Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young. Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Trae Young justified in feeling snubbed from All-Star Game

By Sai Mohan | Last updated Jan 31, 2025 8:47 AM ET

Trae Young leads the NBA in assists (11.4 per game), and the Hawks (22-26) are in the playoff hunt despite injuries to key players.

Surely, Young has done enough to warrant a spot in the All-Star Game. The voters tried their best to get him selected, with the fans (fifth), players (fourth) and media (sixth) combining to get him the fourth-most votes among all guards in the Eastern Conference.

However, the 30 NBA head coaches — who select the reserves for the exhibition game — did not think Young was worthy of being an All-Star.

On Thursday, Darius Garland, Cade Cunningham, Damian Lillard and Tyler Herro were named the four Eastern Conference guard reserves. Instantly, fans and analysts alike were critical of the coaches for snubbing Young. The Hawks guard himself expressed his displeasure.

& it’s no longer getting “snubbed” it’s getting “Traed” at this point

Sorry to my fans.. it’ll change eventually!
All right, talk soon!
— Trae Young (@TheTraeYoung) January 31, 2025

Trae Young this season:

22.7 PPG
11.4 APG

First player to not make the All-Star team while averaging 20p/10a since… Trae Young in 2023. pic.twitter.com/QpiNYbiiJu
— StatMamba (@StatMamba) January 31, 2025

Trae Young leads the NBA in:

Assists per game (11.4)
Point/Assist double-doubles (27)

Trae Young leads the East in:

30-point, 10-assist games (7)
20-point, 10-assist games (19)
— Atlanta Hawks (@ATLHawks) January 31, 2025

Even the "Inside the NBA" crew was shocked by Young's omission.

"He's played, probably in my opinion, his best year," Charles Barkley said of Young.

Kenny Smith joked that Young may have hurt his All-Star chances by passing the ball too much and not upping his scoring averages.

"I'm a little surprised about the Trae Young thing"

The Fellas react to the Eastern Conference #NBAAllStar Reserves ⭐️ pic.twitter.com/tIwB1S0Tdg
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) January 30, 2025

It's rather baffling that Young finished with a higher weighted score (5.0) than Lillard (5.25), Cunnigham (5.25), Garland (6.00) and Herro (9.50) but couldn't win a spot as a reserve. Essentially, those four guards received fewer fan, player and media votes but were viewed as more deserving by the 30 head coaches.

There is a sound case for Cunningham, one of the favorites to win Most Improved Player, and Garland, the second-leading scorer on the No. 1 seed in the East, to make the cut.

However, Herro and Lillard were not more deserving than Young, given the records of their respective teams. In fact, Herro received zero media votes and finished seventh among both players and fans. It makes no sense for him to leapfrog Young as a reserve. The NBA must revisit its rule of allowing coaches to select the reserves.

Sai Mohan

A veteran sportswriter based in Portugal, Sai covers the NBA for Yardbarker and a few local news outlets. He had the honor of covering sporting events across four different continents as a newspaper reporter. Some of his all-time favorite athletes include Mike Tyson, Larry Bird, Luís Figo, Ayrton Senna and Steffi Graf.

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