After a pair of dramatic tweets indicating Trae Young might request a trade, the Atlanta Hawks star instead announced an anticlimactic, albeit funny, sponsorship with Crooked Tea today.
Young built the hype for this announcement with a pair of tweets yesterday, the first saying, “it’s just business…” followed by a laughing emoji. Hours later, Young tweeted a teaser clip of today’s video. The video, captioned “it’s time,” featured co-host Adam Lefkoe asking Young, “Are you sure you want to do this?” Young softly replied, “It’s time,” with a solemn look in his eyes and a posture that suggested he would be delivering heartbreaking news.
After his basketball days are over, Young could pursue a career in acting. His body language was quite convincing during the first half of the video as he built suspense for the reveal that he was releasing an advertisement.
This follows LeBron James’s similar publicity stunt, where he announced “The Second Decision,” a reference to his infamous ESPN segment in which he declared he was leaving his hometown Cavaliers for the Miami Heat. James had recently commented that he was considering retirement over the next few years, so fans were quick to assume this would be the formal announcement of his career plans. Instead, James used the attention for a Hennessey advertisement.
Young and James are playing with fire in their announcements
Like James, Young gathered an audience for this ad by leading his fans to believe a shocking announcement was coming. The four-time All-Star is in the midst of contract negotiations that have left Atlanta anxious and opposing teams intrigued.
When Young released his first tweet, Hawks fans' hearts skipped a beat. While there has been no confirmation that this tweet is not about the franchise, it is hard to interpret this comment as anything but a promotional stunt.
The Boy Who Cried Wolf is a fable every child hears growing up. In the story, a shepherd boy was tasked with watching his herd of sheep and alerting the adults if a wolf approached. The boy falsely cried wolf twice, leading the adults to ignore him when he saw a wolf the third time. The wolf would leave with a successful hunt.
Young and James cried wolf here. Young has a reputation for being brash and vocal, but never misleading or dishonest. While this has led some opposing fans to hold him in contempt, Hawks fans have always been firmly on Young’s side. With this announcement, he crossed the line from competitive banter to tiresome antics, even for his own fans.
It will be hard to evaluate comments on this contract situation going forward after this rollercoaster of emotions delivered to fans on a weeknight. What is worse is that Young and his sponsor followed the path James and Hennessey forged, potentially opening the door to more copycats in the future.