Atlanta Hawks: Reaction to Ridiculous Trae Young Ejection

A quick reaction to the Atlanta Hawks game versus the Chicago Bulls, as well as the ridiculous ejection of Trae Young.

The Atlanta Hawks exacted revenge on the Chicago Bulls last night after the incredible four-overtime game of Friday night.

The Atlanta Hawks defeated Chicago by a final margin of 123-118, and they did without the services of the team’s best young rookie and, most likely, its best offensive player in Trae Young.

Alex Len scored the most points of his Hawks career with 28 points starting at center. Len was a +5 in on/off rating in 26 minutes. Jaylen Adams, who spelled Young after he was unfairly ejected, scored a career-high 14 points on 4 of 7 shooting from downtown.

Despite those performances, the real story of the night was the ejection of Young, who had gotten off to a strong start that looked as if it would lead to his 4th straight 30-point game got into a minor scuffle with his Bulls counterpart, the mercurial Kris Dunn.

Dunn, who had been getting mercilessly roasted by Young on a possession-by-possession basis for two straight games (while chucking up some ill-timed and poorly-thought-out jumpers that he had no business taking), slapped Young in the back of the head.

For some reason, both players were given technical fouls. No worries – just move on.

However, later on in the game with 9:20 left in the 3rd quarter, Trae splashed a three-pointer in Dunn’s face and stared him down, delicately placing his hands on his hips to exaggerate the stare-down even more.

Apparently, such a deeply offensive move was too much for the gentle sweethearts on the court as well as those poor fans at the United Center. How dare our rookie look at a player with intent! (In case you couldn’t tell, this sentence is dripping with sarcasm).

Here is the response from the referees:

As you would expect, the replies are utter contempt for the refs, and honestly, it’s a completely reasonable reaction. Much of the narrative on Twitter after this laughable affair was directed at the referees, with a highlight being:

Trae Young was easily the best player on the court during his 18 minutes. In that time, he scored 18 points, drilled 3 three-pointers, dished out 5 dimes and was a +11 in on/off rating. To Dunn’s credit, he admitted that Trae should not have been tossed out of the game for such a harmless chest-puff (duh):

Instead of allowing him to utterly cook Dunn every time down the court, the referees injected themselves into the narrative of a game in which a no-call would’ve definitely been the correct choice.

Listen, what the referees do is incredibly hard, and they almost always do a serviceable job. However, when it comes to judgment calls like this, consistency is key. A taunting call on the best player on the court has likely not happened more than 5 times over the past 10 years in the NBA.

I don’t remember James Harden getting teed up when he stole the soul of Wesley Johnson:

Or what about Shawn Kemp not only staring down a hapless Alton Lister but also pointing at him mockingly after destroying him with an astonishing dunk:

Hmmm, no technical foul, you say? Seems fishy.

Trae Young has recently grown into one of the most exciting players to watch in the NBA, and it’s a shame that a rogue technical foul call robbed fans of watching Young try and extend his 30-point games streak.

If Harden had been ejected during his recent run of 30-plus, there would have been an absolutely frenetic backlash that the league would have had to respond to.

In the end, it’s all in the past, but let’s hope referees realize that Trae Young plays with passion and intensity every night, so maybe swallow a pillowy soft taunting whistle next time, okay?

If not that, let’s hope Trae doesn’t put his hands on his hips again!

The Atlanta Hawks play next on Monday at 7:30 p.m. EST against the Miami Heat.