Hawks guard Trae Young fans flames of rivalry with Knicks fans

Knicks fans took some exception with that and booed Young, , who scored 23 points, had six rebounds, 10 assists and two steals, in response. But Young leaned into it and returned the boos before imparting one more message: “Take y’all (expletive) home.”

Wednesday night’s game drew an influx of Knicks fans who often drowned out the cheers from even the Hawks’ FanDuel 404 Crew cheering section. With 4:52 to play in the first half, Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns made a 3-point shot that capped an 8-0 run that erased the Hawks’ eight-point lead earlier in the quarter.

The cheers from Knicks fans nearly blew the roof off State Farm Arena, and they immediately began talking trash to the Hawks’ fan section.

But the rivalry between Young and Knicks fans, of course, began three years ago during the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Hawks eliminated the Knicks in five games, when Young averaged 29.2 points and 9.8 assists in that series while shooting 44.1% from the field, including 34.1% from the perimeter.

That series put Young on a “Knicks’ all-time villains” list.

After the game Wednesday, Young was asked about the amount of Knicks fans attending the game.

“Anytime we in Atlanta, I feel like we got more people in here than they do, no matter how many fans they got in here,” Young said. “I know there’s some real Atlanta fans in the building that were mad that they started yelling and doing what they do. This isn’t the only place they do that at, but it seems like it gets loud here. Obviously, when that happens, I just try to win the game. And during the game, you want your team to be cheering the loudest, and that’s what happened. I mean, our fans stayed and they left. So that’s, that’s the best part about it.”