My hair is different than a lot of people's. I like my hair. I like the fade. I like the little design I have. I'm cool with it. Obviously my hair is thin on top, so it looks like a bald spot, but I really could care less.
Trae Young
I know what I need to work on, and I know what I need to prove and to show, and that's all that matters.
To me, I'll always be the skinny, 5-foot-6 eighth-grader on the YMCA court, trying to get grown men to choose me for pickup games. It wasn't always easy. And that's what drives me.
I feel my overall skill set, my ability to make players around me better, and my ability to help my team win is unique.
My favorite player growing up was Steve Nash, so that's been a guy I look up to and a guy I've gotten to talk to a few times, too.
I want people to say that I'm something new, something different. Something they've never seen before.
That's what my mindset is, making the right play and doing the right thing each and every possession.
If you ask the guys I played with when I was little, they'll all tell you the same thing. All I did was catch and shoot. I didn't do anything else.
I bring immediate impact off the court as much as I do on the court.
I was never the big leaper, the dunker, the long and athletic kid who looked the part of a traditional basketball star. Truth be told, I wasn't even considered a top guard coming out of my recruiting class.
I'm just trying to be the best version of Trey Young.
When you're around somebody all the time, you butt heads every now and then. That's what happens in every family.
People keep asking me if I feel pressure. But I don't feel pressure. I realize there's a lot on my plate, a lot of expectations for me to come in and win and do certain things. But I'm just playing the way I always have.
My goal is to the best player in the NBA. That's what I'm focusing on each and every day.
It's a mystery coming out each and every game to try and figure out how a team is going to guard me and how I'm going to dictate how my team wins.
I would love playing with a guy like Porzingis who can score, stretch the floor, who can do a lot, a lot of different things. But I could see myself doing some pretty good things with other teams, too.
I remember me being that kid growing up. Me being the kid that grew up going to games and being a ball boy and wanting a high five from Blake Griffin or the other players.
I just hope I get picked by the right team and the team that really wants me and a team where I can help and take it to the next level.
I'm just trying to get better each and every game.
I'm actually enjoying attention. Who wouldn't?
One of my dreams was being called a 'Diaper Dandy' by Dick Vitale. He calls me that all the time now. It's surreal.
I'm light-skinned. I'm mixed with black and white.
I'll never regret a moment I spent at the University of Oklahoma or my decision to stay home and become a Sooner for life.
There's gonna be stretches where I don't play as well. People are gonna be talking bad about me and not always on my side and cheering me on.
I just try and make the right play. It led to me leading the country in points and assists.
I love when people try to be physical with me. They think that's the way to try to guard me and to get physical with me. I use that to my advantage.
If I'm able to get drafted by the New York Knicks, it would be a blessing.
I'm glad people get excited watching me play. Hopefully I show them something new each time I step on the court.
I think people get caught up a little bit in the fact of finding things that people can't do instead of looking at the things that the player can do.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would become a constant topic for national television and radio shows - never mind mentioned by some of the country's most respected journalists.
I'll always have a chip on my shoulder until I hang my shoes up. No matter how long I play this game, the chip on my shoulder will always be there. That won't change.
I think I can pretty much do it all for a team. And I'm looking forward to whatever team I go to, making a huge impact.
I'm getting guarded like nobody else in the country is being guarded, scouted on like no one else in the country is.
My confidence level never varies.
I want to do something different in this league, even as a rookie.
Who wouldn't want to be compared to a guy like Steph Curry?
The history behind the Garden and all the players that have come through and played on that court in the Garden, I think that the history is the reason why it still is, in my mind, the mecca of basketball. It definitely draws me in. That's the thing about New York; that's a big thing about the history, and the Garden is a big part of that.
I'm excited about getting the opportunity to show people that I can play defense.
Not a lot of people take advantage of that opportunity of being different. A lot of kids that are highly touted coming out of high school, like, doing the traditional thing and going to the blue bloods and all that, but I was always different growing up.
I've played a lot of basketball during my life - and it's not always been good.
Rod Strickland has been influential. He gives me a lot of advice, good and bad games; he is someone I really look up to a lot.
I bring a lot to a team. I bring immediate impact. As far as my skillset, I can attack defenders in multiple ways and get my teammates involved.
That's the nature of basketball. You gotta go out there and compete.
A lot of my family is from Texas, stuff like that, so I was always in Texas, and when you grow up in Texas, around Texas, you want to go to the biggest Texas school, and UT was that.
I think my ability coming into the NBA is going to make it that much easier for me with the space and the different type of players here. I think just by the spacing alone is going to make my game that much easier and that much better for my teammates.
