Gotham has found a new enemy. He’s from Atlanta, and his costume is a basketball uniform and sneakers. He stands about 6’1”. And his name is Trae Young.
Of course, you probably already know that, if you’re at all a basketball fan who’s paid attention to the opening salvo of the NBA playoffs, which look quite different than last year’s version played in a Disney bubble. This year, they’re in increasingly packed arenas, including the 15,000 fans in Madison Square Garden Sunday night as Trae Young and the Hawks beat the New York Knicks by a bucket in their first playoff game in eight years, a game the Knicks all but won other than the inconvenience of the final score.
What probably frustrated the New York establishment more than the loss was how they lost – and to whom. With less than a minute to go, RJ Barrett was called for a foul on Trey Young for contact that seemed glancing if not non-existent. If you had touched someone on the subway that way by accident with that same intensity, you wouldn’t even have to apologize. Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau asked for a review, which didn’t help. Which meant that Young sank two free throws to take a two-point lead, then seconds later hit a floating jumper near the buzzer to lock down the victory. This, along with Young’s embrace of the villain complex, places him instantly in the rarified air of Reggie Miller and Michael Jordan and other NBA stars who reveled in ending any Knicks’ season in dramatic fashion. Game two of this first round series is tonight, and I imagine young fans will have the opportunity to learn several new words and phrases from New York fans expressing their appreciation of Young’s efforts.
Leaving aside the dramatics of the Garden vs. whomever – and mind you, as someone who grew up in an NBA city other than New York, I do believe the city’s infatuation with their self-aggrandized importance in the landscape of professional basketball to be fairly insufferable – the story here isn’t simply Gotham’s new villain, which does make for pretty fun TV. The story is how the archetype is developed. We’re fairly familiar with the narrative of camera savvy superstars hitting impossible shots in the face of adversity. That’s the story of Jordan and Miller, and Ray Allen, Robert Horry, Kyrie Erving, and on and on. The story here is really that of Trey Young and, as some people suggest, how he gets his points.
Young has perfected the art of getting cheap foul calls, typically by slowing down or nearly going backwards to draw unintentional contact. It’s become the ire of nearly every team and player in the League not in Atlanta, so much that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will likely examine over the offseason, as it’s put, unnatural shooting motions. And New York mayor Bill de Blasio, who’s never seen a pot he wouldn’t stir, called Young out after the horrors of Game One, demanding that he “play the right way.” Perhaps better put by Brooklyn Nets coach and NBA Hall-of-Famer Steve Nash said “that’s not basketball.”
Nash, of course, put that in the form of a comment, not a question. But, of course, it is just that. What is basketball, especially when it comes in the form of drawing fouls to the letter of the law but, if you happen to enjoy the game, against its spirit? What do you do when a player figures out a way to take full advantage of the rule book while likely violating its intention? This isn’t unique to basketball. Just look at outfield shifts in baseball, or any long number of rules concerning the quarterback in football. Or, say, the US Constitution. But when it comes to the NBA, Trey Young fouls challenge the notion of fair play while also sucking the joy out of the arena. And before you say it, yes, I know about James Harden.
That, more than anything, is why Knicks fans should be upset. Not because Trae Young mocks them, but because he minimizes the sport itself – even if he doesn’t technically do anything wrong.
Of course, all of this will be a distant memory soon, because assuredly the League will massage the rulebook to rid these kinds of fouls. Sports are fluid construct, despite our fondness for history. Any of course, because the Knicks will be out of the playoffs soon enough. So the suffering for them at least will come to an end.
No, they won’t win a title this year. But at least they did gain a new enemy.
Keith Strudler is the director of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. You can follow him on twitter at @KeithStrudler
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