- Young admits he looked up to Kevin Durant
- Hawks star was in the game during KD’s “cupcake” game
- Young says KD gave the blueprint on how to handle fan negativity
Life as a superstar in the NBA comes with many amazing perks, but hate from the fans and media is one of the few unavoidable downsides that come with the position. As the lead face of Hawks basketball, Trae Young has his knowledge first-hand and it wasn’t always easy for him to ignore all the noise.
Interestingly, he didn’t have to look too far for solutions. Speaking in an interview with Gilbert Arenas, Young explains how the career of another helped him overcome his own hurdles.
“I looked up to KD a lot like, to see him go through all the stuff he went through when he left (OKC) and coming back,” said Trae. “I was at that game, when everybody in the arena wearing cupcakes.”
The game Young mentions here is a reference to a game in 2017, when KD (who was still in his first year with the Warriors) made his long-awaited return to Oklahoma City. Feeling betrayed, the fans there turned on him with heavy boos and even brought cupcakes into the arena as a way to mock Durant and his “cupcake” nickname at the time.
The hate for KD that day was powerful and it’s very rare to see that in the NBA today. If he really was in the crowd that game, it’s no wonder why the moment stuck with Trae after all these years.
Has Fan Heckling Gone Too Far?
In today’s player empowerment era, we see that players are not afraid to make tough choices and abandon one team for another. For the fans, especially in smaller markets, this can leave them with bitter resentment and give them more incentive to lash out during games.
In the case with the example above, and Trae Young’s experience, it can lead to all-out trolling by large groups of people. Sadly, there’s hardly anything the NBA can really do to stop the hecklers but players like Trae are learning how to use the hate as fuel for success.
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