BIOGRAPHY
Trae Young was born on September 19, 1998, in Lubbock, Texas. He is a point guard in the NBA.
Trae is the son of Candice and Rayford Young, who played basketball at Texas Tech and professionally in Europe. He has a younger brother, Timothy, and two younger sisters, Caitlyn and Camryn. Young also has an uncle that previously played college basketball under the NAIA.
Young attended Norman North High School in his hometown of Norman, Oklahoma. While he did not play basketball in his freshman year at Norman North, he ended up playing for the team in his sophomore year. That year, he averaged 25 points, 5 assists, and 4 rebounds per game as he helped Norman North win the 2015 area championship and was named Oklahoma's Sophomore of the Year. During his junior year of high school, he significantly improved his game, averaging 34.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 4.6 assists as he led the team to a 28–4 record that year, winning the regional title and placing runner up in the 2016 Oklahoma Class 6A championship game. He was also named Oklahoma's Player of the Year by multiple sources. In his senior season, he averaged 42.6 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game while also shooting at a 48.9% rate.
On February 16, 2017, Trae Young committed to the Oklahoma Sooners.
Young finished his freshman regular season leading the country in many statistics: assists (271), turnovers (161), points (848), points per game (27.4), assists per game (8.7), and assist percentage (48.6%). The 811 points scored in the Big 12 would break the conference's record for most points scored by a freshman player, which was previously held by Kevin Durant and Michael Beasley. On March 7, 2018, Young was announced as the winner of the Wayman Tisdale Award for National Freshman of the Year by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA). At the end of the regular season for Oklahoma, Young was also named the Big 12's Freshman of the Year and was a member of the All-Big 12's First Team. In addition, he was also brought up as a consensus member of the All-American First Team, which was named throughout multiple organizations. Young also joined 2018's top 2 selections Deandre Ayton and Marvin Bagley III as the first consensus All-American First-Team to have three freshman players be named there. On March 15, Young recorded 28 points, 7 assists, and 5 rebounds in an 83–78 overtime loss to No. 7 seed University of Rhode Island. He became the second freshman to record similar numbers of points in an NCAA Tournament game, with Chris Paul being the first player back in 2004.
Following Oklahoma's loss in the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, Young announced his intention to forgo his final three seasons of collegiate eligibility and declare for the 2018 NBA draft.
On June 21, 2018, Young was selected with the fifth overall pick by the Dallas Mavericks in the 2018 NBA draft but was traded to the Atlanta Hawks along with a protected future first-round pick in exchange for the rights to the 3rd overall pick Luka Dončić, as an attempt to rebuild the Hawks. On July 1st, 2018 Young officially signed with the Hawks. On October 21, in the Hawks' third game of the season, Young finished with a season-high 35 points and 11 assists in a 133–111 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. On November 19, 2018, Young finished with a career-high 17 assists with 25 points and three rebounds in a 119–127 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. On February 27, 2019, Young put up a new season-high 36 points and 10 assists in a 131–123 overtime win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. He then broke his season-high two days later on March 1, putting up a career-high 49 points alongside 16 assists against the Chicago Bulls.
