Trae Young Reflects on Atlanta's 2021 Playoff Run and Eventual Departure: "Atlanta Will Forever Be My Second Home"

This season was definitely one of the bittersweet ones for many Atlanta Hawks fans as they saw one of the most talented players in franchise history get moved after what looked like a promising future five years ago. However, while the Hawks seemed to have officially moved on from that era, there's little debate that Trae Young put Atlanta back on the map as a true star for the franchise.

On a recent episode of The Pivot, Young reflected on his time in Atlanta and offered insight into the trade that took place in February.

Here is what Young stated about how the trade came about:

"That was a trade that I knew was gonna happen. I didn't come out of the gates playing well. I knew in the summertime, when we got the schedule, that the beginning part of the season is very tough. Like, if we don't come out really good with me and Porzingis, if we don't come out good, they're gonna trade us and rebuild.

So I kinda knew after I got hurt, I hurt my MCL, you could feel the energy around the building and me, it's like I've been in here seven years, seven and a half years, now it's my eighth year, and it's like it ain't really felt like this. So I kinda knew it was coming, my agent and my GM at the time were already talking at the time.

I wanted to leave a certain way. I didn't want to leave and make it public, and make it seem like I hated Atlanta, because I never will hate Atlanta; Atlanta will forever be my second home. So I just wanted to leave the right way, and so that wasn't surprising.

What was surprising was whenever it got out that the Wizards may be a team with me, right? And it got released, and that got out, so then I wanted us to put out that I wanted to go there. Not like they just shipped me to Washington, because that wasn't gonna be the case. So that was more of the shocking part."

“I just wanted to leave a certain way…not like they just shipped me to Washington.” @TheTraeYoung

Trae Young breaks his silence on his move from @ATLHawks to @WashWizards -What transpired and how it all went down…he reveals which of his trades was more surprising and why—… pic.twitter.com/8pbnrPGo9n
— Pivot Podcast (@thepivot) June 10, 2026

Looking back at Young's exit with Atlanta, there were a lot of unknowns, but one clear thing is that Young and the Hawks weren't headed in the right direction, unfortunately. With a 2-8 record with Young on the court this season, one could see the writing was on the wall, but you still have to ask yourself if Atlanta did everything possible to make things work accurately.

Specifically, knowing that Young is a smaller guard, there were many years when he was asked to carry the team in a very inconvenient way. The only type of major help that Atlanta got for him that was really competent was Kristaps Porzingis, who is known to be injury-prone, and Dejounte Murray, who also needed the ball in his hands like Young, so that pairing never really made sense.

Young was recently dissed by Atlanta female rapper Latto in her recent album for leaving, but one could make the argument that this departure was clearly not on Young, and he did the best he could with his time in Atlanta.

One of the moments that should have saved Young from this type of violation is when he took the Hawks to their second Eastern Conference Finals in just three seasons with the team. Young would address his regrets on how things played out in the NBA Playoffs that season against the Milwaukee Bucks.

"I was going into a contract summer, and I got hurt. I stepped on this ref's foot in game three, and we were up in the game, and we were tied 1-1. We ended up losing that game and go down 1-2. Giannis gets hurt in the fourth, and I think for me, what I know now, I would've played through my sprained ankle.

Just uh, I had agents and I mean, they were telling me not to play obviously, just to not make it worse, and could have just messed up. And for me, just not having that, like we were two games away to going to the finals and we had beat the Suns twice that year, and it was just like you never know when that opportunity is gonna come again, and Atlanta's never been to the finals, they've never been to a game six in the Conference Finals as far as we went.

And I just, I wish I would've, that was one thing that breaks me. I wish I would've just triple-taped it, put the ankle brace on top of it, and then went out there and tried to play through that pain. But yeah, you just can't go back."

Despite this magical Eastern Conference Finals run happening five years ago now, it remains a major topic of discussion amongst many, including Hawks fans. Personally, the way Young had been cooking Milwaukee, especially in game three, there's a high chance that the Hawks honestly win that series if he either doesn't get hurt or plays through the injury the rest of the way.

However, this still leads to a major talking point of how things would have changed with Young's time with Atlanta if he were able to complete the mission of getting them to the finals, let alone win a championship. Does he get traded? Does Atlanta make more aggressive moves to remain a title threat? The questions and what-ifs are endless.

Regardless, Young's time in Atlanta should not be frowned upon or looked at as a major failure on his part. One could argue that when there were true opportunities to build on that run from 2021, but organizationally, there wasn't enough urgency to do so when it came to trades or free agency signings being made, along with Young's deficiencies at times.

The sad reality is that whenever you think about Young's time in Atlanta, you would mainly think back to these moments of what could've been. But the positive reality is that he has done so much for the organization that he is unquestionably one of the greatest to ever put on a Hawks uniform and will hopefully have his jersey retired in the Atlanta rafters one day.

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