Trae Young has been feeling himself the last month or so. The Hawks rookie has started to piece things together and is really coming into his own as a pro. He’s been scoring points, dishing out assists, and making a late run to get his name in the Rookie of The Year conversation. He probably won’t win it, but it has to be encouraging for Hawks fans to see Young making a great late season push like this.
Young’s spunk, while exciting, isn’t sitting well with everybody though. The surprisingly okay-since-the-trade-deadline Bulls were taking on the Hawks on Sunday, and Bulls guard Kris Dunn took exception to some of Young’s attitude.
Dunn saw plenty of Young on Friday night in the two teams’ 4OT thriller, that saw Young drop 49 on the Bulls in a losing effort, and some apparent tensions carried over early in the game. The two got into it in the first quarter and had to be broken up by Robin Lopez, leading to double technicals assessed to both parties.
Trae Young and Kris Dunn got into it 👀 pic.twitter.com/UqSrBRHl4o
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 3, 2019
This could have been where it ended, but Young decided he wasn’t quite finished getting under Dunn’s skin. Later in the game, Young pulled up and hit a deep 3-pointer in Dunn’s face, and then stared him down as Dunn walked to the huddle for a timeout. The staredown was apparently a little too long, because the refs remembered the two’s earlier altercation sent Young to an early shower. He left the game with 18 points and five assists.
As far as the video shows it doesn’t look like Young said anything to Dunn. He just stared.
Trae Young was ejected from the game for staring down Kris Dunn after a deep three https://t.co/IIKouHFiuB
— Dime (@DimeUPROXX) March 3, 2019
This was an odd decision by the refs to eject Young for only a stare down, but maybe he had been warned before this about pushing the growing feud any deeper than it needed to go. Still, you rarely see guys ejected for this and it seems unfair to Young to yank him out of the game so quickly. Guess it’s true what they say about rookies needing to earn respect from the refs first.
At least Young got ejected for something cool though like a nasty stare down. It was a pretty disrespectful move all around, from pull-up to staredown, and Young is clearly someone that isn’t afraid to get into it with other players. If he keeps playing the way he is, he has more than enough game to back it up. Hopefully in the future the referees won’t have quite as short of a leash for his antics.
