The NBA is starting to wind down the regular season. Soon, the playoffs will arrive and the Play-In Tournament will start.
One of the teams expected to be in the play-in is the Atlanta Hawks. Right now, the Hawks are expected to finish seventh or eighth in the Eastern Conference standings.
Either way, that puts them in the play-in. Their players should be focused on winning that game so they can make the playoffs and perhaps pull an all-time upset over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Trae Young is the Hawks' best player and the face of their franchise. He drives the engine of their offense.
While the Hawks are getting ready for this playoff push, their best player has accepted a new job in college basketball.
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Young has officially accepted a job as the Assistant General Manager for the Oklahoma Sooners basketball program. Young played for the Sooners before becoming the fifth overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft.
In addition, Young is donating $1 million to the program to help with NIL funding. He will be involved in helping the program succeed in a new age of college basketball.
Young will do more of this work once the NBA season has ended, but it's a job that he wanted to accept before the Hawks were done playing.
As the season has winded down, the Hawks have been trying to make sure that they get the best seed possible. They have no chance of catching the Bucks for the sixth seed, but hosting a play-in game is important to them.
Atlanta hopes that accepting this new position will allow Young to focus on the rest of the season. He needs to be locked in if the Hawks want to have any shot at advancing into the playoffs.
Oklahoma is hoping that having one of their most famous alums will help their NIL fundraising efforts.
So far this season, Young is averaging 24.1 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 11.5 assists per game. He is shooting 40.9 percent from the field and 33.4 percent from beyond the 3-point arc.
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This story was originally published March 31, 2025 at 1:55 PM.