Back to the Top News Newsfeed

An Old Lesson for Young N.B.A. Players: It Takes Heat to Make a Star

Related Topics: Trae Young, Jaylen Brown

Atlanta’s Trae Young, Boston’s Jaylen Brown and the Nets’ Mikal Bridges are learning to handle the praise and the pressure of rising stardom.

Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks, Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics and Mikal Bridges of the Nets. All three made the playoffs. Only one survived the first round.Credit...Maddie Meyer/Getty Images; Charles Krupa/Associated Press; Derik Hamilton/Associated Press

The crowd at TD Garden in Boston was serenading the star Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young with chants of “overrated!” It was late in Game 2 of Atlanta’s first-round playoff series against the Celtics, and the Hawks were down by double digits and well on their way to another loss in the series.