Trae Young Tears Into Officiating After Hawks Loss to Orlando: "It's Personal For Some of These Refs"

The Atlanta Hawks clashed with the Orlando Magic tonight in an important game when it came to the Eastern Confernece Standings, with the Magic coming out on top 114-108. One of the storylines in the game tonight was the officiating, which frustrated the Hawks at various times tonight. Three Hawks were called for technical fouls and after a few calls, there was lots of arguing coming from Atlanta's side about the calls that were being made. After the game, Hawks point guard Trae Young did not mince words when it came to what he thought about the officiating in the game:

"They shot ten more free throws than us and I mean I feel like if you ask around the league, you would know that they are a more physical team than we are, and the way we drove, even some of the guys were laughing when they were not calling fouls for me we'd go on the other end, it is so frustrating. It is personal for some of these refs and some stuff that fans don't even get to hear when you get to see it in their calls and their actions and things like that. You just wish you could get some of these refs that don't take things personally and understand that people grow. I am not 19 anymore, I can communicate with these people and I have with a lot of these refs and I feel like the refs are responsive for the most part, but then you get a few, a handful, like we got tonight. They just take shit personally and you can see it in the way that they make their calls."

Trae, on the officials:

"You just wish that you could get some refs that just don't take things personally and understand that people grow. I'm not 19 anymore. I can communicate with these people (cont.)" pic.twitter.com/DwItT6t6MU
— Kevin Chouinard (@KLChouinard) February 21, 2025

The Hawks were 28-64 (44%) shooting tonight from two-point range and missed a ton of shots at the rim. Dyson Daniels (3-14 from the field) and Zaccharie Risacher (4-15) particularly had tough nights shooting the basketball. Orlando is one of the NBA's elite defensive teams, but Atlanta missed some close shots at the basket (47% in the paint), and in a tight game like this one, it makes a huge difference.

In the game between the two teams last Monday, Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero had to do pretty much everything on offense for the Magic. It was not quite the same tonight, but both of the Magic's young stars had big nights. After only scoring two points in the first quarter, Banchero went on to finish with 36 points and 11 rebounds on 11-25 shooting. Wagner finished with 25 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. It is not a secret who the Magic funneled their offense through and both players delivered tonight.

Related Links