‘I don’t even know what to feel’: Trae Young makes return to State Farm Arena
Former Hawks and current Wizards guard Trae Young made his return to State Farm Arena on Tuesday night. It marks the first time since the team traded him on Jan. 7 that Young has set foot in the arena he had called home for nearly eight years.
“I don’t even know what to feel right now,” Young said in a media availability before Tuesday’s game. “It’s easy to say that you live in the moment, but it’s so hard to do. It’s so easy to look ahead. It’s so easy to try to prepare yourself for something in the future that is unpromised.
“But I think it’s even harder to live in the moment. And for me, that’s what I’m trying to do right now, is just not focus on anything else in the future, what’s going on 10 minutes from now, an hour from now or tomorrow.
“I just want to focus on what’s going on right now and just soak everything in, because you only get one first experience. So I’ll never have to do this again, and thankfully, because I don’t know if I could do it over and over.”
The Hawks dealt Young to the Wizards for CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert.
Young didn’t suit up for the Wizards on Tuesday as he continues to rehab from an MCL sprain in his right knee, as well as a quad contusion. There is uncertainty about whether Young will suit up this season. But the 27-year-old guard remained optimistic that he could return.
“I’ve been leaving it up to the doctors and our team,” Young said. “I’ve been just following the plan. The plan has been going good so far, and you never know, but we’ll see. I’m just following that plan.”
For Young, though, the time away from the court has really allowed him to soak in what will be his new normal.
The former fifth-overall pick in the 2018 NBA draft had played for one team for the majority of his career. So, for Young, the situation is unique. It did not hit him that he would not wear a Hawks jersey the rest of the year until he arrived in Washington, D.C., after the trade.
But he has also had plenty of time to think about what the city of Atlanta meant to him and the potential mark he left on it.
“For me, I just want my legacy to be remembered as somebody who always gave their I mean, 110% like effort every time they were here,” Young said.
“Someone that had a big impact on the kids and youth. Like for me growing up in Oklahoma, like going to games and NBA games as a kid, like that being like a big outlet for me, for my dreams to feel like they could become true someday. So for me to have that same type of impact on the next kid, that’s what I want my legacy to be.”
But Young forever feels connected to the Hawks and to the city.
“It’s just love. Just this genuine love from me and my family to the city and to the Ressler family,” Young said.
“To everybody, like my (former) teammates that have been a part of this, to even some of y’all in the media that I’ve seen for so many years, and we got into it maybe a couple times, but it’s still love at the end.
“It’s genuine love. Like the stuff that I do in the community every season, like at holidays, I guess it’s something that, like I genuinely love doing, and so I hope that’s just the one word you can connect me with the city.”
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