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High School Sneak Peek: Trae Young has always been a shooter

krysten peek
Staff writer
·4-min read

Krysten Peek has been covering high school and grassroots basketball for the past seven years for Rivals.com. In this series, she takes us back to when some of the NBA’s biggest stars were just getting started in high school.

In 2016, no one could have predicted the player Trae Young would become just four short years later. As a high school prospect, Young was always a great shooter but he was undersized and players like Trevon Duval and Collin Sexton were ultimately ranked ahead of him.

I first saw Trae Young during the spring of 2016, when he was a junior in high school playing for Kansas-based Mokan Elite on the Nike Elite Youth Basketball circuit. Young and Denver Nuggets wing Michael Porter Jr. have been best friends since high school and played on the same AAU team. The two attracted cameras and college coaches with every game, and schools like Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Arizona had all offered the five-star point guard out of Norman, Oklahoma.

Young and Porter Jr. went on to win the Nike Peach Jam in Augusta, Georgia, that summer to cap off the perfect end to their AAU careers. They were named co-MVPs, with Young finishing with 28 points and 11 assists in a 93-65 win over the New York-based PSA Cardinals.

Immediately following the tournament, Young headed to Houston for the U18 Team USA Basketball training camp. Young was one of 12 players selected to compete in the U18 FIBA World Championships in Valdivia, Chile. Other team members included Markelle Fultz, P.J. Washington, Mo Bamba, Porter Jr. and Young’s current Atlanta Hawks teammate, Kevin Huerter. Team USA rolled past the competition, beating every team by an average of 30.4 points. Young and his teammates took home the gold medal after beating Canada 99-84.

During the fall of his senior year it was time to get down to business and pick a school. Young was down to Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Kansas and Kentucky before ultimately choosing his hometown Sooners. “One big factor was going somewhere that I feel like I have the best chance to really show what I can do and make it to the highest level,” Young said after his commitment.

Young was ranked No. 16 in the nation and was starting to become the player he is today. Young averaged a staggering 42.8 points per game his senior year at North High School in Norman, Oklahoma, and was selected as a McDonald’s All-American.

The rest is history as Young became one of the most exciting players in college basketball during the 2017-18 season, when he led the nation in scoring and assists with 27.4 points and 8.7 assists per game. He had deep range and his phenomenal passing reminded fans of Steph Curry. The Atlanta Hawks selected Young with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2018 NBA draft.

“I definitely get the Steph comparisons a lot,” Young told Yahoo Sports on draft night. “I don’t like to skip steps. I want to be a rookie and do big things as a rookie. And then ultimately win championships, MVPs and be an All-Star, so I’m very honored by the Steph comparison.”

In his two years in the NBA, Young has shattered expectations, averaging 29.6 points per game this season before the NBA was shut down. He scored 40 or more points in 10 games this season, including 50 points in a win over Miami in late February. Young was named an NBA All-Star this season and has easily earned the right to be called the Steph Curry of the Eastern Conference.

During this quarantine, you can find him making TikTok videos with his younger brother, playing basketball against his dog, Normi, and facing Chauncey Billups in ESPN’s HORSE competition.

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