Remembering the time Trae Young wore suit shorts to the NBA Draft.
If you’re reading this on the day it was published –June 21st, 2020 – it’s officially the two-year anniversary of the 2018 NBA Draft. It was a draft that forever changed the course of the Atlanta Hawks, with the team acquiring what will likely be the franchise’s best player since Dominique Wilkins: Trae Young.
Coming into the draft, the Hawks had the third pick, but it almost felt like the second pick. Phoenix had the top selection and was locked into Deandre Ayton. Everyone knew he was going first, so really, Sacramento was on the clock with the second pick.
Of course, no one was watching the Draft to see which players went to which teams. No, people were tuning in to see the yearly event that is the NBA fashion show. As the players were introduced, each young prospect got a chance to introduce himself, and his custom suit.
The NBA Draft is a fascinating time capsule of what styles of suits were popular that year, with the prime example being 2003 when everyone looked like they got sizes three times too big.
Jump forward 15 years, and ironically, the style was to have just about the tightest suit you could.
https://twitter.com/espn/status/1011825212059463681
There was one trend that briefly swept the NBA world that summer: suit shorts. LeBron wore these in the Finals, prompting Draymond Green to do the same, reminding everyone along the way that he did it first.
The trend died out quickly, but not before one more future All-Star could don the knee-revealing ensemble.
Trae Young showed up in a burgundy suit, that combined with his sock-less shoes, showed a whole lot of leg.
The Atlanta Hawks took Luka Doncic with the third overall pick, quickly trading his rights to Dallas for the fifth pick and a future first. That fifth pick ended up being Young, who made the All-Star game in his second season and finished fourth in the league in points per game.
Whether or not GM Travis Schlenk had planned to do this trade before he saw Young’s tremendous outfit is unknown. If he was set on taking someone else but influenced late by the suit shorts, I’d be fully understanding.
Suit shorts are no longer in the mainstream fashion world. Perhaps the trend ran it’s course, or perhaps, everyone stopped because they knew they could never pull it off better than the kid from Norman Oklahoma.
Happy two-year anniversary Hawks fans.
What did you think of Trae Young’s suit shorts?