

Trae Young couldn’t have debuted his signature Adidas sneaker in a more befitting manner than by knocking down the game-winner at MSG.

The Atlanta Hawks embarked on a bullish playoff run that underlined how well their rebuilding project has gone. They tore down their 60-win Hawks roster from 2014-15 in 2017 and went full-blown tank mode.

This resulted in them netting the 3rd pick of the 2018 NBA Draft. They drafted 2-time All-NBA First Teamer Luka Doncic, but made what looks like a win-win trade by sending him to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Trae.

Ice Trae has revitalized the basketball atmosphere in Atlanta – one of the foremost hooping cities in the Southeast. The energy seems to have returned to the State Farm Arena as fans look at an elongated period as a playoff team in the future.

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Trae Young knocked the game-winner down against the New York Knicks on his sneaker debut

Young trains with a childhood friend Irv Roland, who’s also been his teammate in the past. Roland was present at Madison Square Garden along with Rayford and the Young family as Trae iced Game 1.

The feeling that Roland went through, watching his mate and childhood friend have a fairytale playoff debut, is something only he can properly describe. And that’s what he did in an interview with Slam:

“I was at the game and excited to see him because coming from a small place, a kid like this that has received so much doubt and so many people saying what he wasn’t gonna be, and for him to now be a max-deal player with his own shoe, playing in his first playoff series in his third year, it was pretty incredible.”

“It was almost like a movie scene. For him to come to New York, one of the toughest places to play, with those fans. I mean, on the first play of the game, he gets the ball and they’re yelling ‘F you, Trae Young!’”

“His whole family was there. It was his very first playoff game. And for him to get the game-winner in Madison Square Garden. You can’t really draw up a better script.”

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About the author

Amulya Shekhar

Amulya Shekhar is a sports junkie who thrives on the thrills and frills of live sports action across basketball, football (the American variant works too), parkour, adventure sports. He believes sports connect us to our best selves, and he hopes to help people experience sports more holistically.

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