Trae Young caught totally selling crucial late foul call originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
It would seem that Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young spends most of a regular basketball game looking not at his teammates or his coaches but at the referees.
Young has made a name for himself as a maker of circus shots, but he also has a James Harden-like reputation for drawing fake fouls and embellishing basically everything that happens on the floor.
He’s such a notorious actor on the court that he was mentioned by name in a report about the NBA looking to reduce flopping next year:
All of this leads to why, when some on social media noticed a particularly egregious case of Young selling a foul in a hugely important moment during Game 4 between the Sixers and the Hawks, they were none too pleased.
Young was the recipient of a very, very late call in the final minute of last night’s Sixers loss in Atlanta, and upon further review it’s pretty clear Young did the most he could to sell the foul – including making sure the refs noticed his “agony”. You can watch the full clip in the video player above, complete with a zoom in on Young’s actions.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a Sixers fan or a Hawks fan, or just a basketball fan: that kind of acting isn’t good for the game.
I’m sure Young was in some amount of physical discomfort. Embiid is a big dude, and the big man’s hand definitely connected with Young after the shot. Was it a foul? Yep.
But the call was only made after Young clutched at his face; it was such a late call that the Sixers had begun running the other way up the floor when the whistle was blown.
And you can see in the replay here that Embiid recognized what was going on. He yells at the ref and points at Young after the whistle is blown, likely because he can see Young doing as much as possible to sell the foul.
Embiid, it’s important to point out, does his fair share of selling as well. But he wasn’t getting a lot of calls that he normally gets on Monday night, so if you’re going to let guys play, let them play. Don’t fall for a poorly-acted writhe from a notorious exaggerator and let it swing the game.
This isn’t the first time it’s happened this season, either. Former Sixers star Jimmy Butler did the same thing back in February:
The Sixers and Hawks play Game 5 in Philadelphia on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m.