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Trae Young fires back at Zohran Mamdani after NYC mayor called out Wizards star
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- Trae Young fires back at Zohran Mamdani after NYC mayor called out Wizards star
Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images
Trae Young has fired back at New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani after being dragged back into the Knicks ' playoff orbit, despite no longer playing for the Atlanta Hawks .
The exchange landed because it touched a nerve that still exists in New York. Trae Young's history with Madison Square Garden has outlasted his time in Atlanta, which is why even an offhand joke still carries weight.
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And when Mamdani used his name while discussing playoff ticket prices, Young responded by reminding the city exactly how that rivalry has played out before.
Photo by Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images
Trae Young responds after Zohran Mamdani calls him out
Young answered the mayor directly via his X handle , making it clear he had not missed the reference.
"Remember what happened the last time the Mayor of that City had my name in his mouth during a time like this. #Don'tBlameMeWhenItHappensAgain," Young wrote.
The response was pointed for a reason. Young was clearly referencing the last time a New York mayor publicly invoked him during the playoffs, a moment that only added to his villain status at the Garden.
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Even now, with Young on the Wizards after his trade from Atlanta earlier this year, the association remains strong enough for him to use it as a warning shot.
Zohran Mamdani used Trae Young joke to make a broader ticket point
Mamdani's original comment came while discussing the soaring cost of Knicks playoff tickets, where he joked that it is "always important to blame Trae Young" before turning to the bigger affordability issue.
From there, he argued that ticket prices had become too detached from ordinary fans, saying team owners should be doing more to make live sports accessible rather than allowing the experience to drift further into luxury territory.
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That is where the tension in the story sits. Mamdani was using Young as a familiar Knicks punchline, but Young treated it as part of a rivalry that still has unfinished business in the city.
The backdrop only made the response sharper, because it also echoed 2021, when then-mayor Bill de Blasio called him out and Young responded by leading Atlanta past New York in the playoffs.
So while Mamdani's comment began as a joke about ticket prices, Young turned it back into something else entirely: a reminder that New York has tried this angle before, and it did not end well.
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