Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young called out a Hawks beat reporter for insulting a fan, the latest in a slew of insulting critiques about Young and the Hawks.
Trae Young may be a villain in New York, but the phenomenal 23-year-old point guard is a hero in Atlanta.
So when anyone comes for Young, Hawks fans expectedly get up in arms about bristling critiques — especially when they’re coming from within Atlanta.
On Dec. 5, The Athletic’s beat reporter for the Hawks, Chris Kirschner, asked Young about his decision to shoot early shot clock 3-pointers in the fourth quarter when games are close. It was an effort to understand Young’s mindset in making those decisions, especially when the Hawks narrowly lost by just 3 points in their 130-127 game against the Charlotte Hornets.
Young answered candidly, clarifying that in a basketball game with nine or ten seconds left, “you have to make a play.”
“Sometimes when you go to the basket and you’re continuing and continuing, sometimes you have to believe in what you’ve worked on,” Young said. “That’s just how I play.”
Kirschner followed up that answer with another question, asking Young if when he takes those shots, if he believes it’s the “best outcome for you guys as a team.”
“I wouldn’t take them if I didn’t think that,” Young replied.
Hawks fans thought Kirschner was being overly critical in picking apart Young’s late-game decision-making, saying that he was “coming for the franchise player.”
Kirschner defended himself, saying that “tough questions” are needed when “poor results” are seen from players like Young.
Again, Kirschner rejected the notion that he hated Young, sharing that he was one of two voters who voted him All-NBA last season.
On Wednesday, Young finally responded to Kirschner’s attitude toward him and Hawks fans, implying that Kirschner is a clown for his latest interaction with a Hawks fan.
Trae Young calls out Atlanta beat reporter for calling a Hawks fan “broke”
On Tuesday, Kirschner wrote an article detailing how the Hawks are faring through 25 games in the season. In his tweet, he used fire emojis to describe how hot the offense has been, while a grimacing emoji described how the defense has been performing.
A Hawks fan pointed out that three of Atlanta’s best defenders have been out of the lineup throughout the season, to which Kirshner replied, “Let me guess, you didn’t read the story or have no reading comprehension. Which one is it?”
The tweeter said they didn’t want to pay to read the article, since The Athletic is a subscription-based publication with most of its content behind a paywall.
Kirschner then called the fan “broke” for being unwilling to pay for the content.
Young didn’t like that kind of energy.
While Kirschner did explain defensive woes through the absence of De’Andre Hunter and Cam Reddish, he also clarified that the defense has been unimpressive anyway, including the performance of Young.
“Young isn’t a good individual defender, and if the guys next to him aren’t playing very well defensively, it’s going to put a lot of pressure on the paint,” Kirschner said.
Of course, it looks like Young is never reading those comments anyway, but he isn’t too broke to afford it.