Trae Young understands he will be forever linked to Luka Doncic thanks to the draft-night trade involving the Atlanta Hawks and Dallas Mavericks swapping the two young stars.
That doesn’t mean Young doesn’t find the endless comparisons between himself and Doncic extremely frustrating.
“For me, it bothers me — I just love playing basketball, I know he does,” Young recently said in an interview with Royce Young of ESPN. “So it bothers me because it’s annoying just getting asked about it all the time. But I know it comes with it. I didn’t ask for it to happen, but it happened. … It’s two totally different situations, two totally different players. He’s playing well, I’m playing well. Just let it be.”
The Hawks selected Doncic with the No. 3 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft. Young was taken two spots later at No. 5 by the Mavs. A subsequent exchange of draft rights, with Atlanta also obtaining a future first-round pick (which ultimately ended up being Cam Reddish), made the players’ already eventful evening that much more frenetic.
Both players have enjoyed brilliant starts to their NBA careers, although Doncic has an edge over Young at this point. The Mavericks star is currently in the midst of a meteoric rise to super stardom, courtesy of an incredible start to the 2019-20 campaign, which comes after winning the NBA Rookie of the Year Award in a landslide.
Incidentally, Young came in a distant second.
All that said, neither player had any control over their respective early career fates, but Young knows all too well that the two will be burdened by their shared history for years to come. In fact, Young even joked about when he believes the comparisons will finally cease.
“We’re going to be compared throughout our whole careers,” Young said. “That’s fine, that’s what it’s going to be — it happened on draft night, and I don’t think it will stop until we’re both retired.”
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