Basketball is less of a sport than an art, and it’s found its Michelangelo.Emerging in world popularity alongside soccer, basketball is slowly but surely taking over the sports arena with 11% of the world population playing it and surpassing soccer in popularity in Asia and Australia.It takes the good of every major sport without the bad.Boasting the intensity and athleticism of football and the grace and finesse of soccer, the ubiquitous popularity of the sport has never been in much question, but just in case there was any doubt, meet Trae Young.
Averaging 29 points and nine assists per game is just the tip of the iceberg for the unassuming prodigy from Norman, Oklahoma.He doesn’t just play basketball; he crafts visual masterpieces.Watching him tap the ball out of an opponent’s hands with lightning quickness and glide up the floor to do only God knows what takes the breath away. That’s the fun.It looks as if he has as much of an idea of his next move as the fans watching him.He experiences the game with us.We get to sit back and watch creative genius flow from his brain to his body and create plays that elicit the same emotion as a painting.He doesn’t just compete, he dances.He seems to almost take defenders by the hand and lead them into a pirouette before swiftly gliding past them for the basket, as if scoring is an afterthought and the style takes precedence.
While he puts up numbers that haven’t been seen since Duke’s JJ Reddick and the stone cold confidence and fluidity of Steph Curry, it’s his personification of the game itself that is so special.He’s the perfect player, and not the LeBron James kind of perfect.He doesn’t look like he was built in a laboratory and given the perfect proportions to physically dominate his opponents; no, his domination comes from somewhere else.He is perfect because he personifies the attitude, fluidity, and pure creative genius that the game allows for.He overcomes his size with his heart, and his strength with elusiveness and shooting range.
He is the little guy with the astronomical confidence that makes one fall in love with the game.Confidence that allows him to shut out the nine other players on the floor and assert his creative will on anyone watching.Confidence is useless in football without physical prowess, and his creativity would not be able to dominate in soccer where single-handedly taking over a game is nearly impossible.Just as basketball possesses the best qualities of sports in general without the bad, Trae Young exemplifies the best qualities of basketball without the bad.He beats you with flow not force.He is an ambassador for the artistry of the game not the competition, and with that artistry comes a whole new dimension and fan base.To add to existing basketball fans, those driven away from the win or die trying attitude of football, those looking for more intensity than soccer, and even non-sports fans will find appreciation in Trae Young’s interpretation of basketball.With Trae Young at the helm of the sport for what looks like years to come, there is no question that the game’s growing popularity will continue to trend upward.